HMS Resistance ( 1861 ) HMS " Resistance " was the second of two s built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s . She was the first capital ship in the Royal Navy to be fitted with a ram and was given the nickname of " Old Rammo " . " Resistance " was initially assigned to the Channel Fleet upon commissioning , but was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1864 , the first ironclad to be assigned to that fleet . She was rearmed in 1867 and became a guardship when recommissioned in 1869 . The ship was reassigned to the Channel Fleet in 1873 before reverting to her former duties in 1877 . " Resistance " was decommissioned in 1880 and was used for gunnery and torpedo trials beginning in 1885 . The ship was sold for scrap in 1898 and foundered in 1899 en route to the breaker ' s yard . She was salvaged and later scrapped . Design and description . The " Defence " - class ironclads were designed as smaller and cheaper versions of the armoured frigates . This meant that they could not fit the same powerful engines of the " Warrior " - class ships and were therefore slower and had far fewer guns . The naval architect Sir Nathaniel Barnaby , a future Constructor of the Navy , considered that , in terms of combat , a " Defence " - class ship was worth one quarter of a " Warrior " . HMS " Resistance " was long between perpendiculars and long overall . She had a beam of and a draft of . The ship displaced and had a ram in the shape of a plough , the first capital ship in the Royal Navy to be fitted with one . The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms . " Resistance " was shorter overall and displaced over less than the " Warrior " - class ironclads . Propulsion . The " Defence " - class ships had a single two - cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single propeller . Four rectangular boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of . The engine produced a total of . During sea trials on 25 August 1873 , " Resistance " had a maximum speed of . The ship carried of coal , enough to steam at . The ironclad was ship rigged and had a sail area of . The lower masts and bowsprit were made of iron to withstand the shock of ramming . " Resistance " could make about under sail and the funnel was semi - retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail alone . The ship ' s propeller could be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail . She was re - rigged as a barque from September 1864 to April 1866 before returning to her original ship rig . Armament . The armament of the " Defence " - class ships was intended to be 18 smoothbore , muzzle - loading 68 - pounder gun s , eight on each side on the main deck and one each fore and aft as chase gun s on the upper deck , plus four rifled breech - loading 40 - pounder guns as . This was modified during construction to six rifled 110 - pounder breech - loading guns , ten 68 - pounders and two 32 - pounder smoothbore guns , the only such weapons ever mounted in a British ironclad . Both breech - loading guns were new designs from Armstrong and much was hoped of 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 caused the navy to begin to withdraw the gun from service shortly afterwards . 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 110 - pounder gun weighed while the 40 - pounder weighed . All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells . " Resistance " was rearmed during her 1867 – 68 refit with fourteen 7 - inch and two rifled muzzle - loading guns . The new guns were heavier so fewer could be carried . 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 " Defence " - class ships had a wrought iron armour belt , thick , that covered amidships . The armour extended from upper deck level to below the waterline . 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 . They were , however , sub - divided into many watertight compartments to minimize any flooding . Construction and service . HMS " Resistance " was ordered on 14 December 1859 and laid down a week later by Westwood , Baillie at their shipyard in Cubitt Town , London . She was launched on 11 April 1861 , commissioned in July 1862 and completed on 5 October at the cost of £258 , 120 . After completion she served in the Channel Fleet until 1864 when she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet , the first British ironclad assigned to that fleet . In 1867 the ship was paid off in Portsmouth for refit and re - armament . " Resistance " recommissioned in 1869 as guardship in the River Mersey and served there until 1873 when she returned to the Channel Fleet . In 1877 the ship resumed her post as Mersey guardship until she was paid off in 1880 at Devonport . In 1885 " Resistance " began to be used as a target for the testing of armour against the effects of torpedoes and gunfire . She was sold for scrap on 11 November 1898 . She foundered in Holyhead Bay whilst under tow to the breakers on 4 March 1899 and was later raised and scrapped at Garston , Liverpool .