Rainbow spent much of 1900-1909 inactive because her operating costs were described as excessive even while sisters remained in use. Non-standard machinery or coal consumption may have distinguished her, but that explanation remains an inference rather than a documented answer. The Admiralty later recommended the same Apollo hull to Canada for efficient, cost-effective operation, and Canada scrutinized the purchase before spending fisheries funds on the ship. Updated wireless, accommodation, messes, and galley spaces then adapted Rainbow for naval training, showing that acquisition value depended on mission and refit as well as the inherited hull.
Notable Point · 1:03:47-1:07:26
Rainbow's purchase tests operating-cost assumptions
Rainbow was called expensive in British service yet recommended to Canada as efficient and cost-effective, prompting a search for machinery or accounting differences behind the contradiction.