The chief constructor, Sir Edward Reed, was ill, so the design of this ship was entrusted to his assistant and brother-in-law, Nathaniel Barnaby, himself a future chief constructor. For reasons that have not survived, the Admiralty required that Penelope to be a ship of unusually shallow draught, possibly in light of the operations in the shallow Baltic Sea during the Crimean War of 1854–1855.[1]
The ship was 260 feet (79.2 m) long between perpendiculars and had a beam of 50 feet (15.2 m). She had a draught of 15 feet 9 inches (4.8 m) forward and 17 feet 4 inches (5.3 m) aft. Penelopedisplaced 4,394 long tons (4,465 t) and had a tonnage of 3,096 tons burthen.[2] She had a complement of 350 officers and ratings.[3] She was the first British capital ship to be fitted with a washroom.[4]
The shallow-draught requirement forced Barnaby to build her with twin screws, as a single screw of larger diameter would have been mounted insufficiently deep to be effective. The Admiralty also wanted hoistable propellers as the reports from Pallas and Favorite, with their fixed propellers, were distinctly uncomplimentary about their sailing qualities. She was the only twin-screw ship ever to have hoisting screws.[8] Provision for the hoisting frames and twin rudders forced a very unusual shape to the stern, which unintentionally greatly increased drag.[9] The other issue was that the shallowness of her draught made her very unhandy under sail, and she was described as "drifting to leeward in a wind like a tea tray".[10]Penelope was ship-rigged with three masts and a sail area of 18,250 square feet (1,695 m2). Her speed under sail alone was only 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph). Her shallow draught gave her a metacentric height of 2.7 feet (0.8 m) at deep load, which made her a very steady gun platform.[11]
The waterline wrought iron armour belt of Penelope covered her entire length. It was 6 inches (152 mm) thick amidships, backed by 10–11 inches (254–279 mm) of wood, and thinned to 5 inches towards the ends of the ship. It had a total height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.7 m), of which 4 feet (1.2 m) was below water and 1 foot 6 inches (0.5 m) above. The sides of the 68-foot-long (20.7 m) box battery were also 6 inches thick, and its ends were protected by 4.5-inch (114 mm) bulkheads. Between the battery and the belt was a 96-foot-long (29 m) strake of 6-inch armour, also closed off by 4.5-inch bulkheads.[3]
Penelope was completed at Devonport Dockyard on 27 June 1868 for the cost of £196,789[7] and served in the Channel Fleet until June 1869. She was then guard ship at Harwich until 1882, which included summer cruises in company with the rest of the reserve fleet.[10] On 7 January 1876, the German merchant ship Victoria ran into her at Harwich, causing minor damage.[18] She was part of the Particular Service Squadron mobilised during the Russian war scare of June–August 1878.[10] On 18 January 1881, she was driven from her moorings at Harwich and ran aground in the River Stour.[19]
In 1882, she was at Gibraltar under command of Captain St George Caulfield D'Arcy-Irvine[20] when the Anglo-Egyptian War began, and her shallow draught caused her to be sent to Egypt. Upon arrival in Alexandria, she assisted with the evacuation of European refugees for several days before the bombardment of the city began on 11 July. Penelope was the ship closest to the Egyptian forts and fired 231 rounds during the battle.[21] The ship was only lightly damaged by Egyptian shells, with eight men wounded, one eight-inch gun damaged and one mainyard needing to be replaced. She became Rear-AdmiralAnthony Hoskins's flagship when the British seized the Suez Canal to allow their troop transports to land at Ismailia.[22]
On 11 March 1883, Penelope was run into by the steam collierDunelm at Sheerness, sustaining minor damage.[23]Penelope returned home after the war for a further five years' service at Harwich. She was paid off in 1887, refitted, and sent to Simonstown, South Africa, as a receiving ship the following year. In January 1897, Penelope was converted to a prison hulk and then sold for scrap on 12 July 1912 for the price of £1,650.[10] The ship was broken up at Genoa, Italy, in 1914.[7]
Phillips, Lawrie; Lieutenant Commander (2014). Pembroke Dockyard and the Old Navy: A Bicentennial History. Stroud, UK: The History Press. ISBN978-0-7509-5214-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. ISBN0-88254-979-0.
Winfield, R.; Lyon, D. (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC52620555.
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