HMS ''Superb'' was an

ironclad An ironclad is a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by Wrought iron, iron or steel iron armor, armor plates, constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships ...

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

Sir Edward Reed Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (20 September 1830 – 30 November 1906) was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. He was a Liberal politicia ...

for the Ottoman Navy, and was built in Britain by Thames Ironworks under the name of ''Hamidieh''. She had both engines and sails. Together with the two ships of the and , she was compulsorily purchased by the British Government at the time of the Russian war scare of 1878. Her original design drawings show her as an enlarged with heavier armament and thicker armour; she was extensively altered from these plans after her purchase, leading to a five-year gap between her launch and her completion. Her

poop Poop or pooped may refer to: Informal * Feces, the solid or semisolid remains of the food that could not be digested in the small intestine ** To poop, to defecate, to eliminate waste material from the digestive tract via the anus Other * ...

and

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

were enlarged, enabling her to carry sixteen ten-inch muzzle-loaders. This was the highest number of heavy guns of uniform calibre ever carried on a British battleship. She also received searchlights, torpedo discharge equipment, extra coal bunkers and extra cabins. In her original design, the mess deck was unusually lofty. In her conversion an extra deck was added about five feet below the beams, to be used for slinging hammocks. It was always known as the "slave deck". Although ''Superb'' was intended to be able to proceed under sail, and was

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts having the fore- and mainmasts Square rig, rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) Fore-and-aft rig, rigged fore and aft. Som ...

-rigged to this end, it was found that she was unmanageable without power, so no sailing statistics were ever elicited. She had a sister ship, the , which was commissioned by the Ottoman Navy as planned.

Service history

She commissioned at Chatham for service in the Mediterranean on 4 October 1880, and remained on station for seven years. She took part in the

bombardment of Alexandria The Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882. Admiral Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which had previously sailed to the harbor of ...

under command of Captain Thomas Le Hunt Ward, where she fired 310 shells of 10-inch calibre at the Egyptian forts. She received ten hits in return, seven of them on her armour, with no casualties. After reconstruction at Chatham from 1887 to 1891 she was guard ship on the

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

until 1894, when she paid off into Fleet Reserve. Her only other sea time was at the time of the manoeuvres of 1900. Captain

Rosslyn Wemyss Admiral of the Fleet Rosslyn Erskine Wemyss, 1st Baron Wester Wemyss, (12 April 1864 – 24 May 1933), known as Sir Rosslyn Wemyss between 1916 and 1919, was a Royal Navy officer. During the First World War he served as commander of the 12th C ...

was appointed in command on 25 November 1902, serving several months until spring the following year. In 1904 she was used as a hospital overflow ship for infectious cases, until she was sold in 1906.

Gallery

File:The Turkish ironclad frigate Hamidieh (formerly named the Memdouhiyeh) - ILN 1877.jpg, Illustration of the ship, had she been completed for the Ottoman Navy File:The Turkish Ironclad Hamidieh - ILN 1877.jpg File:HMS Superb (1875) By Antonio De Simone 1885.jpg, Painting of HMS ''Superb''

References

Publications

* * Oscar Parkes, ''British Battleships'' * Conway, ''All the World's Fighting Ships'' * D K Brown, ''Warrior to Dreadnought''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Superb (1875) Battleships of the Royal Navy Ships built in Leamouth 1875 ships Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom