HMS Shah (1873)
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.
Building Programme
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. (Note that costs quoted by J.W. King were in US dollars.)
| Ship | Builder | Maker of Engines |
Date of | Cost according to | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laid Down | Launch | Completion | BNA 1887[1] | King[2] | |||||
| Hull | Machinery | Total excluding armament | |||||||
| Inconstant | Pembroke Dockyard | John Penn & Son | 27 Nov 1866 | 12 Nov 1868 | 14 Aug 1869 * | £138,585 | £74,739 | £213,324 | $1,036,756 |
| Raleigh | Chatham Dockyard | Humphrys, Tennant & Co | 8 Feb 1871 | 1 Mar 1873 | 13 Jan 1874 * | £147,248 | £46,138 | £193,386 | $939,586 |
| Shah | Portsmouth Dockyard | Ravenhill | 7 Mar 1870 | 10 Sep 1873 | 14 Aug 1876 | £177,912 | £57,333 | £235,245 | $1,119,861 |
*Date first commissioned.[3][4]
Her complement was 469 officers and men, 46 boys and 87 marines.
Service career
She was only in service for three years, as the flagship of the British Pacific Station under Admiral de Horsey. She fought an action, the Battle of Pacocha, in company with the corvette HMS Amethyst on 29 May 1877 with the Peruvian armoured turret ship Huáscar which had been taken over by rebels opposed to the Peruvian Government and, it was feared, could be used to attack British shipping.
The armoured Huáscar proved virtually impenetrable to the British guns, but the two unarmoured British ships the Shah and the Amethyst had to keep clear of the Huáscar’s turret guns. In the course of the action the 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 she was diverted to South Africa to assist in the Anglo-Zulu War.
In December 1904 the ship was converted to a coal storage hulk and renamed C.470. The hulk was sold on 19 September 1919, and subsequently wrecked in 1926 at Bermuda.[5]
There is a monument to the ship's crew men in Victoria Park, Portsmouth.
References
- Brassey, Lord (ed) The Naval Annual 1887
- Chesnau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene (Ed.) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- King, JW, Warships and Navies of the World, pub A Williams, 1881.
- Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif, The Sail and Steam Navy List. Chatham Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-86176-032-9
- HMS Shah
- J Winton: Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor
- P Padfield: Rule Britannia
Footnotes
- ↑ The Naval Annual 1887, p286-295
- ↑ King, Warships and Navies of the World, p203.
- ↑ HMS Inconstant
- ↑ HMS Raleigh
- ↑ Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
