HMS Magnificent (1894) - Service History

Service History

HMS Magnificent was commissioned at Chatham Dockyard on 12 December 1895 to relieve the battleship Empress of India as second flagship of the Channel Fleet. On 26 June 1897, she was present at the Fleet Review at Spithead for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. By January 1904, the ship had become the flagship of the Channel Fleet. On receiving word of the death of Queen Victoria on 21 January while stationed in Portsmouth, Magnificent flew the Royal Standard at half mast. As a result of a reorganization in January 1905, the Channel Fleet became the Atlantic Fleet, and Magnificent accordingly became a part of the Atlantic Fleet. A gun explosion aboard Magnificent on 14 June 1905 resulted in 18 casualties. The explosion was caused by a faulty shell in one of the 6-inch guns; it failed to fire, and when the loader opened the breech, contact with the fresh air detonated the shell. On 15 November 1906, she ended her Atlantic Fleet service and was paid off at Devonport. Magnificent was commissioned into reserve on 16 November 1906, based at Chatham. During her reserve service, she was attached to the Gunnery School at Sheerness as a gunnery training ship in December 1906.

Magnificent left Chatham in March 1907 and was assigned to the Nore Division of the Home Fleet at the Nore. During this service, she temporarily was flagship of the Commander-in-Chief in November 1907 and underwent a refit at Chatham in 1908 during which she had new fire control systems installed and was converted to burn fuel oil. She served as the second flagship of the Home Fleet from August 1908 to January 1909. Magnificent was reduced to a nucleus crew in February 1909 as part of the commissioned reserve. On 24 March 1909, she became the flagship of the Vice Admiral, 3rd and 4th Divisions, Home Fleet, at the Nore. She was relieved as flagship on 1 March 1910 by the battleship Bulwark. On 27 September 1910, Magnificent was recommissioned into the Home Fleet to serve as a turret drill ship and stokers' training ship at Devonport. Her sternwalk was damaged in a collision in December 1910. She became tender to the turret drill ship Vivid in February 1911 and a seagoing gunnery training ship at Devonport on 14 May 1912. She was slightly damaged on 16 June 1913 when she ran aground in fog near Cawsand Bay. She recommissioned for 3rd Fleet service on 1 July 1913.

Read more about this topic:  HMS Magnificent (1894)

Famous quotes containing the words service and/or history:

    Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this.
    Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

    American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.
    Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)