HMS Valiant ( 1863 ) HMS " Valiant " was the second ship of the armoured frigate s ordered by the Royal Navy in 1861 . Her builders went bankrupt shortly after she was laid down , which significantly delayed her completion . After being launched in 1863 , she waited a further five years to receive her guns due to supply issues . Upon being commissioned in 1868 the ship was assigned as the First Reserve guard ship for Southern Ireland , where she remained until she was decommissioned in 1885 . " Valiant " was hulked in 1897 as part of the stoker training school HMS " Indus " before becoming a storeship for kite balloon s during the First World War . The ship was converted to a floating oil tank in 1926 and served in that role until 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 ships with additional armour and more powerful engines . " Valiant " was long between perpendiculars . She had a beam of and a draft of . The ship was 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 of her class were designed with a very low centre of gravity and had a metacentric height of . While handy in manoeuvring , they rolled quite badly . Propulsion . " Valiant " had one 2 - cylinder horizontal return connecting rod steam engine made by Maudslay Sons & Field driving a single propeller . Six boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of . The engine produced a total of . During sea trials on 18 September 1865 " Valiant " had a maximum speed of . The ship carried of coal , enough to steam at full speed . The ship was barque - rigged and had a sail area of . Her funnel was semi - retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail alone . She was designed to allow the ship ' s propeller to be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail , but the hoisting gear was never fitted . 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 construction to eight rifled 110 - pounder breech - loading guns and twenty - four 68 - pounders . The breech - loading guns were a new design from Armstrong and much was hoped for them . 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 . Due to her extended construction time , " Valiant " never received the breech loaders , and was armed with sixteen and two rifled muzzle - loading guns . 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 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 " 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 . Service history . HMS " Valiant " was laid down 1 February 1861 by Westwood , Baillie in Cubitt Town . This company went bankrupt in November 1861 and was ultimately bought by Thames Ironworks , which delayed the ship ' s launching until 14 October 1863 . In August 1865 , after " Valiant " had been towed to Portsmouth for fitting out , the ship was inspected by French officers during a port visit by ironclads of the French Navy . Production of the new muzzle - loaded rifles was slow and ships already in commission had priority so " Valiant " was not commissioned until September 1868 , nearly five years after she was launched . After " Valiant " was commissioned she became the First Reserve guard ship in Southern Ireland , where she remained until 1885 , an experience unique among the British ironclads , although she did have one break to have new boilers installed . From June to August 1878 the ship formed part of the Particular Service Squadron at the time of the Russian war scare during the Russo - Turkish War , and sailed up the Dardanelles under the command of Admiral Hornby . On 20 July 1884 " Valiant " was accidentally rammed by the ironclad in Lough Swilly , damaging her hull and tearing off her boats , davits and fittings on one side of the ship . " Valiant " was paid off in 1885 , and saw no further front - line service ; lying for thirteen years in a partially dismantled state at Devonport . In 1897 she was assigned to the HMS " Indus " stoker training establishment , 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 that she was converted into a floating oil tank in 1926 and towed to Hamoaze , where she remained until 1956 . " Valiant " was sold in that year to Belgian ship breakers and towed to Bruges on 8 December 1956 .