Two years later "Hogue" became the boys' training ship for the 4th Cruiser Squadron on the North America and West Indies Station. She was reduced to reserve at Devonport in 1908 and then assigned to the reserve Third Fleet at the Nore the next year. On 26 November 1909 a coal bunker explosion killed two crewmen. 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.