Warrior - class ironclad The " Warrior " - class ironclads were a class of two warships built for the Royal Navy between 1859 and 1862 , the first ocean - going ironclad s with iron hulls ever constructed . The ships were designed as armoured frigate s in response to an invasion scare sparked by the launch of the and her three sisters in 1858 . They were initially armed with a mix of rifled breech - loading and muzzle - loading smoothbore guns , but the Armstrong breech - loading guns proved unreliable and were ultimately withdrawn from service . The ships spent their first commission with the Channel Fleet before being rearmed with new rifled muzzle - loading guns in the late 1860s . " Warrior " rejoined the Channel Fleet after her refit while " Black Prince " joined the 1st Class Reserve and joined the fleet during its annual manoeuvres . The two ships exchanged roles after another refit in the mid - 1870s . Both ships spent most of the last two decades of the 19th century in reserve . " Warrior " was hulked in 1902 and survived to be restored in 1979 as a museum ship . " Black Prince " became a training ship in 1896 and was hulked in 1910 before being sold for scrap in 1923 . Design and description . The " Warrior " - class ships have been described as revolutionary , but in truth they were more evolutionary than not as everything except their wrought iron armour had been in use by ocean - going ships for years . The naval architect and historian David K . Brown commented , " What made [ Warrior ] truly novel was the way in which these individual aspects were blended together , making her the biggest and most powerful warship in the world . " They were designed in response to " Gloire " , which started an invasion scare in Britain , but they had a very different concept of operation to the French ship which was meant as a replacement for wooden ships of the line . They were designed by Chief Constructor of the Navy Isaac Watts as 40 - gun armoured frigates largely based on the fine lines of the large frigate . " Warrior " and her sister " Black Prince " were not intended to stand in the line of battle as the Admiralty was uncertain about their ability to withstand concentrated fire from wooden two and three - deck ships of the line . Rather they were designed to be fast enough to force battle on a fleeing enemy and to control the range at which a battle was fought for their own advantage . General characteristics . The " Warrior " - class ships were long between perpendiculars and long overall . This was longer than the " Mersey " , the longest wooden - hulled ship in the Royal Navy . They had a beam of and a draught of . The ships displaced . The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms . Two bilge keels were fitted ( the first used by the Royal Navy ) , which significantly reduced the roll of the ships . Because of their length the ships proved to be very sluggish while manoeuvring , as " Warrior " proved when she collided with in 1868 . The " Warrior " - class ships trimmed down by the bow , not least because they were fitted with a iron knee placed at the bow to give it a traditionally pleasing shape . This also prevented the ships from ramming any other ships . The bowsprit was shortened after completion in an effort to reduce the trim , but it was not noticeably successful . Propulsion . The " Warrior " - class ships had one 2 - cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single propeller . Ten rectangular boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of . The engine produced a total of and was the most powerful thus far built for a warship . On sea trials in October 1861 " Warrior " had a maximum speed around ; " Black Prince " was about a half knot slower . The ships carried of coal , enough to steam at . The ironclads were ship rigged and had a sail area of . The lower masts were made of wood , but the other masts were iron . " Warrior " made under sail , but " Black Prince " could only do . Under both sail and steam " Warrior " once logged . Both funnels were semi - retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail alone . The ships ' propellers could be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail . They were the largest hoistable propellers ever made and required about 600 men to be raised . Armament . The armament of the " Warrior " - class ships was intended to be 40 smoothbore , muzzle - loading 68 - pounder gun s , 19 on each side on the main deck and one each fore and aft as chase gun s on the upper deck . This was modified during construction to ten rifled 110 - pounder breech - loading guns , 26 × 68 - pounders , and four rifled breech - loading 40 - pounder guns as . The 40 - pounder guns were to have been replaced by 70 - pounder guns , but these failed their tests and were never issued . Both breech - loading guns were new designs from Armstrong and much was hoped for them . Four of the 110 - pounder guns were installed on the main deck amidships and the other two became chase guns ; all of the 68 - pounder guns were mounted on the main deck . Firing tests carried out in September 1861 against an armoured target , however , proved that the 110 - pounder was inferior to the 68 - pounder smoothbore gun in armour penetration and repeated incidents of breech explosions during the Battles for Shimonoseki and the Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863 – 64 forestalled plans to completely equip the ships with the 110 - pounder gun . The solid shot of the 68 - pounder gun weighed approximately while the gun itself weighed . The gun had a muzzle velocity of and had a range of at an elevation of 12° . The shell of the 110 - pounder Armstrong breech - loader weighed . It had a muzzle velocity of and , at an elevation of 11 . 