From fighting ship to accommodation and training hulk

After returning to reserve in 1882, Inconstant became accommodation for overflow from the Devonport barracks in 1897. Taken out of service in 1904, she became a gunnery training ship in 1906 and joined the Impregnable boys' training establishment under variants of that name. In 1922 she transferred to Plymouth's Defiance torpedo school, another change that obscures the old frigate's identity in later records. These roles kept the hull institutionally useful long after she ceased to be a credible front-line cruiser. She was the second-to-last Welsh-built naval vessel afloat when broken up.