HMS Eclipse was an Eclipse-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1890s.

Using normal draught, the boilers were intended to provide the engines with enough steam to generate 8,000 indicated horsepower (6,000 kW) and to reach a speed of 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph); using forced draft, the equivalent figures were 9,600 indicated horsepower (7,200 kW) and a speed of 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph).

One gun was mounted on the forecastle, two on the quarterdeck and one pair was abreast the bridge.

[8] She was commissioned at Chatham dockyard in late May 1901, with a crew of 450 officers and men to relieve HMS Hermione on the China Station.

[9] On the outbreak of the First World War she formed part of the 12th Cruiser Squadron, which patrolled at the Western end of the English Channel, with particular duties to stop suspicious vessels and prevent disguised minelayers from interfering with cross-Channel traffic.