HMS Hogue's service and Heligoland support

Hogue was named for the Battle of La Hogue in the Nine Years' War and was built by Vickers, Sons and Maxim at Barrow. After commissioning in 1902 she served with the Channel Squadron, collided with the merchant ship Marouf in 1904, and then transferred to the China Station. She later became a boys' training ship on the North America and West Indies Station, entered reserve, and suffered a coal-bunker explosion that killed two men before a lengthy 1912-1913 refit. Mobilised with the Seventh Cruiser Squadron in August 1914, Hogue arrived after the fighting at Heligoland Bight but towed Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt's damaged light cruiser Arethusa back to port. The approaching armoured cruisers were part of the support that encouraged the German withdrawal. Had the class arrived in time to engage an already weakened enemy with the guns built for fleet action, its reputation might have developed very differently.