HMS Magdala (1870)

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.

ervice history

She was fitted, like HMS "Cerberus", with a temporary sailing 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 0-85052-604-3
* Conway, "All the World's Fighting Ships" ISBN 0-85177-146-7
* [http://www.cerberus.com.au/mag_aby_slideshow.html Magdala & Abyssinia Slideshow]