page_title: HMS Powerful (1895)
section_title: Construction and career
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Powerful (1895) / Construction and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Men of the Day No. 781: Caricature of Captain Hedworth Lambton, later Admiral the Hon Sir Hedworth Meux, in 1900. Caption read "HMS Powerful".
context_page_description: HMS Powerful was the lead ship of her class of two protected cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. She was initially assigned to the China Station and then provided landing parties which fought in the Siege of Ladysmith of 1899–1900 during the Second Boer War. After a lengthy refit, the ship was placed in reserve until 1905 when Powerful became the flagship of the Australia Station. Upon her return home in 1912, she was again reduced to reserve for a brief time before she was reclassified as a training ship. The ship remained in this role until 1929 when she was sold for scrap.
context_section_description: Powerful was laid down by Vickers Limited in their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 10 March 1894 and launched on 24 July 1895 by the Louisa Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. The ship was commissioned on 8 June 1897 with Captain the Hon. Hedworth Lambton in command, for service on the China Station. Her departure was delayed so that she could participate in the fleet review commemorating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on 26 June and the annual fleet manoeuvres in July. During a full-power run between Wei Hai Wai, China, and Yokohama, Japan, in late July 1898, her stokers mutinied, but she then visited Port Arthur without incident.
  Ordered home in 1899, Powerful was diverted from the shorter route through the Suez Canal to round the southern tip of Africa in light of rising tensions between the British and the Boers in South Africa. The ship departed Hong Kong, China, on 17 September and arrived at Simonstown on 13 October, two days after the Second Boer War began; Lambton having picked up a half-battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry from the island of Mauritius on his own initiative. Her sister ship, Terrible, commanded by Captain Percy Scott, arrived the following day and Scott improvised field carriages for a pair of 4.7-inch (120 mm) and a pair of Terrible's 12-pounder guns. After a request from Lieutenant General George White, commander of the besieged forces at Ladysmith for more long-range artillery, Powerful ferried all four guns to Durban, reaching it on 29 November. Lambton acquired another pair of 12-pounders and led a naval brigade that reached Ladysmith on the last two trains to make it through. After the Relief of Ladysmith at the end of February, the brigade departed the town on 7 March and arrived at Simontown on the 12th. Powerful left Simonstown three days later and arrived at Portsmouth on 11 April.
  The enthusiastic response in Britain to the "heroes of Ladysmith" was enormous and made Lambton a well-known public figure. Queen Victoria sent a telegram saying, "Pray express to the Naval Brigade my deep appreciation of the valuable services they have rendered with their guns." while a reception and celebratory march through London were among the first events ever recorded on film.
  A newspaper described Powerful's return home:
  As the great vessel steamed into Portsmouth Harbour at four o'clock this afternoon, she was greeted with thunders of applause .... vessels lying off here were dressed with flags, and their crews, swarming along the yards, swelled the roar of welcome......By three o'clock the jetty was thronged with men, women and children. ... A more eager, joyous gathering I never saw.....We cheered, we waved hats and handkerchiefs and we were half wild with delight.
  — Daily News
  The naval brigade paraded for Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle on 2 May. The RN field gun competition commemorates the participation of Terrible and Powerful in the relief of Ladysmith. In 1921 a new Primary School in Ladysmith was named after Lieutenant Frederick Greville Egerton, a gunnery officer from Powerful who was killed at Ladysmith.
caption: Captain Hedworth Lambton
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