Warrior

HMS Warrior was Britain’s first iron-clad warship; in 1843 the SS Great Britain had been launched, the first ironclad ship designed by Isambard kingdom Brunel and at that time until 1854 she was the longest passenger ship in the world. However, the Brits lagged behind the French in commissioning ironclad warships.

In 1859 the French had launched the La Gloire, an ironclad warship which was the result of sea warfare during the Crimean War. Now the British rushed to respond at the behest of Queen Victoria and as a result Warrior and Black Prince were built. Warrior, 60% bigger than La Gloire, was launched in 1861, but sadly within eleven years she was obsolete – ship-building technology was advancing so rapidly. By 1883, her rotten masts were not thought worth repairing. Eventually, she was put up for sale as scrap in 1924… thank goodness no-one bought her, but sad for this wonderful vessel, renamed Vernon III she was towed to Pembroke where she became a floating oil pontoon, and her name became  Oil Fuel Hulk C77… tragic…

However… hurrah! In the 1980’s she was towed back to Portsmouth to become the Warrior once more, part of the  National Historic Fleet and you can visit her in all her glory at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

At the weekend I crossed the Solent to Gosport on the ferry and got a wonderful view of the Warrior. If you do visit the Historic Dockyard it really would be worth a few pounds to take the ferry there and back across the water (only 4 minutes each way) just to see the ship from the sea.