HMS Inconstant (1868)

HMS Inconstant about 1885
Class overview
Succeeded by	HMS Shah
Completed	1
Scrapped	1
History
United Kingdom
Name	Inconstant
Builder	Pembroke Dockyard
Laid down	27 November 1866
Launched	12 November 1868
Commissioned	14 August 1869
Renamed	Impregnable II, June 1906 Defiance IV, January 1922 Defiance II, December 1930
Reclassified	Hulked, 1897 Training ship, June 1906
Fate	Sold for scrap, September 1955 broken up in Belgium, 4 April 1956
General characteristics
Type	Unarmored steam frigate
Displacement	5,782 long tons (5,875 t)
Tons burthen	4,066 bm
Length	337 ft 4 in (102.8 m) (p/p)
Beam	50 ft 4 in (15.3 m)
Draught	25 ft 6 in (7.8 m)
Installed power	7,360 ihp (5,490 kW) 11 boilers
Propulsion	1 shaft; 1 × trunk steam engine
Sail plan	Ship rig
Speed	16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Range	2,780 nmi (5,150 km; 3,200 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	600
Armament	10 × RML 9 in (229 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns 6 × RML 7 in (178 mm) guns

HMS Inconstant was an unarmored, iron-hulled, screw frigate built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s. Upon completion in 1869, she was the fastest warship in the world^[1] and was assigned to the Channel Squadron. Two years later the ship was transferred to the Detached Squadron for a brief time before she was paid off into reserve in 1872. Inconstant was recommissioned in 1880 for service with the Flying Squadron that circumnavigated the world in 1880–82. On the return voyage, the ship was diverted to Egypt during the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882 and played a minor role supporting operations ashore. She was reduced to reserve again after her return and was served as an accommodation ship in 1897. Inconstant was hulked in 1904 and became a training ship in 1906. She continued in that role, under a variety of names, until she was sold for scrap in 1955 and subsequently broken up, the second-to-last surviving Pembroke-built warship in existence.^[2]