HMS Frobisher was one of five heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. She was not finished during the war and construction proceeded very slowly after the end of the war in 1918. Completed in 1924, the ship was initially assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet in 1929, sometimes serving as a flagship. Placed in reserve in 1930, Frobisher was converted into a cadet training ship in 1932 before being returned to reserve in 1937. Two years later she was reactivated to again serve as a training ship. When the Second World War began in 1939, the Royal Navy decided to reconvert her back into a heavy cruiser, but the work was repeatedly delayed by higher-priority repairs for other ships and she did not reenter service until early 1942. Frobisher was transferred to the Eastern Fleet and spent most of the next two years on escort duty. She returned to the UK in early 1944 to participate in Operation Neptune, the naval portion of the invasion of Normandy in June. The ship bombarded German coastal defences on 6 June, but was damaged by a torpedo in August. The Royal Navy decided to convert her back into a training ship while she was under repair and that work was completed in 1945. Frobisher served in that role until she was replaced in 1947 and the vessel was sold for scrap in 1949. Design and description The Hawkins-class cruisers were designed to be able to hunt down commerce raiders in the open ocean, for which they needed a heavy armament, high speed and long range. Frobisher had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of at deep load. The ship displaced at (standard load) and at deep load. Her crew numbered 37 officers and 672 ratings. The ships were originally designed with propulsion machinery, but the Admiralty decided in 1917 to replace their four coal-fired boilers with more powerful oil-burning ones. This change could only be applied to the three least-advanced ships, including Frobisher, although she did not receive the full upgrade. The ship was powered by four Brown-Curtis geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by 10 Yarrow boilers that were ducted into two funnels. The turbines were rated at for a speed of . Frobisher carried of fuel oil to