She had been a depot ship and harbour flagship for Woolwich since 1848, and was used to train engineers and support those working onshore.

The idea for a specialised department to train engineers for an increasingly mechanised and professionalised navy came from the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir John Fisher.

The Portsmouth base was established in a number of Victorian hulks, initially the old battleship HMS Audacious.

This centre was named HMS Fisgard in 1904, in recognition of the previous engineer training establishment at Woolwich.

Audacious left the establishment in 1914 to serve as a repair workshop at Scapa Flow, having been named Imperieuse.

The experiment proved a success and by the early 1920s the training of Artificer Apprentices had been expanded with an electrical and ordnance branch.

The decision was made to move ashore and by July 1932 all of the hulks had been sold off with the exception of Fisgard IV, the old HMS Sultan.

The establishment remained ashore at Chatham until 1939, when the pressures of the Second World War brought more apprentices into the service.