Admiral Beauchamp Seymour was in command of a fleet of fifteen Royal Navy ironclad ships which had previously sailed to the harbor of Alexandria to support the khedive Tewfik Pasha amid Ahmed 'Urabi's nationalist uprising against his administration and its close ties to British and French financiers.

The move provided some security to the khedive, who withdrew his court to the now-protected port, but strengthened 'Urabi's nationalists within the army and throughout the remainder of Egypt.

Historians argue about whether Admiral Seymour exaggerated the threat from the Egyptian batteries at Alexandria in order to force the hand of a reluctant Gladstone administration.

Under his successor, Ismail Pasha, Egypt initiated a substantial modernisation programme, which was primarily financed by European lenders.

As a result of the influence of the major European powers, Ismail Pasha was forced to abdicate by the Turkish Sultan on 26 June 1879, whereupon his son Tawfiq took office.

Opposition to the international control of financial and economic policy formed under Ahmed Urabi Pasha, which led to unrest in the country in the autumn of 1881.

However, the Sultan rejected the British-French measures in Egypt, even if they were intended to protect the Khedive from total defeat and deposition.

[3] The Egyptians began reinforcing and upgrading their fortifications and the British House of Commons ordered ships to be temporarily dispatched from the Channel Fleet to Malta under Admiral Seymour's command.

[7] The main harbour of Alexandria was back then characterised by its elongated, narrow, and rectangular configuration, extending in a general northeasterly and southwesterly direction.

The forts Saleh Aga, Oom-el-Kabebe, and Kumaria were furthermore intended to aid in the defense of the narrow neck of land lying between the Mediterranean on the north, or, strictly speaking, Alexandria Harbor, and Lake Maroeotis on the south.

To adapt the old fortifications to the new guns, the parapets were sometimes heightened and thickened, embrasures cut, and traverses built.The Egyptians had just over 140 cannons with a calibre of 6.5 to 16 inches.

These ships then directed their attention to Fort Pharos, which was silenced with the assistance of the Temeraire, which joined them at 2.30 p. m., when a shot from the Inflexible dismounted one of the heavy guns.

The Invincible, supported by the Penelope, and assisted by the Monarch, under way inside the reefs, as well as by the Inflexible and Temeraire in the Boghaz and Corvette Channels, succeeded, after an engagement of some hours, in silencing and partially destroying the batteries and lines of Mex.

Soon afterwards the gun-vessels and gun-boats were called in and under cover of their fire landed a party of twelve volunteers, destroying several guns, and returned without a casualty.

At eight o'clock the admiral summoned the captains of the ships of war on board the Invincible, and it was agreed to postpone the bombardment, as, with the vessels rolling so heavily, accuracy of aim would be impossible, and the shots might fly high and damage the town, which it was particularly desired to avoid.

This damage was exacerbated by panic, looting and arson, while many buildings rendered unsafe by the bombardment were subsequently demolished by the British during their occupation.

[1] British sailors and marines landed and attempted to take control of the blackened ruins of the city and prevent the looting, while propping up the Khedive's shaky government.

Eventually order was restored, and a month later General Garnet Wolseley landed a large force of British troops in Alexandria as a staging location for attacking 'Urabi near the Suez Canal at the Battle of Tell El Kebir.

Photographer Luigi Fiorillo created an album of fifty pages showing the changes in Alexandria from start to finish of this attack.

These photos can now be found online at The American University of Cairo in the Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library.

[12][13][14] The bombardment was described in disparaging terms by British MP Henry Richard: I find a man prowling about my house with obviously felonious purposes.