HMS Warrior (1860)

HMS Warrior (1860)

HMS Warrior is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1861. She was the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships. They were built in response to France’s launching of the first ocean-going ironclad warship.

About HMS Warrior (1860) in brief

Summary HMS Warrior (1860)HMS Warrior is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1861. She was the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. Warrior and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships. They were built in response to France’s launching of the first ocean-going ironclad warship. Warrior conducted a publicity tour of Great Britain in 1863 and spent her active career with the Channel Squadron. Obsolescent following the 1871 launch of the mastless and more capable HMS Devastation, she was placed in reserve in 1875, and was decommissioned in 1883. The ship was converted into an oil jetty in 1927 and remained in that role until 1979, at which point she was donated by the Navy to the Maritime Trust for restoration. When this was finished she returned to Portsmouth as a museum ship. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Warrior has been based in Portsmouth since 1987. The Warriors were designed by Isaac Watts and Chief Engineer Thomas Lloyd. They copied the hull design of the large wooden frigate HMS Mersey, modifying it for iron construction and to accommodate an armoured box, or citadel, amidships along the single gun deck, which protected most of the ship’s guns. Unlike the Gloire’s square profile, Warrior’s clipper has a bow to bow profile, but has a square profile to the bow, unlike Gloire’s clipper. The Warrior- class design used many well-proven technologies that had been used in ocean-governing ships for years, including her iron hull, steam engine, and screw propeller.

The Admiralty initially specified that the ship should be capable of 15 knots, and have a full set of sails for worldwide cruising range. Iron construction was chosen as it gave the best trade-off between speed and protection; an iron hull was lighter than a wooden one of the same size and shape, giving more capacity for guns, armour and engines. It was not intended to stand in the line of battle, as the Admiralty was uncertain about their ability to withstand concentrated fire from two- and three-deck ships of the line, as they were planned to be fast enough to force a fleeing enemy to battle on a fleeingenemy. The warship was built to replace the French ship of. the line Napoléon, which was meant to be a very different concept from the Warriors, which fought their own battle to control the range at which they fought, but was a different concept to the Warriors. She has been restored to its former glory and is now on display at the National Museum of the Navy in Portsmouth, where she is on display alongside other historic warships including HMS Duke of York and HMS Scandinavian and HMS Albion. She is also on display in the National Maritime Museum in Dartmouth, Hampshire, and at the Royal Naval Museum in Greenwich, Kent.