and she was described as "drifting to leeward in a wind like a tea tray". Penelope was ship-rigged with three masts and a sail area of . Her speed under sail alone was only . Her shallow draught gave her a metacentric height of at deep load, which made her a very steady gun platform. Penelopes main armament of eight rifled muzzle-loading (RML) guns was concentrated amidships in a box battery. The guns at the corners of the battery were given additional gun ports, embrasured into the sides of the hull, to give her a limited amount of end-on fire. The shell of the 8-inch gun weighed and was rated with the ability to penetrate of wrought-iron armour. The ship mounted three rifled breech-loading (RBL) Armstrong guns as chase guns, one in the stern and two under the forecastle in the bow, although these were judged to be very ineffective weapons. She also carried a pair of RBL 20-pounder Armstrong saluting guns. The waterline wrought iron armour belt of Penelope covered her entire length. It was thick amidships, backed by of wood, and thinned to 5 inches towards the ends of the ship. It had a total height of , of which was below water and above. The sides of the box battery were also 6 inches thick, and its ends were protected by bulkheads. Between the battery and the belt was a strake of 6-inch armour, also closed off by 4.5-inch bulkheads. Construction and career Penelope, named after the wife of Odysseus, was the fifth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. She was ordered in February 1865 and was the first iron-hulled ship to be built at Pembroke Dockyard. The ship was laid down on 4 September and was launched by the wife of the new captain-superintendent of the dockyard, Captain Robert Hall, on 18 June 1867. Penelope was completed at Devonport Dockyard on 27 June 1868 for the cost of £196,789 and served in the Channel Fleet until June 1869. She was then guard ship at Harwich until 1882, which included summer cruises in company with the rest of the reserve fleet. On 7 January 1876, the German merchant ship Victoria ran into her at Harwich, causing minor damage. She was part of the Particular Service Squadron mobilised during the Russian war scare of June–August 1878. On 18 January 1881, she was driven from