Frederick Seymour remembered Inconstant from earlier service and requested her as his Mediterranean Fleet flagship when she returned from reserve in 1880. Requesting the ship for the Royal Navy's most prestigious sea command shows that an experienced admiral considered her genuinely useful. Inconstant later served as the Detached Squadron flagship under Richard Meade and, after Meade became ill in Hong Kong, Francis Sullivan. The squadron left Spithead in October 1880 to circumnavigate the world. Its purpose included showing British firepower at foreign ports to reinforce diplomatic demands, and it returned in 1882.
Chapter · 13:02-14:49
A flagship for Seymour and Victorian gunboat diplomacy
Frederick Seymour's choice of Inconstant as a Mediterranean flagship led into a globe-circling Detached Squadron cruise and the coercive diplomacy behind it.