History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Orlando
Builder	Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow
Laid down	23 April 1885
Launched	3 August 1886
Fate	Sold for breaking up 11 July 1905
General characteristics
Class and type	Orlando-class armoured cruiser
Displacement	5,600 long tons (5,700 t)
Length	300 ft (91 m) p/p
Beam	56 ft (17 m)
Draught	22.5 ft (6.9 m)
Installed power	5,500 hp (4,100 kW) 8,500 hp (6,300 kW) forced-draught
Propulsion	3-cylinder triple-extension steam engines two shafts 4 double-ended boilers
Speed	17 knots (31 km/h) natural draught 18 knots (33 km/h) forced draught
Range	10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Complement	484
Armament	2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk V or VI guns (2 x 1) 10 × BL 6-inch (152.4 mm) guns (10 x 1) 6 × QF 6-pounder (57 mm) guns (6 × 1) 10 × QF 3-pounder (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns (10 × 1) 6 × 18-inch (450-mm) torpedo tubes (4 above water broadside, 1 bow and 1 stern submerged)
Armour	Belt: 10 in (250 mm) Conning tower: 12 in (300 mm)

HMS Orlando was the lead ship of the Orlando class of first-class cruisers built in the yards of Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow and launched on 3 August 1886.

She was commanded by Charles Ramsay Arbuthnot on the Australia Station from 1892 to 1895. In 1899 she was assigned to the China Station,^[1] Captain James Henry Thomas Burke in command. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, sailors from HMS Orlando formed part of the force led by Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Seymour attempting to relieve the British Legation in Beijing. A replica of a bell captured from the Taku Forts forms part of a memorial to HMS Orlando in Victoria Park, Portsmouth.

In late March 1902 she left Hong Kong for Singapore, arriving there on 6 April.^[2] After three weeks, she left Penang in late April, homebound,^[3] stopping at Colombo on 5 May,^[4] Aden on 14 May,^[5] Malta on 28 May,^[6] and Gibraltar on 2 June, before arriving at Portsmouth four days later.^[7] Captain Burke died at sea on 12 May 1902, during the journey, and was buried at Aden.^[8] Commander Philip Howard Colomb was in charge for the remainder of the journey. She paid off at Portsmouth on 25 July, and was placed in the B Division of the Fleet Reserve.^[9]

HMS Orlando was sold for scrapping on 11 July 1905 to Thos. W. Ward of Morecambe for £10,000.^[1]

• Bastock, John (1988), Ships on the Australia Station, Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd; Frenchs Forest, Australia. ISBN 0-86777-348-0
• Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M., eds. (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Friedman, Norman (2012). British Cruisers of the Victorian Era. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-59114-068-9.
• Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-88254-979-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Orlando (1886).

• https://web.archive.org/web/20071016215141/http://memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/city-centre/orlando.htm
• http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_orlando.htm