On Saturday morning March 11, 1899 at 09:45 the new battleship Glory was declared to be afloat in the drydock of Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, England, the Canopus class battleship had been launched. The people at Laird's shipyard had learned that you could build up a ship more in the drydock if you floated her rather than slide her down the ways. Glory was floated with 75% of her total weight already in place, to date the most complete battleship ever launched.

The Rev. J. W. Hughes Games, vicar of Birkenhead, read the services and Mrs. John MacGregor Laird christened the ship, the ceremony was also attended by a number of foreign dignitaries including American, Russian, Argentinean and Austro-Hungarian representatives. Glory served until 1920 when she was renamed Crescent, finally being scrapped in 1922.