HMS Warrior (1860)

Type

Ironclad

Period

19th Century

Nation

Great Britain

Overview: HMS Warrior (1860) is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate built for the Royal Navy in 1859-1861, and the name ship of the Warrior-class ironclads. She and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships, built in response to France's 1859 launch of the wooden-hulled ironclad Gloire. Specifications: Built by Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Blackwall, London, she displaced 9,137 long tons, was 420 ft (o/a) long with a 58 ft 4 in beam and 26 ft 10 in draught. She carried a mixed armament of 26 smoothbore 68-pdr guns, 10 rifled breech-loading 110-pdr guns, and 4 rifled breech-loading 40-pdr guns, protected by 4.5 in wrought-iron belt armour backed by teak, with a full ship rig plus a single-shaft trunk steam engine giving 14 knots. Service History: Warrior conducted a publicity tour of Great Britain in 1863 and spent her active career with the Channel Squadron. She became obsolescent after the 1873 commissioning of the mastless HMS Devastation, was placed in reserve in 1875, and was decommissioned in 1883, subsequently serving as a storeship and depot ship before being assigned to the Royal Navy's torpedo training school in 1904. Notable Facts: In 1927 she was converted into a floating oil jetty at Pembroke Dock and served in that role for decades before being rescued for preservation. Following a major restoration completed in the 1980s (including a replacement figurehead carved between 1981 and 1983), she is now preserved as a museum ship at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, forming part of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, having opened to the public there in 1987.