scare of 1885, but broke down en route and her whereabouts were unknown for some days; she was ultimately found, towed into Malta, patched up and sent home under escort. After refit she again served in the Channel between 1885 and 1890. On 24 December 1886, she was run into in the Tagus by and was severely damaged. She spent the years from 1890 to 1897 undergoing a lengthy modernisation, after which she was guardship at Simon's Bay until late 1902. Captain Charles Henry Bayly was appointed in command on 1 February 1900. In March 1902 Captain Robert Kyle McAlpine was appointed in command, for service as Naval Officer in Charge Ascension. Two months later, Captain William Lowther Grant was appointed in command on 5 May 1902, and in July 1902 she was part of a group of seven Royal Navy ships visiting Zanzibar for a show of force following the death of the sultan and accession of his son. By December 1902 she was stationed at Simon's Town, the Royal Navy base outside Cape Town. She was thereafter reduced to the status of a depot ship outside Cape Town, under the new name of HMS Simoom; brought home in 1904, she was sold in 1905. Gunnery trials A trial was undertaken in 1870 to compare the accuracy and rate of fire of turret-mounted heavy guns with those in a centre-battery ship. The target was a long, high rock off Vigo. The speed of the ships was ("some accounts say stationary"). Each ship fired for five minutes, with the guns starting "loaded and very carefully trained". The guns fired Palliser shells with battering charges at a range of about . Three out of the Captain's four hits were achieved with the first salvo; firing this salvo caused the ship to roll heavily (±20°); smoke from firing made aiming difficult. The Monarch and the Hercules also did better with their first salvo, were inconvenienced by the smoke of firing, and to a lesser extent were caused to roll by firing. On the Hercules the gunsights were on the guns, and this worked better than the turret roof gunsights used by the other ships. References Publications Parkes, Oscar (1990) British Battleships: "Warrior", 1860, to "Vanguard", 1950: A History of Design, Construction, and Armament, New and rev. ed., London: Cooper, Chesneau, Roger and Kolesnik, Eugene M. (1979) Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships