From a postcard, postmarked 1908....HMS Highflyer at Fort William.....Built by Fairfield of Glasgow, was launched on 4th June 1898 and was a second class cruiser of 5.600 tons. Highflyer's sister ships were Hermes and Hyacinth. Her armament consisted of 11 x 6" guns and 9 x 12 pounders. After her boiler and acceptance trials she was sent out to the East Indies as Flagship of the East Indies Fleet in 1900 until 1904. She then served two years in the West Indies as a cadet training ship. From 1906 to 1908 she was back out to the East Indies, but not this time as flagship. She was a reserve ship at Devonport from 1908 to 1910. In 1911 until 1913 HMS Highflyer was once again the East Indies Fleet flagship and in 1914 she joined the 9th Cruiser Squadron at Devonport. On the 2nd August 1914 HMS Highflyer sailed from Plymouth. Two days later the signal was received to commence hostilities with Germany and a day later she captured a German liner, the Trabantia, which was carrying bullion. Trabantia was escorted into Plymouth. At this time thirty British warships were searching for the armed German liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which was attacking British merchant ships. Acting upon intelligence received, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse was sighted off the coast of Spanish North Africa and was called upon to surrender. The German ship refused and was attacked and sank. Only 35 of the German ship's crew survived and were later picked up by the British armed liner Edinburgh Castle. This action was believed to be the first surface action by a British warship during WW1. After the war HMS Highflyer again took up her duties as Flagship of the East Indies Fleet and was finally taken out of service and broken up in Bombay in 1921.