HMS Howe was a 121-gun screw first-rate Victoria-class ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the 1850s. As one of only two ships of her class—alongside HMS Victoria—she was the first and only British three-decker designed from the outset for screw propulsion. Measuring 260 feet (79.2 meters) on the gundeck and 219 feet 10 inches (67 meters) on the keel, Howe had a beam of 61 feet 1 inch (18.6 meters), a maximum draught of 21 feet 2 inches (6.5 meters), and a depth of hold of 26 feet 10 inches (8.2 meters). Her tonnage was approximately 4,245 tons burthen. The hull was reinforced with thick diagonal wrought-iron straps to accommodate her size. Her armament comprised thirty-two 8-inch shell guns on the lower and middle gun decks, thirty-two 32-pounder guns on the upper deck, and additional guns including twenty-six 32-pounders and a single 68-pounder pivot gun between the forecastle and quarterdeck. The ship's complement numbered around 1,000 officers and ratings. Powered by a two-cylinder horizontal trunk steam engine built by John Penn and Sons, Howe's engine produced 4,564 indicated horsepower, allowing her to reach a maximum speed of 13.6 knots. Steam was supplied by eight fire-tube boilers, with boiler rooms located fore and aft of the engine room, a unique feature among Royal Navy battleships, each fitted with retractable funnels to reduce drag under sail. Laid down in 1856 at HM Dockyard, Pembroke, and launched in 1860, Howe was commissioned that same year as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Houston Stewart but never served in active duty. She was renamed Bulwark in 1885, then Impregnable in 1886 when she became a training ship, and briefly reverted to Bulwark in 1919 before being sold for scrap in 1921. Her teak was repurposed for building the Liberty Store in London, and her figurehead remains preserved at Great Missenden. Despite her impressive design and armament, Howe's service was largely as a reserve and training vessel, marking her as a significant, if non-combatant, element of maritime technological transition during her era.

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.