Her Service History.
In July 1877, during the Russo-Turkish war, she took part in the show of strength at Besika Bay, off Turkey. When the British fleet entered the Dardanelles, in February 1878, the Alexandra ran aground on a shoal but freed herself shortly after and joined the rest of the fleet at Constantinople. The threat of the British ships, which the Russians thought were full of troops (they were not), saved Constantinople from attack. The last elements of the fleet left the area in March 1878 when the Russians began a withdrawal.
The Alexandra was involved in another display of naval strength in September 1880. Turkey had not handed Dulcigno over to Montenegro as agreed at the Berlin Conference. So Britain, Austria, Russia, France and Italy set up a combined naval demonstration at Ragusa on the Adriatic. The senior officer in command of the combined fleet was Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick Beauchamp Seymour who flew his flag aboard the Alexandra. HMS Temeraire, HMS Condor and HMS Helicon made up the British contingent. This display of strength persuaded Turkey to hand over Dulcigno on November 26th.
H.M.S. Alexandra, commanded by Captain Charles Frederick Hotham, had the honour of firing the first shot of the bombardment of Alexandria on 11th July 1882. It was fired by Lt. Arthur Bailey, the officer in charge of the main battery and scored a direct hit on Fort Ras el Tin. She shelled the Ras el Tin line of forts from outside the harbour as her draught was too great to allow her to manoeuvre freely in the inner harbour. This was also the reason for Admiral Sir Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour transferring his flag to HMS Invincible, which was already in the inner harbour, for this engagement. During this action, she was hit twenty-four times outside her armour and took approximately sixty hits in total. Although the range was short (1200 -1500 yards) there was only one man killed and three wounded on board. A Victoria Cross was awarded to Gunner Israel Harding for picking up a live enemy shell, which had pierced an unarmoured part of her side, with its fuse still burning and putting it into a tub of water.
In order to keep order and prevent further attacks on foreign nationals in Alexandria, the city was occupied by sailors and marines from the fleet on the 13th July. The Alexandra's Captain (Charles Hotham) was the Admiral's Chief of Staff during the occupation whilst her chief Royal Marine officer, Major Joseph Philips, commanded the marines in the city. During this period, a party of twelve seaman from the Alexandra, lead by Midshipman Eustace William Clitherow, opened fire on a party of 150 Bedouin looters, killing two and routing the rest. Egyptian soldiers on the scene did not intervene. The bluejackets and marines were relieved by the arrival of Army on the 18th July and could return to their ships to rest. On the 29th July, Midshipman Dudley Rawson De Chair (of the Alexandra) was captured by the enemy whilst carrying despatches between Ras el Tin and Ramleh. He was well-treated by his captors and recovered unharmed when Cairo was occupied.
Sailors and marines from HMS Alexandra were amongst the 200 bluejackets and 1000 marines who took part in the fighting at Mallaha Junction on the 5th August 1882. Further east, a company of her marines made up part of the force that was based at the Dutch Hotel in Port Said from 21st August, guarding the Suez Canal. Some of the 250 rating and officers of the Naval Brigade and gatling gun crews who fought at Kassassin on 9th September 1882, under the command of Captain Fitzroy of HMS Orion, came from the Alexandra. They were also present at the final battle of the campaign at Tel-el-Kebir on 13th September. On the 16th September, all seaman and marines in the Naval brigade were returned to their ships.
In the Sudan campaign of 1885, the First Division of the Naval Brigade commanded by Lord Charles Beresford was made up mainly of men from HMS Alexandra. This Division was lead by Lieutenants Alfred Piggott, Rudolph de Lisle, George Tyler and Robert Montgomerie. The other men present were; Sub-Lieutenant Edward Munro; Boatswain James Webber and fifty-one petty officers and seamen. Prior to the arrival of Beresford (on 26th November 1884), these men had been preparing the boats for the Nile column and hauling them and the steamers up the cataracts on the river. The Second Division of the Naval Brigade also included some sailors and officers from the Alexandra. Beresford, himself, was officially transferred from HMS Hibernia (the guardship at Malta dockyard) to the Alexandra so that his time with the Naval Brigade would count as 'time at sea' on his service record.
Several of the Alexandra's officers and men were killed at the battle of Abu Klea on 17th January 1885. Their Gardner gun was run out to the left flank of the square to provide covering fire. The square closed behind them leaving them exposed. After seventy rounds were fired, the gun jammed and as the crew tried to clear it they were cut down in a rush by the dervishes. Out of the forty men in the Naval contingent, Lieutenants Alfred Piggott (actually he had been promoted to Commander shortly before but never knew it) and Rudolph de Lisle were killed along with Chief Boatswain's Mate Rhodes (the gun captain) and five other seamen and seven more were wounded. Lord Charles Beresford was 'scratched' on the left hand by a spear as he managed to duck under the gun. The weight of the rush pushed the sailors back into the face of the square which held firm and pushed the enemy back.
Alexandra's crew continued with the Nile Column and took part in its further battles. They even learnt to ride camels for the last part of the campaign. A few of them were involved in the action of the small steamers on the Nile.
In 1889, she returned to England to pay off. This was followed by a refit (1889/91) and she became the flagship of the First Reserve Fleet (based at Portland) for ten years.
H.M.S. Alexandra was the most heavily armoured battleship at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee review at Spithead in 1897. She was also the only vessel there whose main armament was still muzzle-loading guns.
During the fleet manoeuvres of 1899. HMS Alexandra, HMS Juno and HMS Europa were the first three ships in the Royal Navy to be fitted with and use wireless transmitters whilst at sea.
She had served a flagship for twenty-three years but in 1901, she was reduced to a mechanical training ship and was finally broken up in 1908.
Sources
Ballard, Admiral G.A. The Last British Central Battery Ship, HMS Alexandra. The Mariner's Mirror, The Journal of the Society for Nautical Research.Volume 32, Number 3, July 1946.
Chesneau, Roger & Kolesnik, Eugene M. Conway's All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Conway Maritime Press, London, 1979.
Clowes, William Laird. The Royal Navy. A History from the Earliest Times to 1900. Volume VII (of VII) 1857 to 1900. First published in 1903. This edition by Chatham Publishing, London, 1997.
Dixon, Conrad. Ships of the Victorian Navy. Ashford Press Publishing, Southampton, 1987.
White, Colin. The Heyday of Steam. Kenneth Mason, Emsworth, Hampshire, 1983.
(version I - text copyright - Nick Marshall - 3/2/2003 )
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