HMS Hannibal was a 91-gun, second rate built for the Royal Navy (RN) during the 1850s. The ship was converted to screw power while under construction. Completed in 1854, she played a minor role in the Crimean War of 1854–1856 against the Russian Empire, participating in the Battle of Kinburn in 1855 as a flagship. The ship was then assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet before she returned home and was paid off at the end of 1856. Hannibal spent most of the later 1850s as a guard ship. She later served as a flagship in the Mediterranean Fleet before she was paid off in 1861. Hannibal then became a depot ship. The ship was sold for scrap in 1904.

Background and description Hannibal was originally ordered in 1840 as an , but only work on her hull frames had begun at Woolwich Dockyard before work was suspended in 1842. The ship's frames were subsequently moved to a smaller slipway to make room for the first rate and then they were taken down and placed in storage in early 1843. She was modified by the Assistant Surveyor of the Navy, John Edye, in 1847 to eliminate the deep hull shape preferred by the Surveyor of the Navy, William Symonds, who was now out of favour with the Board of Admiralty, and was lengthened over her sister, . Hannibal was reordered to the new design later that year and her frames were transferred to Deptford Dockyard, although the last of them did not arrive until the end of 1848.Winfield, pp. 35–36Lambert 1991, pp. 57, 154–155

The ship was intended to measure at the gun deck and at the keel. She would have had a beam of , a depth of hold of and had a tonnage of 2,965 tons burthen. Her crew would have numbered 750 officers and ratings in peacetime and 820 at war.Winfield, p. 36 The ship had the usual three-masted full-ship rig.Lambert 1984, pp. 122, 131 Hannibals muzzle-loading, smoothbore armament was intended to consist of twenty-eight 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 56 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. and four (65 cwt) shell guns on the lower gun deck. The upper gun deck was planned to have had twenty-six 50 cwt, 32-pounders and six 8-inch shell guns. Between her forecastle and quarterdeck, the ship would have carried twenty-four 32-pounder (42 cwt) guns and a pair of 8-inch, 52 cwt, shell guns.

Screw conversion Completion of the French fast steam-powered, second-rate in early 1852 and the French preparations for building more like her caused an invasion scare that prompted the First Derby ministry to authorize a large programme of steam-powered ships of the line to maintain British naval superiority; thus initiating a naval arms race between France and Britain. Captain Baldwin Wake Walker, the new Surveyor of the Navy, ordered Orion to be converted in 1852 in response while she was still under construction.Lambert 1984, pp. 37–38 Hannibal measured on the gun deck and on the keel. The ship was widened by an inch (25 mm), but her depth of hold were unaltered.Winfield, p. 40 She had a deep draught of Lambert 1984, p. 131 and had a tonnage of 3,136 tons burthen. The ship was fitted with a horizontal, geared, two-cylinder, single-expansion steam engine built by Scott, Sinclair & Co. that had been taken from the frigate HMS Greenock. It was rated at 450 nominal horsepower and drove a single propeller shaft. Her boilers provided enough steam to give the engine that was good for a speed of during her sea trials at the Nore on 12 April 1854, with some of her launching equipment still attached. To reduce drag and improve performance under sail, the ship could hoist her propeller into the hull and retract the telescoping funnel.Lambert 1984, p. 57 Her crew numbered 850 officers and ratings.

The ship's armament consisted of thirty-two 8-inch shell guns on her lower gun deck and thirty-four 322-pounder (56 cwt) guns on her upper gun deck. Between her forecastle and quarterdeck, she carried twenty-four 32-pounder (42 cwt) guns and a single 68-pounder gun on a pivot mount.Lambert 1984, p. 35

Construction and career Named for the Carthaginian general,Manning & Walker, p. 221 Hannibal was the fifth ship of her name to serve in the RN.Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 188 She was ordered as a 90-gun, second rate, Albion-class ship of the line on 12 March 1840, but was never laid down. The ship was reordered to a John Edye design on 19 June 1847 that was lengthened from the modified Princess Royal design of the same year. She was laid down at Deptford Dockyard in December 1848. The ship was reordered again as a screw-powered, 90-gun, second rate on 23 September 1852. The conversion was ordered on 30 October and work began the same day which included inserting a section into the ship's middle to accommodate the steam engine. She was launched on 31 January 1854 and was commissioned by Captain Frederick Grey on 18 March 1854. Hannibal was completed for sea on 22 June.Winfield, pp. 35–36, 40

She served in the Crimean War, initially as the flagship of Commodore Frederick Grey, commanding the fleet bringing 10,000 French troops to the Åland Islands in June 1854; Hannibal off-loaded the guns from her lower gun deck to accommodate some of the French troops.Lambert 2011, p. 195 After the Battle of Bomarsund in August, the ship helped to ferry 343 of the Russian prisoners back to Britain.Clowes, VI, p. 425Duckers, p. 36 She arrived off Sevastopol, Crimea, in December.Lambert 2011, p. 175 By 25 January 1855, the ship was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Houston Stewart in the Black Sea and was commanded by Captain John Charles Dalrymple Hay. On 22 May, Hannibal was part of the fleet that landed Allied troops near the city of Kerch. The Russian troops in the vicinity withdrew, demolishing the local defences and burning most of their supplies, allowing the Allies to occupy and loot Kerch and Yeni-Kale. The ship then participated in the June raid on Anapa that was forestalled by the evacuation of the Russian garrison.Druckers, pp. 114–117, 122–123 During the Battle of Kinburn on 17 October, she bombarded the fort and was not damaged during the battle. Hannibal departed from the Black Sea on 15 November, bound for the Mediterranean.Lambert 2011, pp. 240–246, 273, 278Clowes, VI, pp. 471–472 She spent most of 1856 there, before she arrived at Portsmouth on 20 November to be paid off.

The ship was recommissioned on 1 February 1858 by Captain George Hastings as the guard ship at Portsmouth. He was relieved by Captain George Gordon on 29 June. Gordon was relieved in his turn by Captain Matthew Connolly on 29 April 1859 when the ship was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet as the flagship of the second-in-command, Rear-Admiral Rodney Mundy. Captain Arthur Farquhar replaced Connolly on 30 March 1860. During Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand, Hannibal was present during the Siege of Palermo, Sicily, in May 1860 to protect British citizens and property.Heathcote, p. 191 The ship was paid off on 24 December 1861.

Hannibal was recommissioned by Commander Charles Curme on 6 February 1863 to serve as a depot ship in Portsmouth. Captain John Seccombe relieved Curme on 1 April 1863. She was replaced by on 30 April, but became a part of Duke of Wellingtons establishment. Hannibal was hulked in 1884 and sold for scrap to Henry Castle & Sons on 12 April 1904. The ship was subsequently broken up at their facility in Charlton, London.Warlow, p. 69

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