Item: i88136

Authentic Medal of:

Great Britain (United Kingdom) under Victoria – Queen: 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901
Visit of the Fleet – Devasation
1874 Bronze Medal 30mm (9.08 grams)
VISIT OF THE FLEET SUNDERLAND SEP R.. 1847 VICTORIA.D.G. BRIT.REG.F.D., Victoria facing left.
DEVASTATION, Steam ship amidst turbulent sea.

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HMS Devastation was the first of two Devastation-class mastless turret ships built for the Royal Navy. This was the first class of ocean-going capital ship that did not carry sails, and the first whose entire main armament was mounted on top of the hull rather than inside it.

Devastation was built at a time in which steam power was well-established among the world’s larger naval powers. However, most ships built at this time were equipped not only with a steam engine, but also with masts and sails for auxiliary power. The presence of masts also prohibited the use of gun turrets since the rigging would obstruct their arc of fire. Devastation, designed by Sir Edward J. Reed, represented a change from this pattern when she was built without masts and her primary armament, two turrets each with two 12-inch (305 mm) muzzle-loading guns, was placed on the top of the hull, allowing each turret a 280-degree arc of fire.

Devastation was the first turret ship built to an Admiralty design. She was 285 feet (87 m) long between perpendiculars, with a beam of 62 feet 3 inches (18.97 m), a mean draught of 26 feet 1.5 inches (7.96 m), and had a freeboard of only 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m). She was armed with four RML 12 inch 25 ton guns, mounted in pairs in two turrets, protected by armour 12–14 inches (300–360 mm) thick. Her breastworks and hull were protected by 10–12 inches (250–300 mm) of armour, and she was also fitted with a 10–12-foot (3.0–3.7 m) spur bow. The ship had a double bottom, and was divided internally into watertight compartments. She was propelled by two four-bladed screws, 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m) in diameter, each powered by two direct-acting trunk engines built by John Penn and Sons of Greenwich, providing a total of 5,600 horsepower (4,200 kW), with eight boilers, working at 30 pounds per square inch (210 kPa), giving a maximum speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). Devastation could carry 1,350 tons of coal, giving her a range of 3,550 nautical miles (6,570 km; 4,090 mi) at 12 knots or 5,570 nautical miles (10,320 km; 6,410 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She also carried 30 tons of water, enough for three weeks, and 19 tons of provisions, six weeks supply for her crew of 329.

Following the loss of the masted turret ship HMS Captain, which capsized and sank on 6 September 1870 with the loss of 500 men, almost her entire crew, a special committee was appointed to examine the design of this type of vessel, and particularly the Devastation. Although they found no reason for concern in the stability of the ship, as a safety precaution a number of changes were made to the design. The freeboard was increased to 10 feet 9 inches (3.28 m), and armour-plated bulkheads, between 4–6 inches (100–150 mm) thick provided additional protection to the magazines and engines. The 25-ton guns were replaced with RML 12 inch 35 ton guns. This additional weight increased her mean draught to 26 feet 8 inches (8.13 m).

Sea trials were made in mid-1873 and generated an unusual amount of public interest; not just for the novelty of her appearance, but as the successor to the Captain. In time trials she recorded a speed of 13.84 knots (25.63 km/h; 15.93 mph), the engines producing 6,637 horsepower (4,949 kW). Gunnery trials were made off the Isle of Wight, firing 700-pound (320 kg) Palliser shells. To judge her behaviour in various sea conditions she was then accompanied by the armoured ships Agincourt and Sultan in a voyage from Plymouth to Castletownbere in southern Ireland, and from there she made two cruises out into the Atlantic. Apart from a tendency for her low forecastle to be swept by the sea, she performed slightly better than her companions in both pitch and roll.

Devastation was deployed to serve in the waters of the United Kingdom and the Mediterranean Sea. In 1891, the 12-inch guns were replaced with 10-inch breech-loading guns and she was refitted with new triple-expansion steam engines.

Commander Charles Henry Umfreville was appointed in command on 8 November 1898. In 1901, under the command of Captain Francis George Kirby, she was guard ship at the port of Gibraltar, until relieved as such by newly commissioned HMS Irresistible in February 1902. She left the Mediterranean station headquarters at Malta, homebound, on 19 February 1902, and after a last visit to Gibraltar arrived in Plymouth 2 April. She was paid off at Devonport 18 April, and proceeded to Portsmouth. On 21 June 1902 she was commissioned by Commander Guy Lutley Sclater as a tender to the torpedo school ship HMS Vernon. She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII.

Later, she was refitted again and assigned to the First Reserve Fleet based in Scotland. The ship was broken up in 1908.

Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she had the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her father’s three elder brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the sobriquet “the grandmother of Europe”. After Albert’s death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover. Her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father.

Great Britain, also known as Britain, is an island in the North Atlantic off the north-west coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km² (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest island in Europe and the ninth-largest in the world. In 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the third-most populous island in the world, after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island is the largest in the British Isles archipelago, which also includes the island of Ireland to its west and over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands.

The island is dominated by an oceanic climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constituting most of its territory: most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island, with their respective capital cities, London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The term Great Britain often extends to include surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales.

A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the Union of Scotland and England (which already comprised the present-day countries of England and Wales) in 1707. More than a hundred years before, in 1603, King James VI, King of Scots, had inherited the throne of England, but it was not until 1707 that the Parliaments of the two countries agreed to form a unified state. In 1801, Great Britain united with the neighboring Kingdom of Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which was renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after the Irish Free State seceded in 1922.