NEWS STORY
Posted: 30/03/1892 12:00:00

Launch of HMS Crescent

Excerpt from Portsmouth Times 2nd April 1892:

HMS CRESCENT - FLOATED OUT OF DOCK.

I here are few events in the current progress of the Navy more interesting or more attractive to the Public generally than the launch of a man-of-war, especially of the larger and more formidable type. On the other hand the mere float of a ship out of the dock in which she has been built is. by comparison, prosaic and unexciting, those who have witnessed both forms of christening (and who in Portsmouth have not?) will readily appreciate the cause of interest in one case and the want of it in the other.

In the launch there is an element of danger. while the spectacle of a vessel carried down the ways unsupported save by its own momentum is in itself so striking that one never tires of the sight. In a float out however. there is not only no risk, but the aids as well as the causes of the flotation are all visible to the naked eye.

Nevertheless a good deal of interest was taken in the floating out of the dock on Wednesday of HMS CRESCENT, her christening by Lady Elizabeth Meade, eldest daughter of Admiral the Earl of Clanwilliam, KCB, KCMG, Commander in Chief Portsmouth, as facilities had been given for all the men employed in the Dockyard to be spectators and her Ladyship was accompanied by a brilliant company, including Lady Clanwilliam. Lady Beatrice Meade. Lade Adelaide Wade. Lady Ritz-William. Miss Featherstonehaugh (of Uppark. Petersfield). Mrs Lyttleton, Miss Gye. Mr and Mrs Dane. Mrs I field. Dr Wallace and Co. A canopy had been erected at the head of No 11 Dock. close up to the stem of the Crescent, and here, in addition to the party from Admiralty House were Inspector General of Hospitals, Doyal Shaw, Major Raban, Director of Works, Mr G H Strainer, Civil Assistant to the Admiral Superintendent, Mr J T Corner, Chief Engineer, Mr H E Deadman, Chief Constructor, Mr L G Davies, the Constructor and a large number of Naval officers.

The report ends abruptly here, presumably all went well with the flotation: but from the reporter's narrative one gains the idea that you had to be in with the "In Crowd". The CRESCENT was a first class cruiser of 7,700 tons and the great event took place on March 30th 1892, another point of interest, one of her Captains was King George V. She survived the First World War and was sold in 1921.

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