HMS Temeraire (1876)

The Temeraire was named after HMS Temeraire a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line launched in 1798 and broken up in 1838. She was laid down at Chatham on 18 August 1873, launched on 9 May, and commissioned in 1877 for service in the Mediterranean fleet under Captain Michael Culme-Seymour.^[3] She remained there for the next fourteen years except for the winter of 1887-88 when she was part of the Channel Squadron. Upon her arrival in Besika Bay, she became Admiral Geoffrey Hornby's flagship. In 1878 she was ordered to the Dardanelles to observe the progress of the Russo-Turkish War. She remained near Istanbul (then Constantinople) until 1879 to represent a strong British position during the protracted international negotiations that led to the Congress of Berlin.

She then took part in the reconquest of Ottoman-occupied Cyprus. In 1881 she was paid off in Malta and given a new command. At the outbreak of the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882, she was recommissioned and took part in the attack on the defensive positions on the coast of Alexandria. In 1884, she was again decommissioned and recommissioned the same year for service in the Mediterranean under Compton Edward Domvile. In 1887 she returned home and was paid off at Portsmouth. After being recommissioned for service in the Channel Squadron, she visited Vigo, Genoa, and Lisbon. She then returned home, but the growing threat from the French fleet at Toulon made it necessary to increase British forces in the Mediterranean as well. Therefore, Temeraire was reassigned to the Mediterranean Fleet under the command of James Drummond.^[4]

When Gerard Noel took command on 26 October 1889,^[4] the Temeraire was the last battleship in the Mediterranean Fleet to carry sails on its masts. The other battleships in that fleet had their main armament in turrets or barbettes. On 26 May 1890,^[5] an incident occurred that resulted in a near disaster with HMS Orion. The squadron was in close formation, at sea with Temeraire as the last ship in the starboard column and Orion as the next-to-last ship in the port column, which, with two cables (370 m) between the columns, resulted in her being four points (45°) off the port bow of the former.^[6]

• According to G.A. Ballard the Temeraire and the Orion were ordered to change positions, and the Orion hit the Temeraire with her ram, as described below.^[6]
• According to a contemporary newspaper, the Orion and the cruiser Phaeton were ordered to change positions, and the Orion hit the Temeraire with her propeller.^[5]

Ballard wrote that according to the instructions of the signal book used at the time, such movements had to comply with the traffic rules by moving from port to port. But due to the prevailing situation, the Orion's engines had to be stopped when turning to starboard. When the flagship's signal was made, the Orion's watch officer kept his engines running, leaving little room to avoid a collision at full speed. Fortunately, the officer on watch of the Temeraire had recognized the impending danger and immediately gave the order to head for Orion instead of turning away from it. When Orion's ram struck the Temeraire next to the engine room and below the armour belt, Temeraire's stern was already swinging away from it, which tore through the ship's outer skin and flooded a wing compartment.^[6] From 1890 the Temeraire cruised in the Levant and visited Souda Bay in Crete. After wintering in Thessaloniki, Temeraire was ordered to return home in the spring of 1891, where she was paid off in Plymouth and assigned to the reserve. Plans for a possible modernization were developed but ultimately discarded due to excessive cost. In 1904 she was renamed Indus II and in 1915 Akbar. She was finally sold to the Netherlands for scrapping in May 1921.^[6]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Temeraire (1876).

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