On completion she was sent to the Mediterranean, with Captain Fisher (afterwards Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Fisher) in command of her. He was the chief gunnery officer of those days and the founder of the torpedo school. At the time it was put on record that, asked by a Press interviewer what he would do if the fortunes of war brought it about that he had to encounter a similar “last word” in naval construction, he replied that he would keep away from her till nightfall, and then send in the, then, novel second-class torpedo-boats which the _Inflexible_ carried, to settle the foe. Over which statement the historian of fifty years hence may yet place Lord Fisher among the prophets. To-day, some thirty years later, similar ideas obtain, but have got no further. Fifty years hence----? In 1882 the _Inflexible_ was the central figure at the bombardment of Alexandria. The damage she did was infinitesimal compared to the ideas which the public had formed of her. Far more actual mischief was done by Lord Charles Beresford in a trivial gunboat, the _Condor_, which steered into close range of the hostile guns and knocked them over. At the time this was regarded as an act of spectacular heroism; but the historian of the future is far more likely to discover in it (as in the Fisher torpedo-boats) something closely akin to the reasoning behind Nelson when he destroyed the French fleet at the Nile or charged into them at Trafalgar. The commonplace expression, “sizing up the other man,” and acting accordingly, is the secret. In peace time we are all too apt to assess hostile weapons at their theoretical potentiality. The victors in war are those who gauge correctly the handling ability of the man behind the weapon and--act accordingly. About the years 1877–78, towards the close of the Turco-Russian War, an Anglo-Russian war seemed probable, and four foreign ships building in England were purchased for the British Navy. These were the Brazilian _Independencia_, an improved _Monarch_, designed by Sir E. J. Reed, which went into the British service as the _Neptune_. Save that she carried 38-ton guns instead of 25-ton, she reproduced the _Monarch_ idea almost exactly. After certain vicissitudes she entered the British service, and eventually was fitted with a couple of military masts. The points of special interest about her were that (1) owing to some error her funnels were put in sideways instead of as designed; and (2) in service in any bad weather the sea regularly washed out her wardroom; (3) she was the first ship of the British Navy to carry a bath-room. As an effective warship she never figured to any large extent.