 HMS Warrior |
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| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Warrior |
| Ordered: | May 11, 1859 |
| Builder: | Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd |
| Laid down: | May 25, 1859 |
| Launched: | December 29, 1860 |
| Commissioned: | August 1, 1861 |
| Status: | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 9,210 long tons (9,358 t) |
| Length: | 418 feet (127 m) |
| Beam: | 58 ft (17. Events 330 - Byzantium is renamed ''Nova Roma'' during a dedication ceremony but is more popularly referred to as Constantinople Year 1859 ( MDCCCLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company Limited was a Shipyard and Iron works based at Leamouth, the junction of Bow Creek and the Events 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo Spain back from the Moors. Year 1859 ( MDCCCLIX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1170 - Thomas Becket: Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting Events 30 BC - Octavian (later known as Augustus enters Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Year 1861 ( MDCCCLXI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common For ships that are not original see Ship replica. For preserved incomplete ships see Ships preserved in museums. This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International 7 m) |
| Draught: | 27 ft (8. 2 m) |
| Propulsion: | Penn Jet-Condensing, horizontal-trunk, single expansion steam engine |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Speed: | 13 knots (24. A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts all of them Square rigged A full rigged ship is said to have a ship 1 km/h) (sail); 14. (For the South African airport with IATA code "KMH" see Johan Pienaar Airport. 5 kn (26. 9 km/h) (steam) 17. 5 kn (32. 4 km/h) (combined) |
| Complement: | 705 officers and men |
| Armament: |
26 muzzle-loading 68 pounders |
HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched a year earlier. A warship is a Ship that is built and primarily intended for Combat. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service) An ironclad was a steam-propelled Warship of the later 19th century protected by Iron or Steel armor plates See also French ship ''Gloire'' for eponymous ships
When completed in October 1861, Warrior was by far the largest, fastest, most heavily-armed and most heavily-armoured warship the world had ever seen. She was almost twice the size of La Gloire and thoroughly outclassed the French ship in speed, armour, and gunnery.
Warrior did not introduce any radical new technology, but for the first time combined steam engines, massive rifled breech-loading guns, iron construction, iron armour, and propeller drive all in one ship, and built to unprecedented scale. Rifling refers to the Helix -shaped pattern in the barrel of a Firearm, which imparts a spin to a Projectile around its long axis A breech-loading weapon is a Firearm (a Rifle, a Gun etc in which the Bullet or shell is inserted or loaded at the rear of the A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting Rotational motion into Thrust for propulsion of a vehicle such as an
Her construction started intense competition between guns and armour that lasted until air power made battleships obsolete in the Second World War. Air power redirects here for electrical and mechanical energy supplied by air movement see Wind power World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including This race caused her to quickly become obsolete, and she was withdrawn as a fighting unit in May of 1883; she is now a museum ship in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. History See also History of Portsmouth There have been settlements in the area since before Roman times mostly being offshoots of Portchester, which The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located
Contents |
Design and Construction
News of the highly-secretive designs for La Gloire reached the British Admiralty in May of 1858. The close co-operation that had existed between France and Britain during the Crimean War had disappeared quickly, and all details of La Gloire and her sister-ships were treated with great secrecy in France. The new Derby administration did not begin to take the threat of a new-building programme within France seriously until August 1858, when it became apparent that France would soon gain parity with the Royal Navy in terms of steam-powered ships, and utterly outclass the RN in terms of ironclads.
After strong representations by Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake-Walker, the Surveyor of the Navy, and Henry Corry, the Parliamentary under-secretary to the Admiralty, the Board of Admiralty was moved on 22 November 1858 to call for designs for a wooden-hulled, armour-plated warship, whose dimensions were approximately equal to those of La Gloire.
It does not appear that Wake-Walker or his chief constructor – Isaac Watts – ever seriously considered wood as a building material. Wooden ships had reached their maximum size, and some of the largest were beginning to show signs of fatigue. When coupled with the tremendous problems of timber-supply, and the need for the ship to be built quickly – iron ships were far quicker to build than wooden – the only choice was for an iron-hulled ship. Given that armour plating precluded a design with several gun-decks, a broadside of 17 guns with 15-feet between guns on a single deck gave a central battery of great length. With an appropriate bow, and the creation of a stern, the design called for a ship some 380 feet (116 m) long, or 100 ft (30 m) longer than any warship built prior to this point. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International
Warrior was called "the first modern battleship" in a book by W. Brownlee[1], and her innovative features were described by the same author in an article in "Scientific American"[2].
