HMS Powerful

Multiple ships have born the name HMS Powerful.

The obituary of Henry K. Walton, 17 years, states he signed on to HMS Powerful on 20th January 1855 as a Clop Boy. He served in the Crimea, Indian Mutiny and China Seas. However Michael Phillips, an authority, has written that "this was the second ship named "Powerful", and it was commissioned by Capt. Thomas Massie on the 12th Sept. 1854 for service in the North American West Indies Station, which generally means being based at Jamaica, but I have been unable to find any details. By 1858 she was back in Chatham where she remained until being disposed of as a gunnery target from 1860. She was not in the Black Sea or the Baltic during the period of the Crimean war 1854-1856."

An HMS Powerful, a cruiser launched in 1895, saw service in the Second Boer War with sister ship HMS Terrible. Guns from the two ships were unloaded onto shore and taken 190 miles inland to relieve Ladysmith.

Another Powerful, a Majestic class aircraft carrier, was built at the end of World War II, and was sold to Canada in 1952, where it was renamed the HMCS Bonaventure. It was decommissioned in 1970.