HMS Triumph was a central-battery built for the Royal Navy (RN) during the 1870s. The ship was completed in 1873 and was briefly assigned to the Channel Fleet before being transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she spent most of the rest of the decade. Together with her sister , she had a minor role in returning a captured pair of rebel ships during the Spanish Cantonal Rebellion in 1873 to the central government. Triumph was the first of the sisters to serve as the Pacific Station flagship beginning in 1878 and they rotated the assignment between them at roughly three-year intervals. In between those times, they were usually refitted and spent several years in reserve. When the Pacific Fleet assignments ended for Triumph in 1888, she spent a few years in reserve before serving as a guardship in Ireland, flagship of the local reserve forces.
Triumph was assigned to serve as a depot ship in 1901 and was renamed Tenedos in 1904. She was converted into a mechanics training ship that same year and was renamed Indus IV in 1912. Two years later the ship was converted into a storeship and was renamed Algiers in 1915. The old ironclad was sold for scrap in 1921.
Background and description
The Swiftsure class was intended to serve on the Pacific Station where coal was very expensive so the ships' sailing qualities had to be equal to their performance under steam, while at the same time being stable ships and good gun platforms. The ships were long between perpendiculars, had a beam of and a draught of . Triumph displaced and had a tonnage of 3,893 tons burthen. They had a complement of 450 officers and ratings. using steam provided by six rectangular fire-tube boilers. Six of these were positioned on the main deck, three on each broadside, and the other four guns were mounted on the corners of the upper deck box battery. The battery protruded over the sides of the ships to give the guns a certain amount of end-on fire. The ships were also equipped with four RML six-inch (152 mm) (71 cwt) guns as chase guns, two in the bow and another pair in the stern. They also had six RBL 20-pounder () rifled breech-loading guns that were used as saluting guns.
The armour scheme of the Swiftsures was identical to that of the Audacious class
Construction and career
HMS Triumph was the seventh ship of her name to serve in the RN. Ordered in 1868 from Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, the ship was laid down at the company's shipyard at Jarrow on 31 August 1868 and launched on 27 September 1870. As a result, Triumph was not completed until 8 April 1873. In early 1873, the First Spanish Republic was beset with the Cantonal Revolution. A rebel faction of the Spanish Navy had seized four of the country's ironclads and the central government declared them to be pirates on 20 July. The ironclad and the frigate were forced to surrender by Swiftsure and a German ironclad in early August. After their crews were released, the rebel ships were subsequently escorted by the sisters to Gibraltar where they were turned over to the central government on 26 September.
On 1 March 1877, she collided with the steamship but was not damaged. After the inconclusive Battle of Pacocha in May between two unarmored British ships, including the flagship of the Pacific Station, the frigate , and the rebel Peruvian ironclad Huáscar, the RN decided to move forward Triumphs already planned relief of Shah and the ship replaced her in May 1878. On 21 November 1881, while Triumph was off Chile, an explosion occurred that killed three men and wounding seven. It was caused by a drying compound called "xerotine siccative", also called a patent drier.
She was relieved by Swiftsure in October 1882. Triumph returned to Portsmouth, where she was refitted, receiving new boilers and launching rails for torpedoes. The ship served as Pacific flagship from January 1885 until December 1888, her relief at that time by Swiftsure signalling the end of her foreign service. Returning home, she was for a short time in reserve at Devonport, and was then flagship of the Senior Officer on the Coast of Ireland at Queenstown (modern Cobh) between February 1890 and September 1892. She returned to the reserve at Devonport, where she remained until July 1900.
Triumph was disarmed Captain Arthur William Edward Prothero was appointed in command on 11 July 1902, for command of Fleet Reserve at Devonport, but the appointment was cancelled and Captain Cecil Thursby was appointed instead on 16 July 1902. In September that year it was announced that her engines and boilers would be removed, and the vessel converted into a hulk. In the event, her propulsion machinery had been removed by February 1904 and her full conversion was completed by the end of the year.
On 21 March 1904, the ship was renamed Tenedos to release her name for the predreadnought battleship then under construction. The ship was paid off on 28 February 1905 and was subsequently towed to HM Dockyard, Chatham to serve as the core of the navy's mechanical training establishment (MTE) there. The RN decided that Chatham was too crowded to accommodate the ships and transferred the former Triumph to return to Devonport and join the MTE there in 1910, although the ship was not renamed Indus IV until 1912. After the First World War began in August 1914, she was towed to Invergordon in October to serve as a storeship and was renamed Algiers in January 1915. After the war, she was sold for scrap on 7 January 1921.