HMS Pactolus was a Pelorus class cruiser

Pelorus class cruiser

The Pelorus class cruiser was a "third-class" protected cruiser class of eleven Royal Navy warships designed by Sir William White , based on the earlier Pearl class cruisers. They were ordered in 1893 under the Spencer Program, and laid down 1896–1900...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. There were eleven ""Third class"" protected cruisers

Protected cruiser

The protected cruiser is a type of naval cruiser of the late 19th century, so known because its armoured deck offered protection for vital machine spaces from shrapnel caused by exploding shells above...

 in the class, which was designed by Sir William White

William Henry White

Sir William Henry White was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty....

. While well armed for their size, they were primarily workhorses for the overseas fleet on “police” duties and did not serve with the main battlefleet.

They displaced 2,135 tons, had a crew complement of 224 men and were armed with eight QF 4 inch (102 mm) (25 pounder) guns

QF 4 inch naval gun Mk I - III

The QF 4-inch gun Mks I, II, III were early British QF naval guns originating in 1895. They all had barrels of 40 calibres length.-Naval service:The gun was intended to be a more powerful alternative to the 3-inch QF 12 pounder gun....

, eight 3 pounder guns, three machine guns, and two 18 inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes. With reciprocating triple expansion engines

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

 and a variety of boilers, the top speed was 20 knots (39.2 km/h).

HMS Pactolus was laid down at Armstrong, Elswick on May 1896, launched 21 December 1896, but not completed until 1899; and was sold for scrap on 25 October 1921. HMS Pactolus and HMS Pomone

HMS Pomone (1897)

HMS Pomone was a protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the late 1890s. The ship's boilers were so troublesome that she was decommissioned in 1904 after only a single foreign deployment...

 had Blechynden boilers which were particularly unreliable, and they were removed from active service several years before others in the class.