The C-class cruisers were intended to escort the fleet and defend it against enemy destroyers attempting to close within torpedo range.

[3] Ordered in July–August 1913[4] as part of the 1913–14 Naval Programme,[5] the Carolines were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Arethusa-class cruisers.

The ships carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 3,680 nautical miles (6,820 km; 4,230 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

All of these changes adversely affected the ship's stability and the additional 21-inch torpedo tubes and the aft control position were removed by the end of 1921.

She was assigned to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron in Harwich Force, which operated in the North Sea to guard the eastern approaches to the Strait of Dover and English Channel.

She covered the force that carried out the Royal Naval Air Service seaplane raid on the German Navy airship hangars at Tondern, then in northern Germany, on 24 March 1916.

[10] On 28 March 1916 38 men were lost in a snowstorm off Harwich on one of the ship's boats, listed as a whaler, when returning from shore leave.

She left the Mediterranean in April 1928 and returned to the United Kingdom to enter the commissioned reserve at Portsmouth, in which she remained until 1930.