HMS Superb was an ironclad battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 designed by Sir Edward Reed

Edward James Reed

Sir Edward James Reed , KCB, FRS, was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870...

 for the Ottoman Navy

Ottoman Navy

The Ottoman Navy was established in the early 14th century. During its long existence it was involved in many conflicts; refer to list of Ottoman sieges and landings and list of Admirals in the Ottoman Empire for a brief chronology.- Pre-Ottoman:...

, and was built in Britain by Thames Ironworks under the name of Hamidieh. She had both engines and sails.

Together with the two ships of the Belleisle class

Belleisle class battleship

The two ships of the Belleisle class, and , originally built in Britain for the Turkish Navy, were taken over by the Royal Navy in 1878.In 1878 Russia and Turkey were at war, and it was perceived by the British Government that Britain might be drawn into the conflict. This perception has become...

 and , she was compulsorily purchased by the British Government at the time of the Russian war scare of 1878. Her original design drawings show her as an enlarged Hercules

HMS Hercules (1868)

HMS Hercules was a central-battery ironclad of the Royal Navy in the Victorian era, and was the first warship to mount a main armament of calibre guns....

 with heavier armament and thicker armour; she was extensively altered from these plans after her purchase, leading to a five-year gap between her launch and her completion. Her poop and forecastle were enlarged, enabling her to carry sixteen ten-inch muzzle-loaders. This was the highest number of heavy guns of uniform calibre ever carried on a British battleship. She also received searchlights, torpedo discharge equipment, extra coal bunkers and extra cabins.

In her original design, the mess-deck was unusually lofty. In her conversion an extra deck was added about five feet below the beams, to be used for slinging hammocks. It was always known as the "slave deck".

Although Superb was intended to be able to proceed under sail, and was barque-rigged to this end, it was found that she was unmanageable without power, so no sailing statistics were ever elicited.

She had a sister-ship, the Messudiah. This ship was never part of the Royal Navy.

Service history

She commissioned at Chatham for service in the Mediterranean on 4 October 1880, and remained on station for seven years. She took part in the bombardment of Alexandria

Bombardment of Alexandria (1882)

The Bombardment of Alexandria, in 1882, by the British Mediterranean Fleet took place on 11–13 July 1882. Admiral Sir Frederick Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which sailed to Alexandria...

, where she fired 310 shells of 10-inch calibre at the Egyptian forts; she received ten hits in return, seven of them on her armour, with no casualties. After reconstruction at Chatham from 1887 to 1891 she was guardship on the Clyde

River Clyde

The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....

until 1894, when she paid off into Fleet Reserve. Her only other sea time was at the time of the manoeuvres of 1900. In 1904 she was used as a hospital overflow ship for infectious cases, until she was sold in 1906.