HMS Terrible (1895)

Scott's improvised signal light

Captain Percy Scott relieved Robinson on 18 September 1899,[5] with orders to take the ship for service on the China Station. Expecting hostilities to break out in South Africa, Scott persuaded the Admiralty to allow him to make passage via the Cape of Good Hope rather than the originally planned Suez Canal route.[9] Terrible arrived at Simonstown on 14 October to find war imminent.[5] With no threat from the sea, Scott set about determining how he might adapt the navy's guns by mounting them on wheels for use on land as to support the army which lacked any long-range artillery and found that its ordinary guns were out-ranged by the Boer artillery. The mountings looked somewhat amateurish, causing the authorities to regard them with considerable suspicion. However, they proved very effective and the role of two of his 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns at the Siege of Ladysmith received quite a bit of publicity.[10] Terrible arrived at Durban on 6 November and Scott was appointed Military Commandant there the following day. A naval brigade from the Terrible accompanied the Ladysmith relief force, including two 4.7-inch and eighteen 12-pounder guns,[5] and participated in the battles of Colenso (December 1899) and Spion Kop (January 1900) and the relief of Ladysmith on 28 February.[11] Scott also adapted a small searchlight as a signal light mounted on a train to communicate with the besieged force in Ladysmith. After the relief of Ladysmith, Terrible's crew rejoined her and she departed Durban on 27 March 1900 en route to China.[12]

A 12-pounder gun on one of Scott's carriages in Natal, South Africa

She arrived at Hong Kong on 8 May and Scott mounted four 12-pounders on field carriages later that month, once he became aware that Terrible and her crew would be ordered north to assist British forces against the anti-foreigner movement known as the Boxers. Orders arrived on 15 June that Terrible was to load three companies of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and sail to Taku where she arrived on the 21st. A single 12-pounder gun accompanied the relief force that reached the foreign quarter of Tientsin on 24 June. The other three guns accompanied the expedition that defeated the Chinese forces in the city of Tientsin in mid-July. All four guns were part of the second relief expedition to Peking in August and her crewmen returned to the ship on 7 September. After hostilities ceased Scott focused to working up his ship's gunnery capabilities, devising various training aids, and her crew shot a very respectable score of 78.8% in the 1900 prize firing. Terrible arrived in Hong Kong on 17 December after a typhoon had struck the city, and Scott volunteered to salvage the capsized dredger Canton River. Work began the following month and Scott succeeded two months later. In the Navy's 1901 prize firing Terrible achieved a score of 80%, the best of any ship in the Navy.[13]

In early 1902 Terrible spent several months at Hong Kong, providing relief and condensed water for the dockyard, amid an outbreak of cholera in the city leading to a water famine.[14] In July 1902 Scott received orders to return with his ship to Britain,[15] and after visits to Colombo and Aden, passed via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean where she visited Malta and Gibraltar before she returned to Portsmouth on 19 September.[16][17] On her return, 700 of her officers and men were hosted to a public dinner in Portsmouth,[18] before she was paid off on 24 October to begin a long refit at Clydebank.[19][12] During this refit, the RN added four 6-inch guns in casemates amidships, although no additional ammunition could be accommodated in the ship.[20]

A drawing of Terrible

Terrible recommissioned on 24 June 1904 for special service and took out relief crews to the China Station, returning in December. She was paid off again on the 22nd, but was assigned to the reserve on 3 January 1905. The ship was activated in August to escort the battleship Renown carrying the Prince and Princess of Wales—the future King George V and Queen Mary—during their tour of India and returned home in early 1906. Terrible served as the temporary flagship of the 6th Cruiser Squadron during the annual manoeuvres in June and July and returned to reserve afterwards. She was reactivated on 7 November to ferry relief crews to China, losing a propeller on the return trip, and finished the voyage on one engine. The ship was refitted from 4 May 1908 to 1 April 1909 and was assigned to the Fourth Division of the Home Fleet upon its completion. Terrible was primarily used as an accommodation ship from 20 July until she was transferred to Pembroke Dock on 6 December 1913. The ship was listed for disposal in July 1914, but this was cancelled when the First World War began shortly afterwards.[12]

Terrible was recommissioned in September 1915 to transport troops to the Dardanelles and her 9.2-inch guns were removed. She reached Mudros on 2 October and became a depot ship at Portsmouth upon her return. The ship was assigned as tender to HMS Vernon in January 1918 and then to HMS Fisgard a year later. In September 1919 Terrible was hulked, disarmed and had most of her propulsion machinery removed to convert her into a training ship for engineering apprentices. When the conversion was completed in August 1920, she was renamed Fisgard III. When Fisgard moved to accommodations ashore, the ship was listed for sale in January 1932 and was purchased in July by John Cashmore Ltd. She was towed to Newport, Wales in September and broken up.[12]