HMS Warrior is now permanently docked in Portsmouth; she built as part of a response to the French who were ship-building on a great scale, including the modern iron-clad ships. Warrior was the finest ship yet built, and rendered what the French had built obsolete and was the largest ship in the world at that time.
However, developments in ship-building moved so quickly that by 1864 there were faster, bigger and better armed ships, and by 1871 she was downgraded to the reserve. Eventually her wooden masts and timbers rotted away, and she would have been sold for scrap except no-one wanted her… which was fortunate because she was rescued, renovated and now rests proudly at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Lois Elsden 