HMS Powerful (1895)

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Sailors on deck of four-funnel cruiser HMS Powerful, Australian Squadron, Sydney Harbour (between 1902-1913)
Career
Name:	HMS Powerful
Builder:	Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	1894
Launched:	July 24, 1895
Renamed:	Impregnable, November 1919
Reclassified:	Training School, November 1919
Fate:	Sold August 31, 1929
General characteristics
Displacement:	14,200 tons deep load
Length:	500 ft (150 m)
Beam:	71 ft (22 m)
Draught:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion:	2 shafts 4 cylinder VTE steam engines 48 Bellville type water tube boilers 25,000 hp
Speed:	22 knots (41 km/h)
Range:	7000 nm (13000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h) 3000 tons coal
Complement:	894
Armament:	2 x 9.2 in (23.4 cm) guns 12 x 6 in (15.2 cm) guns 16 x 12 pdr guns 12 x 3 pdr guns 4 torpedo tubes
Armour:	2-6 in (3-15 cm) deck 6 in (15.2 cm) barbettes 6 in (15.2 cm) gun shields

HMS Powerful was a ship of the Powerful-class of armoured cruiser in the Royal Navy.

[edit] Career

She was built by Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness and launched on July 24, 1895 by the Duchess of Devonshire.^[1]

She served with her sister ship, HMS Terrible on the China Station and provided landing parties which fought in the relief of the Siege of Ladysmith in the Second Boer War. Crews from the two ships also took part in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion in China. After 1904 they were laid up as an economy measure.

Captain Hedworth Lambton Vanity Fair caricature - 1900 Powerful can be seen in the top corner

cover from the book about his experiences on Powerful by Charles Bean, frontispiece by the author, published in 1909

In 1897 Captain Hedworth Lambton commanded HMS Powerful, which was regarded as one of the largest warships of the time, on a posting to China. On the return voyage in 1899 he was ordered to Durban, South Africa at an important point in the Second Boer War. He stopped at Mauritius, and on his own initiative picked up a battalion of soldiers stationed there. Knowing that the British forces at Ladysmith urgently needed more powerful guns, Captain Percy Scott from the Powerful's sister ship, the Terrible, devised carriages to transport naval cannon, and Lambton then led a Naval Brigade from Powerful to the rescue with four twelve-pounders and two other guns.

The journey to Ladysmith from Durban was 189 miles. They began by special train then with oxen pulling the guns but when the oxen died the sailors took over pulling the guns themselves. In this endeavour they manhandled the guns "through the wild and broken country" of the South African veldt and "arrived in the nick of time" to play "a most important role in the defence of the town" Although the Boer attackers were kept at bay unfortunately the Naval brigade became besieged themselves. A second Naval brigade from HMS Terrible left Durban for Ladysmith and joined with the relief column led by General Buller and assisted in the lifitng of the siege.^[2]

The field gun competition commemorates the participation of Terrible andPowerful in the relief of Ladysmith.^[3]

• 25 November 1899 - The Naval Brigade from HMS Powerful fought in the Battle of Graspan against the Boers in South Africa.^[4]
• 6 January 1900 - The Naval Brigade from HMS Powerful repulsed a strong Boer attack at Ladysmith.^[4]
• 30 October 1900 - The Naval Brigade of HMS Powerful attacked Boer positions at Lombards Kop, Ladysmith.^[4]

The enthusiastic response in Britain to the "heroes of Ladysmith"^[5] was enormous and made Captain Hedworth Lambton a well-known public figure. Queen Victoria sent a telegram saying, "Pray express to the Naval Brigade my deep appreciation of the valuable services they have rendered with their guns." ^[6] while a reception and celebratory march through London were among the first events ever recorded on film.^[7]

A newspaper described the Powerful's return home: "As the great vessel steamed into Portsmouth Harbour at four o'clock this afternoon, she was greeted with thunders of applause .... vessels lying off here were dressed with flags, and their crews, swarming along the yards, swelled the roar of welcome......By three o'clock the jetty was thronged with men, women and children. ... A more eager, joyous gathering I never saw.....We cheered, we waved hats and handkerchiefs and we were half wild with delight." ^[8] Lambton was awarded the CB, and it was in this year that his caricature was published in Vanity Fair.

In August 1905 Captain Lionel Halsey took command of HMS Powerful,^[9][10] as flag captain to Sir Wilmot Hawkes as Commander-in-Chief Australia Station. At the time the Powerful was commissioning as Flagship on the Australia Station.^[11] Halsey remained in that post until 1908.^[12]

At the beginning of December 1905, Powerful was at Fremantle in Western Australia.^[13]

On February 3, 1908 the first trans-Tasman radio transmission was made via HMS Powerful which was in the Tasman Sea.^[14]

A Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Charles Bean joined the ship in August 1908 as special correspondent to report the visit of sixteen American warships — the Great White Fleet. At the time Powerful was flagship of the Royal Navy squadron on the Australian Station. Bean wrote a book, With the Flagship in the South (London, 1909), based on his reports, with photographs, drawings and a water-colour frontispiece by the author, and had it published at his own expense.^[15]

In 1911 HMS Powerful visited Auckland, New Zealand to inspect the facilities and recommended the setting up of a Naval Store Organisation.^[16]

During World War I, Powerful and Terrible had most of their armament removed and served a troop transports and later accommodation ships.

After the end of the war, Powerful was renamed Impregnable in November 1919 and converted to a training ship. After ten years of this, she was sold on August 31, 1929 for breaking up.

[edit] References

• Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.