HMS Penelope (1867)

HMS Penelope was the last small ironclad to be commissioned in the Royal Navy.

Because of the absence through illness of the Chief Constructor, Sir Edward Reed, the design of this ship was entrusted to his brother-in-law and the future Chief Constructor, Nathaniel Barnaby.

Design
She was specifically designed and intended to be a ship of unusually shallow draught; why this was so cannot now be established, but it is a speculation the Board of Admiralty intended her for inshore use in the Baltic Sea, where ships of greater draught than hers cannot come close to land without grounding. The same concept led Admiral Jackie Fisher, the First Lord of the Admiralty in the early part of World War I, to initiate the construction of the battlecruisers HMS Glorious, HMS Courageous (50) and HMS Furious (47). Being of shallow draught, it was necessary to build her with twin screws, as a single screw (of larger diameter) would have been carried insufficiently deep to be adequately effective. This in turn required twin rudders, and an unusual shape to the stern which disturbed the free flow of water along the hull.

The shallowness of her draught made her a very poor performer under sail, and she was described as "drifting to leeward in a wind like a tea tray" (Captain Willes, R.N., one-time commander of Penelope}.

She was a broadside ironclad, with the guns being deployed centrally on either side of the ship in a box battery. A limited amount of axial, or end-on fire, was allowed for by the provision of secondary gun-ports at the corners of the battery, through which the end-most guns could be traversed to fire. The 5-inch weapons, situated two forward and one aft on the upper deck, were of only marginal effectiveness.

She was the first British capital ship to be fitted with a washroom.

Service history
Penelope was commissioned at Devonport, and served in the Channel Fleet until June 1869. She was then guard ship at Harwich until 1882, which service was interrupted only by occasional short cruises in company with the reserve fleet. She was part of the Particular Service Squadron during the Russian war scare of June to August, 1878. In 1882 she was present at the bombardment of Alexandria, her shallow draught ensuring that she was designated as part of the inshore squadron. She sustained only minor damage from incoming fire from the shore, needing a replacement main yard and one 8 in gun which was destroyed by a direct hit. She remained in the Suez zone as flagship until the conclusion of hostilities, and then returned home for a further five years service at Harwich. She was paid off in 1887, refitted, and sent to Simonstown as harbour receiving ship. In 1897 she was converted to a prison-ship, in which role she remained until being broken up at Cape Town.