Built as an unarmed iron hulled wooden sheated screw frigate by the Portsmouth Drydock for the Royal Navy.
Ordered as BLONDE, but after the visit of the Shah of Persia to the U.K. in 1873 she was renamed in SHAH.
07 March 1870 keel laid down.
10 September 1873 launched as HMS BLONDE.
Tonnage 4,210 tons (bm), displacement 6,250 tons. Dim. 101.80 x 15.84 x 8.08m., draught 7.83m.
Powered by 2-cyl. horizontal single expansion steam engine, manufactured by John Penn & Son, 7,480 ihp, single hoisting screw, speed 16.2 knots.
Bunker coal capacity 890 tons. Range under steam by a speed 10 knots 6,840 miles.
Armament: middle deck 16 – 7 inch MLR and 2 – 6.3 inch MLR guns. Upper deck 2 – 9 inch MLR, 6 – 6.3 inch MLR and also 4 light guns, 12 MG and 2 TCs.
Ship rigged with a sail area of 26,655 square feet.
Crew 600.
December 1875 completed.
After commissioned sailed to the Pacific as flagship of the British Pacific Squadron under Rear-Admiral Algernon de Horsey.
29 May 1877 the Pacific Squadron under command of Rear-Admiral Horsey came in action against the Peruvian armoured turret ship HUÁSCAR after she attacked British vessels.
The SHAH fired the first locomotive torpedo to be used in anger, the torpedo missed, and the HUÁSCAR escaped.
December1878 she visited Pitcairn Island and Rear-Admiral Algernon de Horsey became an important benefactor. Furthermore sketches made by Capt. Frederick Bedford of HMS SHAH which appeared in British periodicals following this visit, serve as an enduring contemporary record of Pitcairn prompting considerable interest in Britain.
Full of commendation for the islanders, de Horsey writes to the Admiralty:
'When the service will admit, a ship of war should visit Pitcairn annually, and I propose to cause this to be done during the remainder of my command. I submit also that this small colony is deserving such attention and encouragement as Her Majesty's government may think fit to hold out to it. Her Majesty the Queen does not, I believe, possess in any part of the world more loyal and affectionate subjects than this little knot of settlers'
On her voyage home, she made a call at St Helena, where their crew heard of the defeat at Isandhlwana, she took on board 200 troops provided by the St Helena Governor, where after she sailed for South Africa, disembarking the troops at Durban on 07 March 1879.
HMS SHAH took at Durban on board Sir Garnet Wolseley and his staff to take over command from Lord Chelmsford in the Zulu war. They tried to land at Port Durnford but due to high swell they could not land and after a few days waiting off the port the SHAH returned back to Durban.
Part of the crew on board the SHAH landed a formed a naval brigade, which fought in the Battle of Ginginlovo on 02 April 1879.
After the Anglo-Zulu War she returned home.
Thereafter she took not more part in any action or patrol.
December 1892 decommissioned.
May 1892 towed to Bermuda by HMS NARCISSUS from Portsmouth to Bermuda. 10 May 1892 the tow left from Spithead and via Madeira for coaling she arrived on 31 May 1892 in Bermuda.
On arrival Bermuda she was converted in a coal hulk renamed C.470.
19 September 1919 sold to W.B. Smith as a coal hulk in Bermuda.
1926 Driven from her moorings and wrecked.
Most probably she was not wrecked but sold in 1934 and towed to Denmark.
In Denmark she was scrapped and her teak planking and decking were used as flooring in the Gråsten Slot (Gråsten Palace) in Jutland, Denmark.
Pitcairn Island 2010 S2.00 sg?, scott?
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Shah_(1873) The Sail & Steam Navy List by Lyon and Winfield. http://www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk ... e/shah.htm and various other web-sites.