The Admiralty design was approved at the end of December 1858 but, having no experience with iron hulls, the Board of Admiralty called for designs from the country's most prominent iron shipbuilders. These designs were received in April 1859, but Isaac Watts felt that none of them met the various criteria as well as his own had, and so the tender to build the new iron-cased frigate to the Admiralty design was awarded to the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company in London. The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company Limited was a Shipyard and Iron works based at Leamouth, the junction of Bow Creek and the London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The contract called for a launch date 11 months after the date of the contract - an enormously optimistic timescale that was not met.
Warrior froze to the slipway when she was launched on 29 December 1860, during the coldest winter for 50 years, and six tugs were required to haul her into the river. Events 1170 - Thomas Becket: Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II She was completed on 24 October 1861 at a cost of £357,291, equivalent to £23M in 2006;[3] she entered service just 35 months from when the need for the ship was established in November 1858. Events 69 - Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus the commander of the Danube armies loyal to Vespasian, defeat Year 1861 ( MDCCCLXI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Pound Sterling ( symbol £; ISO code: GBP) subdivided into 100 pence (singular penny) is the Currency The Pound Sterling ( symbol £; ISO code: GBP) subdivided into 100 pence (singular penny) is the Currency
Service career
Warrior never saw battle in her time in active service although, when launched, she and her sister ship HMS Black Prince were the biggest and most powerful naval ships in the world. [4] Naval technology advanced so fast that both ships were removed from the front line within ten years; on 1 April 1875 Warrior was relegated to the Fleet Reserve and then on 31 May 1883 withdrawn from sea service as being obsolete. Events 527 - Byzantine Emperor Justin I names his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler and successor to the throne Year 1875 ( MDCCCLXXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1279 BC - Rameses II (The Great (19th dynasty becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Year 1883 ( MDCCCLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Her guns and upper masts were removed around this time. The mast of a sailing ship is a tall vertical or near vertical Spar, or arrangement of Spars which supports the Sails Large ships have several masts
She was then used as a storage hulk, and from 1902 to 1904, as a depot ship for a flotilla of destroyers. A hulk is a Ship that is afloat but incapable of going to sea In naval terminology a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance Warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, Convoy Her name was changed to Vernon III in 1904, when she joined Portsmouth-based Vernon, the Royal Navy's torpedo training school. Foundation and early history The second ship to be called HMS ''Vernon'' ended her career laid up in Chatham Dockyard as a floating coaling jetty Her role was supplying steam and electricity to the neighbouring hulks that made up Vernon. Uses A Steam engine uses the expansion of steam in order to drive a Piston or Turbine to perform Mechanical work. In October 1923 Vernon was transferred to a newly built shore installation, rendering Warrior and her companion hulks redundant; the Royal Navy put her up for sale in 1924. Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
Decrepitude
Fortunately for Warrior, a downturn in demand for scrap iron was occurring when the Navy decided to sell her off. There was no commercial interest in the old ship, and she remained at Portsmouth for another five years. Finally, in March 1929, efforts aimed towards selling Warrior for scrap were abandoned, and she was taken in tow for her new home: Pembroke Dock in Milford Haven, Wales. Pembroke Dock ( Doc Penfro) is a Town in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, lying north of Pembroke on the River This article is about the waterway see Milford Haven for the town that takes its name from the harbour Upon arrival she was transformed into a shipkeeper's home and floating oil jetty known only as Oil Fuel Hulk C77. A similar fate had already overtaken several of her successors by this time; in 1926 HMS Valiant became a floating oil tank at Hamoaze, while HMS Agincourt and HMS Northumberland were both stripped down in 1909 and subsequently used as coal hulks. Service history She was commissioned in 1868 as guardship Southern Ireland in which post she remained until 1885 with one break to have new boilers installed The Hamoaze (ˈhɒmøz in Cornish) is an estuarine stretch of Water at the point where the tidal River Tamar, the River Tavy,
