1st
Class twin screw cruiser. Sister ship of
HMS Terrible.
Displacement: 14,200 tons.
Speed: 22 Knots, 25,000 HP
Compliment: 894
Armament: Two 9.2 inch guns, twelve 6-inch guns, sixteen 12 pdr QF,
twelve 3 pounder QF, four 18 -inch Torpedo Tubes (submerged)
Served between October
1899 and March 1900. Commanded by Captain the Honorable Hedworth Lambton
CB.
The Powerful Terrible were the largest cruisers in the world during the
late 1890's. HMS Powerful was built by the Naval Construction and
Armaments Company in Barrow-in-Furness and launched on the 24th July
1895. She was built to compete with the newest Russian Cruisers.
Both HMS powerful and HMS Terrible proved very very expensive to build
and cost twice the cost of the Edger class built a few years earlier.
HMS Powerful started service in the China Station and in 1899 landed
naval brigades to participate in the relief of Ladysmith. She was
refitted between 1902 and 1904 when she went into the reserve fleet.
She was used for harbour service in 1912 and from 1915 she was used as a
training ship until the late 1920's. She was renamed HMS
Impregnable II in Nov 1919 and finally scrapped on 31 Aug 1929.
