HMS Niobe (1897)

After a series of negotiations between Canada and the Admiralty over the composition of the newly formed Canadian Navy, the Canadians traded their desire for destroyers, of which none were available, for Niobe, which was to form the nucleus of the east coast fleet. The purchase was arranged in January 1910, and to make room for the cost of Niobe, £215,000, a flotilla leader was dropped from the list of requests.[10] Niobe and HMS Rainbow were provided to the Dominion of Canada to seed the new Canadian navy.[11] Payment for Niobe was deferred until after the vote on the naval service in the Canadian House of Commons. The Naval Service Act was opposed by the Conservative Party of Canada, then in the role of Official Opposition, pushing instead for Canada to make direct payments to support the Royal Navy.[12] The governing Liberal Party of Canada held the majority of the seats in the Parliament however, and pushed ahead with the initiative to create a Canadian navy. Once terms of purchase were settled, the newly renamed HMCS (His Majesty's Canadian Ship) Niobe was transferred to Canada on 6 September 1910, commissioning at Devonport Dockyard.[13] Before departing Great Britain, Niobe and Rainbow were altered in order to meet the requirement as training vessels for the nascent Canadian navy. This required the installation of new heating systems to operate in colder waters, an up-to-date galley and the latest in Marconi wireless.[14]

Niobe in drydock at Halifax

Niobe reached Halifax, Nova Scotia on 21 October that year, her entry into the harbour timed to coincide with Trafalgar Day. Formal transfer of the ship only took place on 12 November 1910, once she had been paid for.[15] After commissioning, the status of the new Canadian vessels and their ability to operate independently of the Royal Navy arose and prevented the ships from leaving coastal waters until the matter was settled.[16] This initially limited Niobe to training duties in Halifax and prevented her from making a tour of the Caribbean Sea.[16]

After departing on a training cruise, Niobe ran aground in fog off Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, on the night of 30–31 July 1911. Damage control saved the ship. The repairs took six months, completing in January 1912, and she had a permanently reduced maximum speed as a result. The resulting court martial found that the navigating officer, Charles White, who had not been on the bridge, should have been present during the navigation of the area due to its difficulty, and also found Captain W. B. MacDonald negligent for not ensuring his officers were performing their duties properly.[17]

Having been laid up after repair pending the arrival of the new government,[18] Niobe's condition gradually deteriorated. She was effectively rotting at her berth in 1913.[19] However, with the outbreak of the First World War, she was ordered to be brought up to an acceptable state of readiness for combat purposes.[20] This was difficult as her crew had been sent west to Esquimalt when she was laid up.[21] To fill in its crew, the sloops Shearwater and Algerine, which had passed into Canadian control, were paid off at Esquimalt, British Columbia and their crews sent east.[22] In September 1914, to complete her complement, Niobe travelled to the Dominion of Newfoundland to pick up a contingent of 107 sailors from the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve.[23]

After returning to operational status, Niobe was sent with HMS Lancaster to patrol the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Following that from 11–13 September 1914, she escorted The Royal Canadian Regiment, aboard the transport Canada, to Bermuda, where they took up garrison duties. On her return journey the cruiser developed defects and required a week to repair.[24] Those defects prevented the ship from escorting the large troop convoy carrying Canadian soldiers in October.[25]

On 6 October 1914, Niobe joined the Royal Navy's 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. She was engaged in intercepting German ships along the American coast until July 1915. During this period she chased the German raider SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich into Newport News, Virginia. After refuelling, the raider's captain opted for his vessel to be interned by the Americans instead of fighting the Niobe.[26] As the patrol work continued Niobe began to wear out. Her final patrol was 4–17 July 1915, after which the cruiser returned to Halifax. Her funnels were found to be rapidly deteriorating, her boilers were worn and her bulkheads were in poor shape.[27] As a result of being worn out, Niobe was paid off on 6 September 1915 to become a depot ship in Halifax.[22]

The mascot of HMCS Niobe

While Niobe's operational life was coming to an end, Vice-Admiral Kingsmill attempted to swap her back to the Royal Navy for a newer cruiser. However, the British only offered HMS Sutlej, a cruiser in a similar state of repair, and therefore nothing came of the exchange.[27]

On 6 December 1917, the ammunition ship SS Mont-Blanc was rammed by another vessel. The ramming caused Mont-Blanc to catch fire. Laden with tons of explosives, the ship was abandoned by her crew and left to drift through the harbour. Niobe was laid up in harbour at the time and the alarm was raised aboard the ship once the danger was known. Warrant Officer Albert Mattison and six men sailed to Mont-Blanc in Niobe's pinnace and boarded the ammunition ship in an effort to scuttle her. However, while the group was boarding, Mont-Blanc exploded, killing the seven men instantly.[28] The explosion caused serious damage to Niobe's upper works, and the deaths of seven other crew members.[29][30][31] It also caused her to be dragged from her moorings, despite the use of a concrete embedded anchor. Once re-secured, additional anchors were put in place.[32] She remained in use as a depot ship until disposed of in 1920, and sold for scrap. She was broken up in 1922 at Philadelphia.[30][33]