She was, however, not regarded as fit to serve as a British warship until a number of extensive and expensive modifications were carried out.

Being smaller than other contemporary British battleships, she and her sister HMS Orion had comparatively limited range, speed and armament.

She was commissioned on 2 July 1878, and served for the next fourteen years as coastguard ship at Kingstown, Ireland.

Her only activity there was firing practice four times a year, the annual squadron cruise, and one refit at Devonport.

After surviving gunfire from HMS Majestic in which shells filled with lyddite were tested, she was towed back to Portsmouth.