The first HMS Shah was a 19th-century unarmoured iron hulled, wooden sheathed frigate of Britain's Royal Navy designed by Sir Edward Reed. She was originally to be named HMS Blonde but was renamed following the visit of the Shah of Persia in 1873.
The following table gives the build details and purchase cost of the Shah and the other two iron frigates: Inconstant and Raleigh. Standard British practice at that time was for these costs to exclude armament and stores.
She was only in service for three years. In 1876, she was deployed as flagship of the Royal Navy's Pacific Station under Admiral de Horsey, relieving HMS Repulse.
On 29 May 1877, in company with the corvette HMS Amethyst, she fought an action near Ilo, Peru, the Battle of Pacocha. This was against the Peruvian armoured single-turret ship Huáscar, which had been taken over by anti-government rebels, and had boarded some British merchant ships.
The engagement between HMS Shah and the Huascar off Ilo, 29 May 1877
The armoured Huáscar proved virtually impenetrable to the British guns, but the two unarmoured British ships had to keep clear of the Huáscar’s turret guns. Although Shah was the fastest battleship then afloat, the smaller Huáscar was more maneuverable in the shallow waters. In the course of the action, Shah fired the first torpedo to be used in anger, although it missed – being outrun by Huáscar.
During her time as flagship she also visited Pitcairn Island. On her voyage home in 1879, she called at St. Helena, where news was received of the British defeat at Isandhlwana. Shah was diverted to carry soldiers to Durban in South Africa. She then formed part of a Royal Naval contingent that assisted in the Anglo-Zulu War, before she completed her voyage to Britain.
In December 1904, Shah was converted to a coal storage hulk and renamed C.470. The hulk was sold on 19 September 1919. In 1926 the hulk was wrecked, at Bermuda.[8]
According to some sources (primarily Danish), the ship was eventually sold to Danish salvage company Petersen & Albeck in 1934, towed to Copenhagen, and dismantled there. Part of the teakwood interior was later used as floor planks at the Royal Castle in Gråsten in 1936.
Her masts survive. Being iron, they were deemed to be a lighter, more durable, replacement for the wooden masts of HMS Victory. They were probably fitted to Victory when she was dry docked in 1887, and survive to the present day in her preserved state.[9]
Her stern-plaque, a gift from the Shah of Persia, was restored in 1974 by HMS Malabar (Her Majesty's Naval Base Bermuda, the remnant of the Royal Naval Dockyard). It is on display at the St. George's Historical Society Museum, in the Mitchell House in St. George's Town, Bermuda).[7][10]
↑ "Naval". The Cornishman. No.69. 6 November 1879. p.3.
1 2 Stranack, Lieutenant-Commander Ian RN (ret), FIL, AMBIM. The Andrew and The Onions: The Story of the Royal Navy in Bermuda, 1795-1975. Bermuda: The Island Press Ltd., 1977; Second Edition, Bermuda Maritime Museum Press, 1990. ISBN978-0921560036
↑ Patrick), McGowan, A. P. (Alan (2003). HMS Victory: her construction, career and restoration. McKay, John, 1948-. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN1840675322. OCLC52531819.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
HMS Inconstant was an I-class destroyer built for the Turkish Navy, but was purchased by the Royal Navy in 1939.
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.
HMS Surprise or Surprize is the name of several ships. These include:
HMS Antelope was a Royal Navy Alarm-class torpedo gunboat. She was launched in 1893, reduced to harbour service from 1910 and was sold for scrapping in 1919.
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Two ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Shah:
Several ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Nautilus, after the Greek word for a sailor, including:
The eighth HMS Shannon was the first British armoured cruiser. She was the last Royal Navy ironclad to be built which had a propeller that could be hoisted out of the water to reduce drag when she was under sail, and the first to have an armoured deck.
HMS Ajax was the name ship of her class of ironclad battleships built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. Completed in 1883, she was immediately placed in reserve until 1885 when the ship was commissioned for the first time. Later that year, Ajax was assigned as a coast guard ship in Scotland and remained there for the next six years. She was reduced to reserve again in 1891 and was taken out of service a decade later. The ship was sold for scrap in 1904 and subsequently broken up.
HMS Vixen was an armoured composite gunboat, the only ship of her class, and the third ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name. She was the first Royal Navy vessel to have twin propellers.
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HMS Mercury was one of two Iris-class despatch vessels, later redesignated as second class cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the 1870s. The two ships were the first all-steel warships in the Royal Navy.
HMS Fisgard was a 46-gun fifth rate Leda-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She spent sixty years in service on a variety of duties.
HMS Malabar was a Euphrates-class troopship launched in 1866, and the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to employ the name. She was designed to carry troops between the United Kingdom and British India, and was employed in that role for most of her life. She became the base ship at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda in 1897. She was renamed Terror in 1901 and sold in 1918. Her name was later used as the stone frigate to which shore personnel in Bermuda were enrolled, and later for Her Majesty's Naval Base Bermuda, after the 1950s, when the dockyard was reduced to a base.
HMS Bacchante was a Bacchante-class ironclad screw-propelled corvette of the Royal Navy. She is particularly famous for being the ship on which the Princes George and Albert served as midshipmen.
The Euphrates class was a five-ship class of iron screw troopships built for the Royal Navy during the 1860s. They were used for carrying troops to India, with two of them being later hulked and surviving into the early 20th Century.
HMS Rattlesnake was a unique design of torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. A result of the Russian war scare of 1885, she was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby that year and built by Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead. Quickly made obsolete by the new torpedo boat destroyers, she became an experimental submarine target ship in 1906, and was sold in 1910.
HMS Boadicea was a Bacchante-class corvette launched in 1875. She served in the Zulu War between March–June 1879, and landed some of her men to join the naval brigade serving ashore; these took part in the battle of Gingindhlovu and the relief of Eshowe.
King, JW, Warships and Navies of the World, pub A Williams, 1881.
Wilson, H. W. (1896). Ironclads in Action: A Sketch of Naval Warfare From 1855 to 1895. Vol.1 and 2. Boston: Little, Brown.
Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC52620555.
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