For the next fifty years, Warrior lay just offshore from an oil depot at Llanion Cove, occasionally being towed to a nearby dry dock for maintenance work. She refuelled something close to 5,000 ships between 1929 and 1979. During that time Britain's surviving ironclads and their later equivalents, the battleships, were all sold for scrap. Warrior's last surviving contemporary, Agincourt, was scrapped in 1960 after fifty years' service as a coal hulk at Harwich. Harwich (ˈhærɪdʒ is a town in Essex England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea
Salvation
Warrior was saved from being scrapped by the efforts of the Maritime Trust. The Maritime Trust is a Registered Charity in England, based at 2 Greenwich Church Street London SE10 9BG As the world's first iron-hulled battleship, she was recognised as one of the Royal Navy's most historically important warships. In 1968 the Duke of Edinburgh chaired a meeting regarding the possibility of rescuing and restoring Warrior, and a year later the Maritime Trust was established with a view to saving the decrepit ironclad and other historic ships. The Duke of Edinburgh is a Dukedom associated with Edinburgh, Scotland. Throughout the 1970s the Maritime Trust carried out negotiations and feasibility studies regarding Warrior, and finally obtained control of the ship in August 1979.
Restoration of Warrior for use as a museum ship began in August 1979, when she began her 800-mile (1,287 km) journey to her temporary home in the Coal Dock at Hartlepool, where the £8 million restoration project would be carried out, largely funded by the Maritime Trust. For ships that are not original see Ship replica. For preserved incomplete ships see Ships preserved in museums. A mile is a unit of Length, usually used to measure Distance, in a number of different systems including Imperial units United States The kilometre ( American spelling: kilometer) symbol km is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one thousand Hartlepool ('hɑːtlɪpuːl is a North Sea port in North East England Warrior arrived in Hartlepool on September 3, 1979. Events 36 BC - In the Battle of Naulochus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Admiral of Octavian, defeats Sextus Pompeius Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar) Restoration work started with the removal of 80 long tons (81 t) of rubbish, including a thick concrete layer poured onto her upper deck as part of the conversion to an oil jetty. This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. Over the next eight years, Warrior's decks, interior compartments, engines, woodwork and fittings were restored or recreated, her masts, rigging and funnels were recreated, and a new figurehead carved from photographs of the original (destroyed in the 1960s) as a guide. She arrived at her current berth in Portsmouth on June 16, 1987, almost fully restored. History See also History of Portsmouth There have been settlements in the area since before Roman times mostly being offshoots of Portchester, which Events 1487 - Battle of Stoke Field, the last dying breath of the Wars of the Roses. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar)
The rejuvenated ironclad was renamed Warrior (1860) to avoid confusion with the HMS Warrior, which was at the time the operational headquarters of the Royal Navy at Northwood. Northwood Headquarters is a Military Headquarters facility of the British Armed Forces in Eastbury, Three Rivers, Hertfordshire
Gallery
 One of Warrior's 110-pdr breech-loaders |
 Gun deck showing 68-pdr guns |
 Annunciator dial in Warrior's engine-room |
 Replica engine |
 Cross section of Warrior's bulkhead armour |
See also
There have been three other ships and the naval base named HMS Warrior:
References
- ^ Warrior: the First Modern Battleship, by Walter Brownlee, Cambridge University Press, 1985, ISBN13: 9780521275798
- ^ Brownlee, Walter. Four ships and one Shore establishment of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Warrior. History Built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, she was originally to be called HMS Brave; the Royal Navy had originally intended to rush "HMS Warrior," Scientific American 257. 6 (1987) 130-136
- ^ http://measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/ Inflation calculator at measuringworth. com
- ^ D. K. Brown From Warrior to Dreadnought
External links
- HMSWarrior.org
- Visit HMW Warrior 1860 at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
- StVincent.ac.uk
- Photos of HMS Warrior in Portsmouth
- HNSA Ship Page: HMS Warrior
- Pictures of HMS Warrior
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