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.

For other ships of this name, see HMS Shah.

Shah at anchor
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Shah
Namesake: Shah of Persia
Owner: Royal Navy
Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
Laid down: 7 March 1870
Launched: 10 September 1873
Completed: December 1875
Commissioned: 14 August 1876
Out of service: December 1904
Fate:
  • Converted to Coal Storage Hulk C.470
  • Sold 19 September 1919
  • Wrecked in Bermuda 1926
General characteristics
Type: Unarmored steam frigate
Tonnage: 4,210 bm
Displacement: 6,250 long tons (6,350 t)
Length: 334 ft (101.8 m) (p/p)
Beam: 52 ft (15.8 m)
Draught: 25 ft 7 in (7.8 m)
Installed power: 7,480 ihp (5,580 kW)
Propulsion:
Sail plan: Ship rig
Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Range: 6,840 nmi (12,670 km; 7,870 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 600
Armament:

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.

Ship Builder Engines Cost according to
Laid down Launched Completed Brassey's 1887[1] King[2]
Hull Machinery Total
excluding
armament
Inconstant Pembroke Dockyard a John Penn & Son 27 November 1866 12 November 1868 14 August 1869 * £138,585 £74,739 £213,324 $1,036,756
Raleigh Chatham Dockyard Humphrys, Tennant & Co. 8 February 1871 1 March 1873 13 January 1874 * £147,248 £46,138 £193,386 $939,586
Shah Portsmouth Dockyard Ravenhill 7 March 1870 10 September 1873 14 August 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.

Armament

As at 1888, Shah's armament consisted of two 9-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns, sixteen 7-inch 6½ ton rifled muzzle-loading guns, eight 5-inch breech-loading guns, 3 quick-firing guns, twelve machine-guns and four torpedo launchers.[5]

Service career

She was only in service for three years, relieving HMS Repulse in 1876 as the flagship of the Royal Navy's Pacific Station under Admiral de Horsey. She fought an action near Ilo, the Battle of Pacocha, in company with the corvette HMS Amethyst on 29 May 1877 with the Peruvian armoured single-turret ship Huáscar, which had been taken over by rebels opposed to the Government of Peru 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 had to keep clear of the Huáscar’s turret guns. although Shah was the fastest battleship then afloat, the smaller Huáscar was better able to navigate evasively in the shallow waters. 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 in 1879, she was diverted at St. Helena, where news was received of the defeat of the British Army at the Battle of Isandhlwana, carrying 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. On 24 October 1879 some of her crew were paid off at Portsmouth and Shah was placed in the fourth division of the Steam Reserve, then joined the North America and West Indies Station at the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island, Bermuda, to provide accommodation. HMS Malabar took over this task in 1897,[6][7] and in December 1904 Shah 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.[8]

According to some sources (primarily Danish) the ship was eventually sold to a Danish salvage company (Petersen & Albeck, Copenhagen) in 1934 and subsequently towed to Copenhagen, where the ship was dismantled. Parts of the Teak wood interior was later used as floor planks at the Royal Castle in Graasten in 1936.

Her masts survive. Being iron; they were deemed to be a lighter, more durable, replacement for HMS Victory's masts. 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 that was restored in 1974 by HMS Malabar (Her Majesty's Naval Base Bermuda, which was the remnant of the Royal Naval Dockyard) is on display at the St. George's Historical Society Museum, in the Mitchell House (on the corner of Duke of York Street and Featherbed Alley, in St. George's Town, Bermuda).[7][10]


There is a monument to the ship's crew men in Victoria Park, Portsmouth.

Footnotes
  1. The Naval Annual 1887, p286-295
  2. King, Warships and Navies of the World, p203.
  3. HMS Inconstant
  4. HMS Raleigh
  5. Brassey's Naval Annual 1888, Page 284, "Unarmoured Ships"
  6. "Naval". The Cornishman (69). 6 November 1879. p. 3.
  7. The Andrew and The Onions: The Story of the Royal Navy in Bermuda, 1795-1975, by Lieutenant-Commander Ian Stranack, FIL, AMBIM, Royal Navy (Retired). First Edition. Printed and Published by The Island Press Ltd. 1977; Second Edition. Bermuda Maritime Museum Press. 1990. ISBN 978-0921560036
  8. 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 Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  9. Patrick), McGowan, A. P. (Alan (2003). HMS victory : her construction, career and restoration. McKay, John, 1948-. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 1840675322. OCLC 52531819.
  10. St. George's Historical Society Museum. Bermuda.com Ltd

References
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