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The Panagaean Navy, like most other navies was caught out by the Royal Navy bringing out the Invincible class with 12" guns rather than the 9.2" that the RN had said they would be armed with. The Panagaean Navy designed and built the Skirmisher as their first 'Battlecruiser". They were confident that the Skirmisher, with its 10" guns would be far superior to the Royal Navy ships. The 10" were a known quantity as they had been previously fitted to the Redoubtable class. It was a first class gun, its 500lb shells able to penetrate the Invincible's armour at about the same range as it could penetrate the Skirmisher's. But the guns on the Skirmisher outranged the Invincible's. A slight speed advantage could allow the Skirmisher to 'maintain the range' where the Skirmisher's guns were more potent.
The Skirmisher made a fine sight, and with the Glorious and the two modern armoured cruisers, made a potent cruiser squadron. 1914, that Squadron chased Admiral Von Spee's cruiser squadron all over the Pacific but lost out catching them to Admiral Sturdee's battlecruisers at the Falkland Islands. Having coaled ships, the four headed north to join different elements of the Grand Fleet. Glorious and Skirmisher joined Admiral Beatty's battlecruisers while the two armoured cruisers joined the 1st Cruiser Squadron. The Skirmisher took part in the sinking of the Blucher at Dogger Bank and was with the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron at Jutland. That squadron was sent ahead of the Grand Fleet to find out where the enemy was as Admiral Beatty had failed to provide useable information, despite being in the thick of the action. The four ships emerged into the middle of the action, suddenly finding themselves under fire from the German ships. The Invincible received several hits and explodes, at the head of the line. Skirmisher finds itself under fire from the Von der Tann and Anhalt-Dessau. Multiple hits are received at nearly point blank range. The ship shudders as an underwater explosion blows out a hole in the ships side. No one knows if it is a mine, torpedo, or maybe a 6" magazine has exploded. Whatever it is, the Skirmishers fate is the same. The ship slows and heels to starboard until momentum takes over and the Skirmisher capsizes and sinks. Like many ships the Skirmisher was in a place it should not have been, facing superior ships at a range where it was vulnerable to anything that hit it. The Skirmisher paid the price.
