[4] She served with the Mediterranean Squadron under the command of Captain Frederick Owen Pike, when she visited Larnaka in June 1902,[5] and Lemnos in August 1902.

[7] During a late snowstorm off the Isle of Wight on 25 April 1908, Gladiator was heading into port when she struck the outbound American steamer SS Saint Paul.

Lacking room for the manoeuvre, Captain William Lumsden choose to turn the opposite direction, ensuring a collision.

The British warship foundered at once, or beached off Black Rock Buoy, off the Isle of Wight, while the American was able to remain afloat and launch lifeboats.

[2] A postcard of the capsized vessel was subsequently used by the artist Tacita Dean as the basis for her artwork So They Sunk Her, part of a portfolio of twenty black and white photogravures with etching collectively entitled The Russian Ending.