[7] A dozen quick-firing (QF) 12-pounder 12 cwt guns were fitted for defence against torpedo boats, eight on casemates on the upper deck and four in the superstructure.

[9] Two years later Hogue became the boys' training ship for the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station.

The ship received a lengthy refit at Chatham Dockyard in 1912–13 and was assigned to the 7th Cruiser Squadron shortly after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.

[14] The squadron was tasked with patrolling the Broad Fourteens of the North Sea in support of a force of destroyers and submarines based at Harwich which protected the eastern end of the English Channel from German warships attempting to attack the supply route between England and France.

During the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August, the ship was part of Cruiser Force 'C', in reserve off the Dutch coast, and saw no action.

[15] Hogue did, however, tow the heavily damaged light cruiser Arethusa, flagship of the commander of the Harwich Force, Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt, back to port after the battle was over.

[16] On the morning of 22 September, Hogue and her sisters, Aboukir and Cressy, were on patrol without any escorting destroyers as they had been forced to seek shelter from bad weather.

[17] U-9, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen, had been ordered to attack British transports at Ostend, but had been forced to dive and take shelter from the storm.

As Hogue approached her sinking sister, Captain Wilmot Nicholson realized that it had been a submarine attack and signalled Cressy to look for a periscope although his ship continued to close on Aboukir as her crew threw overboard anything that would float to aid the survivors in the water.

The sudden weight loss of the two torpedoes caused U-9 to broach the surface and Hogue's gunners opened fire without effect before the submarine could submerge again.