HMS Magdala (1870)
| Career | RN Ensign |
|---|---|
| Laid down: | October 6 1868 |
| Launched: | March 2 1870 |
| Completed: | November 1870 |
| Broken up: | 1904 |
| Specification | |
| Displacement: | 3,344 tons |
| Length: | 225 ft |
| Beam: | 45 ft |
| Draught: | 15 ft 4 inches |
| Engine: | Two-shaft Ravenhill, I.H.P.= 1,436 |
| Speed: | 10.6 knots |
| Complement: | 155 |
| Armament 1870: | Four 10-inch muzzle-loading rifles |
| Armament 1892: | Four 8-inch breech loaders |
| Armour: | Belt 8 inches amidships, 6 inches fore and aft
Breastwork 9 to 8 inches Turrets 10 inches faces, 9 inches sides Deck 1.5 inches Breastwork deck 1 inch |
HMS Magdala was a breastwork monitor, the sister ship of HMS Cerberus, and was built specifically to serve as harbour defence ship at Bombay (now Mumbai).
Like her sister, she was designed from the outset to dispense totally with a sailing rig, and to rely completely on her steam engines for her mobility. It was accepted that the steam engines of the period were inefficient, conferring only limited range on the ships mounting them; and that ships of modest displacement could not carry vast stocks of coal to increase their range: but Magdala was intended only as a harbour defence ship and was never expected to make sea voyages of any length. Indeed, with the exception of her delivery voyage to India, she never did so.
Service History
She was fitted, like HMS Cerberus, with a temporary sailig rig for the passage to her intended home base. She made the trip under sail in the middle of winter without escort, as her builders (Thames Iron Works, Blackwall), considered her sufficiently seaworthy as to make the trip safe. Her life thereafter was wholly spent in Bombay harbour, with occasional short trips to sea for firing practice.
References
Oscar Parkes British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-6043
Conway All the World's Fighting Ships ISBN 85177-133-5