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.

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. (Note that costs quoted by J.W. King were in US dollars.)

* Date first commissioned.

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.

Service career
She was only in service for three years, as the flagship of the British Pacific Station under Admiral de Horsey. She fought an action, the Battle of Pacocha, in company with the corvette HMS Amethyst on 29 May 1877 with the Peruvian armoured turret ship Huáscar which had been taken over by rebels opposed to the Peruvian Government 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 the Shah and the Amethyst had to keep clear of the Huáscar’s turret guns. 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 she was diverted to South Africa to assist in the Anglo-Zulu War.

In December 1904 the ship 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.

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.

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

Her masts survive. Being iron; they were deemed to be a lighter, more durable, replacement for HMS Victory's masts in her preserved state, in the early 20th century.