"Well Done Condor". Bombardment of Alexandria, 1882 by Charles Dixon | |
History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Condor |
Ordered | 1875 |
Builder | Devonport Dockyard |
Laid down | 15 December 1875 |
Launched | 28 December 1876 |
Commissioned | 17 July 1877 [1] |
Fate | Sold to George Cohen in August 1889 |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | 774 tons |
Length | 157 ft (48 m) |
Beam | 29 ft 6 in (8.99 m) |
Draught | 12 ft (3.7 m) [2] |
Installed power | 772 ihp (576 kW) |
Propulsion |
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Sail plan | Barque-rigged |
Speed | 11.5 kn (21.3 km/h) under power |
Complement | 100 [2] |
Armament |
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HMS Condor was the name-ship of the Royal Navy Condor-class gun-ship carrying 3 guns. [3]
Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, [2] the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, her hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. She was fitted with a 2-cylinder horizontal compound expansion steam engine driving a single screw, produced by John Elder & Co. She was rigged with three masts, with square rig on the fore- and main-masts, making her a barque-rigged vessel. Her keel was laid at Devonport Royal Dockyard on 15 December 1875 and she was launched on 28 December 1876. [2]
After official commission into the Royal Navy on 17 July 1877, Condor joined the Mediterranean Fleet in 1879, remaining there until at least 1886. [1]
HMS Condor was under the command Lord Charles Beresford and had the war correspondent Frederic Villiers, and Moberly Bell of The Times, on board as a guests. Over and above its three main guns the ship had a Gatling gun mounted on the main-top. [4]
The three standard guns (one 12-pounder and two 64-pounders) were supplemented by three recently added 7 pounders. [5]
Early in 1882 Egypt was struggling to resist a wave of nationalism and independence from Britain under the banner of "Egypt for the Egyptians".
After rioting in Alexandria, during which Europeans were killed, Admiral Seymour aboard HMS Invincible in company with a fleet of 15 ironclads under his command, was ordered to go to the area in June 1882. He arrived at Alexandria in order to protect the lives and property of British subjects, and safeguard access to the Suez Canal. Local native forces began work to improve the fortifications, and when they failed to respond to Seymour's ultimatum to stop work on 6 July. A second ultimatum on 10 July was more specific that a bombardment would begin on the morning of 11 July unless the harbour defences were relinquished. Foreign ships were asked to leave the harbour, including a large French fleet which moved to Port Said. [6]
Seymour (on HMS Invincible) signalled to HMS Alexandra to commence firing at the Ras-el-Tin fortifications at 7:00 a.m. on 11 July 1882, followed by the general order to attack the enemy's batteries. The offshore squadron at first conducted the attack while underway, but this proved difficult, and by 9:40, Sultan, Superb and Alexandra had anchored off the Lighthouse Fort and concentrated their fire on the heavily armed Ras-el-Tin battery. By 12:30, Inflexible had joined the attack and the fort's guns were silenced. [7] [8]
[A] steady cannonade was maintained by the attacking and defending forces, and for the next few hours the roar of the guns and the shrieks of passing shot and shell were alone audible."
— Royle [7]
The larger ships began an attack on the Fort Mex battery but Temeraire ran aground. This enabled Condor, commanded by Lord Charles Beresford, to go to her assistance. She was refloated around 8am and resumed the attack.
While the offshore squadron was engaging the forts at long-range, the in-shore group, Monarch, Penelope were engaging the main harbour and eastern forts including the Maza-el-Kanat battery. However, Fort Marabout to the west, had a raking view across the approaches to the harbour and was equipped with heavy guns capable of jeopardising the entire attack. Beresford stated he would attack Fort Marabout to divert their fire from the main group. Condor sailed to within 400m of Fort Marabout and began furiously firing at the fort. This great proximity had a strange advantage because the guns in the fort could only awkwardly be repositioned to point downwards. [9]
After two hours of exchanging fire, with Fort Marabout much disabled, Admiral Seymour ordered the smaller gunships, HMS Bittern, HMS Cygnet and HMS Decoy to move in to finish the affray. [10]
When Fort Marabout's guns were disabled, the flag lieutenant Hedworth Lambton on Invincible signalled "Well Done, Condor." Condor's action allowed the ships to finish off Fort Mex. [7]
Condor later served in the campaign in the Eastern Sudan in 1885 and was based at Suakin.
After a short career, Condor was sold to Mr George Cohen in August 1889. [2]
She ended her career at Dead Man's Bay near Plymouth Sound in 1894. Lord Charles Beresford rescued her binnacle as a souvenir. [11]
Admiral Charles William de la Poer Beresford, 1st Baron Beresford,, styled Lord Charles Beresford between 1859 and 1916, was a British admiral and Member of Parliament.
Rear Admiral Sir Horace Lambert Alexander Hood, was a Royal Navy admiral of the First World War, whose lengthy and distinguished service saw him engaged in operations around the world, frequently participating in land campaigns as part of a shore brigade. His early death at the Battle of Jutland in the destruction of his flagship HMS Invincible was met with mourning and accolades from across Britain.
HMS Invincible was a Royal Navy Audacious-class ironclad battleship. She was built at the Napier shipyard and completed in 1870. Completed just 10 years after HMS Warrior, she still carried sails as well as a steam engine.
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Ville de Paris was a large three-decker French ship of the line that became famous as the flagship of Admiral De Grasse during the American Revolutionary War.
Charles Frederic Moberly Bell was a British journalist and newspaper editor. He was the managing director of The Times during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where his innovations included founding the forerunners of the Times Literary Supplement and the Times Educational Supplement and co-sponsoring the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Admiral of the Fleet The Honourable Sir Hedworth Meux, was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he was present at the bombardment of Alexandria during the Anglo-Egyptian War.
HMS Penelope was a central-battery ironclad built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s and was rated as an armoured corvette. She was designed for inshore work with a shallow draught, and this severely compromised her performance under sail. Completed in 1868, the ship spent the next year with the Channel Fleet before she was assigned to the First Reserve Squadron in 1869 and became the coast guard ship for Harwich until 1887. Penelope was mobilised as tensions with Russia rose during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and participated in the Bombardment of Alexandria during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882. The ship became a receiving ship in South Africa in 1888 and then a prison hulk in 1897. She was sold for scrap in 1912.
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HMS Sultan was a broadside ironclad of the Royal Navy of the Victorian era, who carried her main armament in a central box battery. She was named for Sultan Abdulaziz of the Ottoman Empire, who was visiting England when she was laid down. Abdulaziz cultivated good relations with the Second French Empire and the British. In 1867 he was the first Ottoman sultan to peacefully visit Western Europe; his trip included a visit to England, where he was made a Knight of the Garter by Queen Victoria and shown a Royal Navy Fleet Review, with Isma'il Pasha of Egypt.
HMS Alexandra was a central battery ironclad of the Victorian Royal Navy, whose seagoing career was from 1877 to 1900. She spent much of her career as a flagship, and took part in operations to deter the Russian Empire's aggression against the Ottoman Empire in 1878 and the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. She was affectionately known by her crew as Old Alex.
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HMS Superb was an ironclad battleship designed by Sir Edward Reed for the Ottoman Navy, and was built in Britain by Thames Ironworks under the name of Hamidieh. She had both engines and sails.
HMS Formidable was a 98-gun second rate man-of-war serving the Royal Navy.
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1882 alexandria bombardment.