HMS Lord Warden was the second and final ship to be completed of the Lord Clyde class

Lord Clyde class battleship

The Lord Clyde class battleships, which consisted of and , were wooden-hulled ironclad frigates, designed by Sir Edward Reed, and promoted by the Board of Admiralty for economic reasons, in order to make use of the large stocks of seasoned timber available in the shipyards.- Overview :The design...

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She was heavier than her sister, by about 360 tons; partly because she carried heavier machinery and was fitted with a poop, and partly because the wood used for the construction of Lord Clyde was, as it transpired, incompletely seasoned. The two ships differed in appearance in that Lord Warden had a clipper bow incorporating a submerged ram, while Lord Clyde had a standard ram bow.

Apart from the fact that Lord Clyde was built using incompletely seasoned wood, which became infected with fungus and caused her early sale out of the service, the major difference between the two sister-ships was in their engines. Lord Warden had a three-cylinder engine, in which the mechanical strains and reactions were balanced, giving some eighteen years of essentially trouble-free service; Lord Clyde had a two-cylinder engine, the working of which led to oscillation beyond the ability of the hull to absorb, leading in turn to the wearing-out of the machinery.

Lord Warden was considered one of the worst rollers in the battle-fleet, second only to her sister, Lord Clyde.

Lord Warden was the heaviest wooden ship ever built by any nationality, largely of course due to the weight of her armour and her engines.

Service history

She was commissioned at Chatham, and after a few months service with the Channel Fleet

Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...

, was posted to the Mediterranean. On 30 January 1868, was caught by a squall whilst taking up her berth in Valetta Harbour, Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

. She collided with the Turkish

Turkish Navy

The Turkish Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces.- Ottoman fleet after Mudros :Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I, on November 3, 1918, the fleet commander of the Ottoman Navy, Liva Amiral Arif Pasha, ordered all flags to be...

 ironclad Mahmoudiah, taking away her bowsprit and then colliding with Lord Warden, damaging some boats and an accommodation ladder. Endymion was reported to be undamaged. Lord Warden relieved as flagship on the station in 1869. She served in this position until 1875, when she paid off for refit. She was in the First Reserve in the Forth until 1878, when she joined the Particular Service Squadron during the Russian war scare. She finally paid off in 1885, her crew being transferred en masse to . Although her upper works were in an appallingly rotten condition, her sale was delayed for a further four years.

Sources

• Oscar Parkes British Battleships ISBN 0-85052-604-3
• Conway All the World's Fighting Ships ISBN 0-85177-146-7