HMS Cornwall

HMS Cornwall was one of 10 Monmouth-class armoured cruisers built in the early 20th century.

She was assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron on completion in 1903

The ship was refitted in 1907 in preparation for service as a training ship for cadets with the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station beginning in 1908.

In 1909 she toured the Mediterranean and the Baltic, where she entertained the Kaiser who visited on his yacht the Hohenzollern at Kiel on 24 June.

On 6 August 1911 Cornwall ran aground on Pinnacle Rock, off Cape Sable Island in Nova Scotia while assisting the protected cruiser HMCS Niobe, which had also run aground.

Both cruisers were refloated and Cornwall was repaired at His Majesty's Canadian Dockyard, Halifax.

At the beginning of World War I in August 1914 she captured a German merchant ship. Days after she was sent to the Central Atlantic to search for German commerce raiders.

Later that year, the ship was assigned to the squadron that destroyed the German East Asia Squadron at the Battle of the Falklands, where she helped to sink a German light cruiser.

Cornwall briefly blockaded the German cruiser SMS Kongsberg in East Africa in early 1915 before she was sent to participate in the Dardanelles Campaign a month later.

The ship was then transferred to the China Station late in the year and remained there until the end of 1916.

She was later transferred to the North America Station for convoy escort duties and remained on that duty for the rest of the war.

Cornwall became a training ship in 1919 before she was paid off later that year.

The ship was sold for scrap in 1920.

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