Canada acquired Rainbow as a cost-effective training cruiser, updated her accommodation and wireless equipment, and stationed her on the west coast for fisheries enforcement and other federal duties. At the outbreak of war she was the largest Allied armed ship in the region and was ordered to watch for German cruisers, though shortages of colliers constrained her patrol endurance. Her later seizures of German-linked shipping and transport of Russian gold show how one aging cruiser supplied sovereignty, security, and logistical capacity far beyond fleet combat. When trained personnel became more valuable for anti-submarine warfare than continued Pacific patrols, her crew moved east and Rainbow finished as a depot ship.
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HMCS Rainbow gives Canada a Pacific naval presence
Rainbow became a foundational Royal Canadian Navy training ship, fisheries patrol vessel, and the principal Allied warship guarding the Pacific coast in 1914.