HMS Terrible (1895): Naval Guns on Wheels, From Ladysmith to Beijing

Built on the Clyde

HMS Terrible was built by J. and G. Thomson at Clydebank, laid down on 21 February 1894 and launched on 27 May 1895, one of the Powerful-class armoured cruisers. She made a temporary appearance at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee fleet review in July 1897 before entering full active service in March 1898.

Captain Scott's Ingenious Wheeled Guns

With Captain Percy Scott taking command in September 1899, and war clouds gathering over South Africa, Scott persuaded the Admiralty to route Terrible via the Cape of Good Hope rather than the Suez Canal, arriving at Simonstown that October just as the Boer War broke out.

Recognising the British Army's severe shortage of heavy artillery, Scott devised a way to mount naval guns on improvised wheeled carriages so they could be hauled inland and used in support of ground troops, a remarkably inventive solution to a pressing wartime problem.

Relieving the Siege of Ladysmith

Terrible's naval brigade, equipped with two 4.7-inch guns and eighteen 12-pounders mounted on Scott's wheeled carriages, took part in the operations to relieve the besieged town of Ladysmith between December 1899 and February 1900, including the battles of Colenso and Spion Kop, two of the hardest-fought and most costly engagements of the entire Boer War.

Doing It Again in China

Remarkably, Terrible was called upon to repeat the trick within the year.

Reaching Hong Kong in May 1900 as the Boxer Rebellion erupted in China, Scott again mounted field guns and transported three companies of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers to Taku, with the ship's personnel and guns supporting the relief of Tientsin and the second expedition to Beijing that August, an extraordinary repeat performance for a single ship's company within the space of just a few months.

From Accommodation Ship to Training Hulk

After 1902, Terrible settled into quieter duties, ferrying replacement crews, escorting royal tours, and serving as an accommodation ship between 1909 and 1913. Offered for sale in July 1914, the outbreak of the First World War cancelled that plan, and she instead became a troop transport in 1915 and later a depot ship.

Renamed Fisgard III and converted into a training vessel in 1920, she was finally purchased by John Cashmore Ltd in July 1932 and broken up at Newport, closing out a career that had once seen her guns fire in two entirely different corners of the British Empire within the space of a single year.