Thunderer, the fifth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was laid down on 26 June 1869 at
Pembroke Dockyard,
Wales. Construction was subsequently halted for a time in 1871 to modify the ship to improve her
stability and buoyancy by extending the breastwork to cover the full width of the hull which increased the ship's
freeboard amidships and provided additional accommodation for the crew. On 14 July 1876,
Thunderer suffered a disastrous
boiler explosion which killed 45 people. One of her boilers burst as she proceeded from
Portsmouth Harbour to
Stokes Bay to carry out a full-power trial. The
explosion killed 15 people instantly, including her commanding officer; around 70 others were injured, of whom 30 later died. This was the Royal Navy's most deadly boiler explosion through the whole century. A model representing the failed boiler was made and is now in the
Science Museum, London. The explosion was caused because a
pressure gauge was broken and the
safety valve had
corroded in place. When the steam stop valve to the engines was closed, pressure in the boiler rose and could not be released. The four
box boilers were the last in service in the Navy and operated at what would even then would have been considered a relatively low pressure, for more modern boilers, of . The boiler was repaired and the ship was completed on 26 May 1877 at a cost of
£368,428.
Thunderer was commissioned in May 1877 for service with the Reserve Fleet Particular Service Squadron and was then assigned to the Channel Squadron. During this time, she was fitted with experimental
torpedoes. She sailed for the Mediterranean in 1878 under the command of
Captain Alfred Chatfield. Leaving
Gibraltar for
Malta in November 1878,
Thunderer ran aground and was damaged. She was refloated and resumed her voyage. She was repaired at Malta. The ship suffered another serious accident on 2 January 1879, when the left 12-inch 38 ton gun in the forward turret exploded during gunnery practice in the
Sea of Marmora, killing 11 and injuring a further 35. The muzzle-loading gun had been double-loaded following a
misfire. According to Admiral of the Fleet E.H Seymour, "Both turret guns were being fired simultaneously, and evidently one did not go off. It may seem hard to believe such a thing could happen and not be noticed, but from my own experience I understand it. The men in the turret often stopped their ears, and perhaps their eyes, at the moment of firing, and then instantly worked the run-in levers, and did not notice how much the guns had recoiled. This no doubt occurred. Both guns were at once reloaded, and the rammer's indicator, working by machinery, set fast and failed to show how far the new charge had gone." The accident contributed to the Royal Navy changing to
breech-loading guns, which could be more conveniently worked from inside the turrets. She was repaired at Malta.
Thunderer was then regarded as an unlucky ship and was placed in reserve at Malta in 1881 and had her machinery
overhauled. Her armament was augmented with a pair of torpedo launchers and a half-dozen
1-inch (25 mm) Nordenfelt guns on the
hurricane deck. She was recommissioned in 1885 and remained with the Mediterranean Fleet until she was
paid off at Chatham Dockyard. The future King
George V served aboard
Thunderer in 1885–86. The ship was assigned to the Portsmouth Reserve in January 1888 before beginning a major modernisation the following year. Her guns were replaced by four breech-loading
10-inch guns. The ship rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1891, but was forced to return home in September 1892 with persistent boiler problems and she was reduced to the Chatham reserve.
Thunderer became the guard ship at Pembroke Dock in May 1895 and remained there until she returned to the Chatham reserve in December 1900. but was taken out of service five years later.
Thunderer was sold for scrap for £19,500 The
Devastation class became more popular among the civilian population and in the Royal Navy as the ships got older.
Rear-Admiral John Wilson, a former
captain of the ship, stated in a meeting of the
Royal United Services Institute discussing the most acceptable types of
battleship in 1884, "I also agree with my friend Captain Colomb that we have no type of ship to my fancy equal to the or the good old
Thunderer. Give me the
Thunderer, the hull of the
Thunderer; she had bad engines, she was not arranged as I would like inside, she was badly gunned as we all know, and she had not enough light gun or sufficient armaments; but she carried of coal, could steam at 10 knots from here to the Cape, and could fight any ship of her class on the salt water." ==Notes==