HISTORY
HMS Warrior was the first
iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in
response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire,
launched a year earlier.
When completed in October 1861, Warrior was by far the largest,
fastest, most heavily-armed and most heavily-armoured warship
the world had ever seen. She was almost twice the size of La
Gloire and thoroughly outclassed the French ship in speed,
armour, and gunnery.
Warrior did not introduce any radical new technology, but for
the first time combined steam engines, massive rifle-bored
breech-loading guns, iron construction, iron armour, and
propeller drive all in one ship, and built to unprecedented
scale.
Her construction sparked off the intense competition between
guns and armour that was to last for the next 85 years. This
race caused her to quickly become obsolete, and she was
withdrawn as a fighting unit in May of 1883. She is now a museum
ship, open to the public in Portsmouth, England.
|