The Ironclad warship

Ironclad warship

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire,...

 Hydra , named for one of the Saronic Gulf

Saronic Gulf

The Saronic Gulf or Gulf of Aegina in Greece forms part of the Aegean Sea and defines the eastern side of the isthmus of Corinth. It is the eastern terminus of the Corinth Canal, which cuts across the isthmus.-Geography:The gulf includes the islands of; Aegina, Salamis, and Poros along with...

 islands which played a key role in the war at sea during the Greek War of Independence

Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...

, served in the Royal Hellenic Navy from 1889 - 1929.

The ship, along with her two sister ships of the Hydra Class, Spetsai

Greek battleship Spetsai

The Spetsai was a Greek steel battleship serving in the Royal Hellenic Navy from 1890 until 1920. She was named after the Saronic Gulf island of Spetses, which played a key role in the war at sea during the Greek War of Independence.The ship, along with her two sister ships of the Hydra Class, was...

 and Psara

Greek battleship Psara

The steel ironclad warship Psara , named for one of the Aegean Sea islands that played a key role in the war at sea during the Greek War of Independence, served in the Royal Hellenic Navy from 1889 - 1929....

, was ordered from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1885 during the premiership of Charilaos Trikoupis

Charilaos Trikoupis

Charilaos Trikoupis was a Greek politician who served as a Prime Minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895....

, as part of a wider reorganization and modernization of the armed forces, which had proved themselves inadequate during the Cretan

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 uprising of 1866 and the Russo-Turkish War

Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox coalition led by the Russian Empire and composed of numerous Balkan...

 of 1877-1878.

The ship saw limited action in the Greco-Turkish War (1897)

Greco-Turkish War (1897)

The Greco-Turkish War of 1897, also called the Thirty Days' War and known as the Black '97 in Greece, was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and Ottoman Empire. Its immediate cause was the question over the status of the Ottoman province of Crete, whose Greek majority long desired union...

, as the Royal Hellenic Navy failed to make use of its superiority over the Ottoman Navy. By the outbreak of the Balkan Wars

Balkan Wars

The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...

 in 1912, Hydra, along with her sister ships, was antiquated, but she did take part in the conflicts, in which Greece liberated the islands of the Eastern Aegean and defeated Ottoman Turkey in the two decisive naval battles of Elli

Naval Battle of Elli

The Battle of Elli , also known as the Battle of the Dardanelles, took place near the mouth of the Dardanelles on as part of the First Balkan War between the fleets of Greece and the Ottoman Empire...

 and Limnos

Naval Battle of Lemnos

The Battle of Lemnos , fought on , was a naval battle during the First Balkan War, which defeated the second and last attempt of the Ottoman Empire to break the Greek naval blockade of the Dardanelles and reclaim supremacy over the Aegean Sea from Greece....

.

During World War I, Greece belatedly entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente

Triple Entente

The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....

 and the Hydra class

Hydra class battleship

The three Hydra-class ships, Hydra, Spetsai and Psara, were ordered from France in 1885 during the premiership of Charilaos Trikoupis, as part of a wider reorganization and modernization of the Greek armed forces, which had proved themselves inadequate during the Cretan uprising of 1866 and the...

ships served as coastal defence units. She was decommissioned in 1918 and subsequently used as a naval artillery school, until 1929 when she was scrapped.