25° , a maximum range of . The shell of the 40 - pounder breech - loading gun was in diameter and weighed . The gun had a maximum range of at a muzzle velocity of . The 110 - pounder gun weighed while the 40 - pounder weighed . In 1863 – 64 the 40 - pounder guns were replaced by a heavier version with the same ballistics . All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells . Both ships were rearmed during their 1867 – 68 refit with a mix of 7 - inch and rifled muzzle - loading guns . " Warrior " received twenty - eight 7 - inch and four 8 - inch guns while " Black Prince " received four fewer 7 - inch guns . Both ships received four 20 - pounder breech - loading guns for use as saluting guns . The shell of the 15 - calibre 8 - inch gun weighed while the gun itself weighed . It had a muzzle velocity of and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal of wrought iron armour at the muzzle . The 16 - calibre 7 - inch gun weighed and fired a shell . It was credited with the nominal ability to penetrate armour . Armour . The " Warrior " - class ships had a wrought iron armour belt , thick , that covered amidships . The armour extended above the waterline and below it . 4 . 5 - inch transverse bulkheads protected the guns on the main deck . The armour was backed by of teak . The ends of the ship were left entirely unprotected which meant that the steering gear was very vulnerable . Construction . The gun ports of the " Warrior " - class ships were built wide , which allowed the 68 - pounders to traverse 52° . While the ships were building the directing bar was developed which consisted of an iron bar that fastened to a pivot bolt in the sill of the gun port . After the gun carriages were modified , this allowed them to pivot much closer to the gun port than had previously been possible and meant that the gun ports could be narrowed to a width of while retaining the same arc of fire . The gun ports were narrowed to the new width by of wrought iron . Another delay was the modification of the armour plates with tongue and groove joints to lock the plates together and increase their resistance to armour - piercing shells . All together these modifications delayed the completion of " Warrior " by a year past her contract completion date . Service . HMS " Warrior " joined the Channel Fleet in July 1862 and was placed in ordinary from 1864 to 1867 , during which time she was refitted . The ship rejoined the Channel Fleet in 1867 and towed a floating drydock to Bermuda in 1869 with her sister " Black Prince " . " Warrior " was placed in ordinary again from 1872 to 1875 and was modified with a poop deck . She was recommissioned into the 1st Class Reserve in 1875 and made periodic training cruises until 1883 . The ship was formally reclassified as an armoured frigate in 1884 , but was disarmed and mastless . " Warrior " was hulked as a depot ship in Portsmouth Harbor in 1902 and renamed " Vernon III " in 1904 when she became part of HMS " Vernon " , the Royal Navy ' s Torpedo School . The ship regained her original name in 1923 and was converted once more into an oil pipeline pier in 1927 . " Warrior " was towed to Pembroke Dock in 1929 and was renamed " C77 " in 1942 to release her name for the new aircraft carrier . In 1979 " C77 " was moved to Hartlepool and was restored as HMS " Warrior ( 1860 ) " as the Fleet Headquarters in Northwood , London had assumed the name of HMS " Warrior " in the early 1960s . HMS " Warrior ( 1860 ) " can now be seen near at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard . " Black Prince " capsized while in dock at Greenock , damaging her masts . She arrived in Spithead in November 1861 with only jury - rigged fore and mizzenmasts . The ship was assigned to the Channel Fleet upon her completion and in 1867 – 68 she was rearmed and then assigned to the 1st Class Reserve . She was refitted in 1874 and given a poop deck , and rejoined the Channel Fleet in 1875 as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Dalrymple - Hay , second in command of the fleet . " Black Prince " was placed in reserve in 1878 in Devonport until she was converted to a training ship in 1896 in Queenstown , Ireland and renamed " Emerald " in 1903 . The ship was hulked and renamed " Impregnable III " in 1910 when she was assigned to the training school HMS " Impregnable " before she was sold for scrap on 21 March 1923 .