The Apollo class were second-class protected cruisers designed by Sir William White and built for the Royal Navy in the late 19th century.

It drew heavily from the slightly earlier Medea, but with enlarged dimensions and a revised armament which, for the first time in Royal Navy 2nd-class cruisers, included the new 4.7-inch quick-firing gun.

The obvious limitations of the Apollos led to a further enlarged & improved design (the Astraea class) being drawn up by White, of which eight units were also ordered under the Naval Defence Act.

After nearly two decades of service, the ships were becoming worn out and units of the class were being progressively sold off in the early 1910s; Melampus in 1910,Pique, Retribution and Tribune in 1911, Melpomene in 1913, and Aeolus, Scylla & Terpsichore in 1914.

By the last year of the First World War, the surviving ships were no longer of any fighting value, and six of this class were converted into blockships to be scuttled in the entrances to enemy-occupied ports in Belgium.