HMS Arethusa was the name ship of her class of eight light cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. She saw a considerable amount of action during the early years of the First World War, participating in the Battle of Heligoland Bight and the Battle of Dogger Bank. Design and description The Arethusa-class cruisers were intended to lead destroyer flotillas and defend the fleet against attacks by enemy destroyers. The ships were long overall, with a beam of and a deep draught of . Displacement was at normal and at full load. Arethusa was powered by four Brown-Curtis steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft, which produced a total of . The turbines used steam generated by eight Yarrow boilers which gave her a speed of about . She carried of fuel oil that gave a range of at . The main armament of the Arethusa-class ships consisted of two BL Mk XII guns that were mounted on the centreline fore and aft of the superstructure and six QF Mk V guns in waist mountings. They were also fitted with a single QF 3-pounder anti-aircraft gun and four torpedo tubes in two twin mounts. Construction and career She was laid down at Chatham Dockyard in October 1912, launched on 25 October 1913, and commissioned in August 1914 as flotilla leader for the Harwich Force. On 28 August 1914, she fought at the Battle of Heligoland Bight, flying the flag of Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt. She was seriously damaged by the German cruisers and and had to be towed home. On 25 December, Arethusa took part in the Cuxhaven Raid and on 24 January 1915 she fought at the Battle of Dogger Bank. Later in the same year, she was transferred to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron of the Harwich Force. In September 1915, she captured four German trawlers. On 11 February 1916, she struck a mine off Felixstowe, drifted onto a shoal while under tow, and broke her back. Approximately near Harwich (51.925, 1.295) Legacy One of the four relief panels on Brierley Hill War Memorial, in Dudley, England, depicts Arethusa sending out its boats to rescue German sailors from a ship it had sunk. Notes Bibliography External links Arethusa-class cruisers (1913) 1913 ships World War I cruisers of the United Kingdom Ships sunk by mines World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea Ships built in Chatham