Hector - class ironclad The " Hector " - class ironclads were a pair of armoured frigate s built for the Royal Navy ( RN ) in the 1860s . was completed in 1864 and assigned to the Channel Fleet until she began a refit in 1867 . ' s builder went bankrupt and delayed her launching by a year . The ship then had to wait almost another five years to receive her guns and be commissioned . Both ships were assigned to the Reserve Fleet from 1868 until they were paid off in 1885 – 86 . They were mobilized during the Russo - Turkish War of 1877 – 78 , but saw no action . They were hulked in the late 1890s and assigned to shore establishments . " Hector " was scrapped in 1905 , but " Valiant " was converted into a floating oil tank in 1926 until she was sold for scrap in 1956 . Design and description . The " Hector " - class ironclads , like their immediate predecessors , the , were designed as smaller and cheaper versions of the armoured frigates . They were modified versions of the " Defence " class with additional armour and more powerful engines . The ships were long between perpendiculars , had a beam of and a draft of . They were overweight and displaced . The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms . The ships were designed with a very low centre of gravity and had a metacentric height of . While handy in manoeuvring they rolled quite badly . The ships had a crew of 530 officers and enlisted men . Propulsion . Each of the " Hector " - class ships had one 2 - cylinder horizontal return connecting - rod steam engine driving a single propeller . Six boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of . The engine produced a total of . During her sea trials on 23 February 1864 , " Hector " had a maximum speed of and " Valiant " made on 18 September 1865 . The ships carried only of coal because they were overweight , enough to steam at full speed . The armoured frigates were barque - rigged and had a sail area of . Their funnel was semi - retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail alone . They was designed to allow their propeller to be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail , but the hoisting gear was never fitted on either ship . Armament . The armament of the " Hector " - class ships was intended to be 32 smoothbore , muzzle - loading 68 - pounder gun s , 15 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 " Hector " s construction to four rifled 110 - pounder breech - loading guns mounted on the upper deck and twenty - four 68 - pounders on the broadside . " Valiant " , due to the delays in her construction and a shortage of guns , never received any of these guns . The breech - loading guns were a new design from Armstrong and much was hoped for them . To partially alleviate their overweight condition the ships were not fully armed and only received four 110 - pounders on the upper deck and twenty 68 - pounders on the main deck behind armour . 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 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 . All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells . " Hector " was rearmed during her 1867 – 68 refit with sixteen 7 - inch and two rifled muzzle - loading guns . " Valiant " received these guns as her initial armament . The two 8 - inch guns were mounted on the quarterdeck where they could be fought in all weathers and four 7 - inch guns were also fitted on the upper deck . The remaining twelve 7 - inch guns were carried on the main deck . 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 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 " Hector " - class ships had a wrought iron waterline armour belt , thick , that covered amidships and left the bow and stern unprotected . To protect against raking fire the belt was closed off by 4 . 5 - inch transverse bulkheads at each end at lower deck level . The armour extended to below the waterline . The main deck was protected by a strake of armour that ran the full length of the ship . Amidships , it was 4 . 5 - inch thick for a length of 216 feet and tapered to a thickness of to the ends of the ship . The armour was backed by of teak . The lack of armour at the stern meant that the steering gear was very vulnerable . Construction and service . Whilst " Valiant " was under construction , Westwood , Baillie went bankrupt in November 1861 and their shipyard was taken over by the Thames Ironworks . This delayed her launching by about a year and a shortage of muzzle - loading guns delayed her completion by nearly five years . " Hector " , in contrast , served with the Channel Fleet from commissioning until 1867 , when she was paid off to be re - armed and to refit . She formed part of the Southern Reserve Fleet between 1868 until 1886 much like " Valiant " s service as the First Reserve guard ship in Southern Ireland after her commissioning , where she remained until 1885 . Both ships did little of significance until they were assigned to the Particular Service Squadron , commanded by Admiral Geoffrey Hornby , from June to August 1878 during the Russian war scare during the Russo - Turkish War . " Hector " was assigned as Queen Victoria ' s guard ship nearly every summer during this period when the Queen and her family , were in residence in Osborne House on the Isle of Wight . She was paid off at Portsmouth in 1886 and remained there until 1900 when she briefly became part of the HMS " Vernon " torpedo school as a store hulk . " Hector " became the first British warship to have wireless telegraphy installed when she conducted the first trials of the new equipment for the Royal Navy . " Valiant " was paid off in 1885 , and she was assigned to the HMS " Indus " stoker training establishment in 1897 , briefly losing her name , before being renamed as " Indus IV " in 1904 . The ship was converted to a kite balloon storeship in 1915 , during World War I , and her name was changed to HMS " Valiant III " . She was offered for sale in 1922 , but there were no takers so the ship was converted into a floating oil tank in 1926 and towed to Hamoaze .