HMS Inconstant(1868): 19th Century Cruisers p2

Inconstant was an iron-hulled screw frigate without armour that later became a training ship and survived until the 1950s.

Edward Reed planned six fast British frigates in response to the American Wampanoag class, but flaws in the American ships and the cost of the British design ended the programme after three.

Inconstant paired eleven boilers and a 23-foot propeller with a full ship rig, giving her 16-knot steam performance and ocean endurance under sail.

Inconstant's 9-inch and 7-inch rifled muzzle-loading guns fired common, shrapnel, and Palliser ammunition, with useful ranges below some advertised maxima.

The ship's broadside could threaten iron armour, although Inconstant's own hull lacked comparable protection.

Inconstant's early career took her from Pembroke and Portsmouth to Channel and Detached Squadron service, followed by eight years in reserve.

Frederick Seymour's choice of Inconstant as a Mediterranean flagship led into a globe-circling Detached Squadron cruise and the coercive diplomacy behind it.

During the 1880-82 circumnavigation, Inconstant carried the future George V, survived a serious fire, and operated in the Anglo-Egyptian War.

Inconstant spent her later life as accommodation at Devonport, a gunnery and boys' training ship, and part of the Defiance torpedo school.

A hoistable propeller, lowerable funnels, and copper sheathing helped Inconstant combine fast sailing with long ocean service.

The ship's speed and ocean mobility were useful abroad, where she was less likely to meet newer protected or armoured cruisers.

Inconstant, Raleigh, and Shah differed in dockyard, machinery supplier, construction date, cost, and armament despite their close relationship.

Shah and Amethyst faced the Peruvian turret ship Huáscar in shallow water at Pacocha, where Shah launched the first self-propelled torpedo fired in anger and missed.

After carrying troops to Durban and landing a naval contingent for the Anglo-Zulu War, Shah spent later decades in reserve, accommodation, and coal-storage roles.

Shah's hull disappeared, but iron masts fitted to Victory, a stern plaque in Bermuda, and a Portsmouth crew monument preserve material traces of the ship.

The closing design exercise asks what navy a smaller South American state in the 1870s or 1880s could build and what industry would support it.