HMAS Pioneer (formerly HMS Pioneer) was a protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy at the end of the 19th century. She was transferred to the fledgling Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1912. During World War I, the cruiser captured two German merchant ships, and was involved in the East African Campaign, including the blockade of the cruiser and a bombardment of Dar-es-Salaam. She returned to Australia in late 1916 and was decommissioned. Pioneer was used as an accommodation ship for the following six years, then was stripped down and sold off by 1926. The cruiser was scuttled outside Sydney Heads in 1931.
Design and construction
Pioneer was a third-class protected cruiser of the nine-ship Pelorus or P class. These ships had a displacement of 2,200 tons, were long overall and long between perpendiculars, had a beam of , and a draught of . Although designed to reach speeds of , Pioneer was only capable of . The cruiser was completed on 23 January 1900, and was placed in reserve until her commissioning on 10 July 1900. taking up the command later that month after a visit by the ship to Brindisi. In late December 1902 she was in Greek waters when she visited Astakos in the Ionian Sea with HMS Irresistible and HMS Bulwark. Early the following year she took part in a three-weeks cruise with other ships of her squadron in the Greek islands around Corfu. While there, Pioneer collided with the cruiser HMS Orwell on 30 January 1903, during night exercises near Corfu. Orwells bow was cut off in the collision with the loss of 15 of her crew.
The ship remained in the Mediterranean until returning to Chatham on 20 November 1904. Pioneer returned to uneventful patrols of German East Africa on 22 October, and continued until early February 1916, when the Admiralty instructed the ship to return to Australia. However, before she could leave, demands by General Jan Smuts for more Admiralty involvement in the East African Campaign saw Pioneer return to patrols on 24 February. Pioneer returned to Garden Island and was used as an accommodation vessel until 1922. Pioneers wreck sits below sea level, at , approximately east of Vaucluse.