1893~1920
Rainbow was one of 21 Appolo class cruiser built for the Royal Navy between 1890~1895. Launched in 1893 by Palmer shipbuilding Rainbow served with the Royal Navy until 1910. On Aug 4th 1910 she was commissioned the first ship of the new Royal Canadian Navy. She arrived in Esquimalt on Nov 7th 1910 to a rousing welcomed carried out training duties and some fishery patrols until the end of 1912. She then lay largely idle until the Great War. Obsolete by the time of The Great War Rainbow saw no combat and was used to patrol the West Coast as far south as Panama and for transport duties. She was scraped in 1920.
Note: Five of the Appolo class cruisers were used by the British as block ships in the famous attacks on Zeebrugge and Ostend in 1918.
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