The last seagoing ship in the Royal Navy to have been built with a figurehead was HMS CADMUS. She was laid down at Sheerness Dockyard on 11 March 1902, and launched on 29 April 1903. She was classed as a steam sloop and commissioned in 1904 for the Far East.

Cadmus started her career on the Australia Station, where she arrived on 13 July 1904; her maiden voyage to Australia was accomplished in record time for a sloop.

In May 1905, she was ordered to the China Station and served there for the rest of her career. In November 1914 she arrived at Direction Island in the Indian Ocean a week after the battle between Emden and Sydney to bury the sailors killed in action.

HMS Cadmus was later also in Singapore during the Singapore Mutiny of 1915 which is mentioned in the earlier chapter about the POWs of the EMDEN. 

The most fascinating find is that the logbook of HMS Cadmus can be found on the Internet. It states in fact two visits to the wreckage of the Emden. The first in November 1914 had the gruesome task to bury the sailors. The second visit from 29^th January to 3^rd February was obviously to salvage as much as possible of the wreckage. The logbook mentions guns and torpedoes and other items (Money, Gold, Searchlight).