Vasco da Gama was an ironclad of the Portuguese Navy built in the 1870s by the Thames Iron Works in London.

[2] As built, Vasco da Gama was armed with a main battery of two 10.2 in (260 mm) guns, placed in an armored, octagonal box amidships.

She was fitted with new engines and more powerful water-tube boilers rated at 6,000 ihp (4,500 kW); this increased her speed to 15.5 kn (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph).

[2] Vasco da Gama was laid down at the Thames Iron Works shipyard in London, Britain in 1875,[2][3] and was launched on 1 December 1875.

[5] She served as part of the coastal defense force that protected Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, and the mouth of the river Tagus.

[2][6] On 26 June 1897, Vasco da Gama participated in the Fleet Review at Spithead celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

Amid political unrest in April 1913, part of the crew of Vasco da Gama had to be removed from the ship, as they had been involved in a planned ultra-Radical coup d'état against the First Portuguese Republic.

Vasco da Gama, still the fleet flagship, and the destroyers Douro and Guadiana anchored in Lisbon, where army field artillery took the ships under fire.

Vasco da Gama traded shots with the artillery, but after about twenty-five minutes of shooting, abandoned the effort and flew a white flag, prompting Douro and Guadiana to do the same.