HMS Glasgow was one of five ships of the Bristol sub-class of the light cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Completed in 1910, the ship was briefly assigned to the Home Fleet before she was assigned to patrol the coast of South America. Shortly after the start of the First World War in August 1914, Glasgow captured a German merchant ship. She spent the next several months searching for German commerce raiders. The ship was then ordered to join Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock's squadron in their search for the German East Asia Squadron. He found the German squadron on 1 November off the coast of Chile in the Battle of Coronel. They outnumbered Cradock's force and were individually more powerful, sinking Cradock's two armoured cruisers, although Glasgow was only lightly damaged.
The ship fell back to the coast of Brazil for repairs and to await reinforcements. They arrived in late November under the command of Vice-Admiral Doveton Sturdee and were considerably more powerful than the East Asia Squadron. After sailing to the Falkland Islands to refuel in early December, the British ships were surprised by the Germans who withdrew when they realized the number of ships that Sturdee had under his command. They pursued the retreating Germans and sank four of their five ships in the Battle of the Falkland Islands, with Glasgow helping to sink one of the German light cruisers. She was one of the ships tasked to hunt down the sole survivor which she finally did, together with another cruiser, in the Battle of Más a Tierra in March 1915.
Glasgow spent the next two years searching for commerce raiders and protecting Allied shipping off the South American coast, although she was unsuccessful in locating one commerce raider active in the South Atlantic in early 1916. The ship was transferred to the Adriatic Sea in mid-1918 and played a minor role in the Second Battle of Durazzo a few months later. She was reduced to reserve after the war ended, but later served as a training ship in 1922–1926 before she was sold for scrap in 1927.
Design and description
The Bristol sub-class were officially rated as second-class cruisers suitable for a variety of roles including both trade protection and duties with the fleet. They were long overall, with a beam of and a draught of . Displacement was normal and at deep load. Twelve Yarrow boilers fed Glasgows Parsons steam turbines, driving four propeller shafts, that were rated at , for a design speed of . The ship reached during her sea trials from . The boilers used both fuel oil and coal, with of coal and tons of oil carried, which gave a range of at . The ship had a crew of 480 officers and ratings.
The main armament of the Bristols was two BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XI guns that were mounted on the centreline fore and aft of the superstructure and ten BL 4-inch (102 mm) Mk VII guns on single mountings amidships, five on each broadside. All these guns were fitted with gun shields. The ships carried four Vickers 3-pounder (47 mm) saluting guns, while they were also equipped with two submerged 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside. This armament was considered too light for ships of this size, while the waist guns were subject to immersion in a high sea, making them difficult to work.
The Bristols were considered protected cruisers, with an armoured deck providing protection for the ships' vitals. The deck was thick over the magazines and machinery, over the steering gear and elsewhere. The conning tower was protected by 6 inches of armour, with the gun shields having armour, as did the ammunition hoists. As the protective deck was at waterline, the ships were given a large metacentric height so that they would remain stable in the event of flooding above the armoured deck. This, however, resulted in the ships rolling badly making them poor gun platforms. One problem with the armour of the Bristols which was shared with the other Town-class ships was the sizable gap between the bottom of the gun shields and the deck, which allowed shell splinters to pass through the gap, giving large numbers of leg injuries in the ships' gun crews.