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Description
HMS Powerful was a 14,200 ton protected cruiser. For her day [1895] she had a creditable top speed of 21.8 knots tho' prolonged sailing at such speeds endangered the lives of the stokers who were at one point driven to mutiny! She was part of a two ship class which were intended to counter the Russian Cruiser Rurik and as if that were not ephemeral enough it became irrelevant after Britain's Entente with Russia in 1907. Always a very expensive ship to maintain and totally obsolete after the Dreadnought Revolution, she was dispatched to Australia as flagship - no doubt meant to impress the colonials - of the RN's Australia Station in 1905. She remained so until 1911 when Jackie Fisher decided that all the old and useless ships should be dispensed with. Thereupon she became a boys training ship attached to HMS Impregnable. Powerful was finally sold for scrapping in 1929.
The photo of her at anchor is from her time in Australia and is in the Public Domain as part of the Australian War Memorial Collection.
The ship has a family connection in that my great grandfather - a Royal Marine - served aboard her.

Description
HMS Powerful was a 14,200 ton protected cruiser. For her day [1895] she had a creditable top speed of 21.8 knots tho' prolonged sailing at such speeds endangered the lives of the stokers who were at one point driven to mutiny! She was part of a two ship class which were intended to counter the Russian Cruiser Rurik and as if that were not ephemeral enough it became irrelevant after Britain's Entente with Russia in 1907. Always a very expensive ship to maintain and totally obsolete after the Dreadnought Revolution, she was dispatched to Australia as flagship - no doubt meant to impress the colonials - of the RN's Australia Station in 1905. She remained so until 1911 when Jackie Fisher decided that all the old and useless ships should be dispensed with. Thereupon she became a boys training ship attached to HMS Impregnable. Powerful was finally sold for scrapping in 1929.
The photo of her at anchor is from her time in Australia and is in the Public Domain as part of the Australian War Memorial Collection.
The ship has a family connection in that my great grandfather - a Royal Marine - served aboard her.