.gif)
HMS Warrior (1860)
Encyclopedia
HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...
, built for the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in response to the first ironclad warship, the French 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 seen. She was almost twice the size of 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, rifled
Rifling
Rifling is the process of making helical grooves in the barrel of a gun or firearm, which imparts a spin to a projectile around its long axis...
breech-loading guns, iron construction, iron armour, and the propeller
Propeller
A propeller is a type of fan that transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and a fluid is accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's...
in one ship, and all built to an unprecedented scale.
Her construction started an intense international competition between guns and armour that did not end until air power made battleships obsolete in the Second World War. Warrior became an early example of the trend towards rapid battleship obsolescence and was withdrawn as a fighting unit in May 1883. Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection
National Historic Fleet, Core Collection
The National Historic Fleet, Core Collection is a list of museum ships located in the United Kingdom, under the National Historic Ships register.The vessels on the National Historic Fleet are distinguished by:...
, she is now a museum ship in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Design and construction
News of the highly secret designs for the Gloire reached the British Admiralty in May 1858. The close co-operation that had existed between France and Britain during the Crimean WarCrimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
had disappeared quickly, and all details of Gloire and her sister ships were treated with great secrecy in France. The new Government under Lord Derby did not begin to take the threat of a new building programme within France seriously until August 1858, when it became apparent that France would soon gain parity with the Royal Navy in terms of steam-powered ships, and utterly outclass the RN in terms of ironclads.
After strong representations by Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake-Walker, the Surveyor of the Navy, and Henry Corry, the Parliamentary under-secretary to the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
, the Board of Admiralty was moved on 22 November 1858 to call for designs for a wooden-hulled, armour-plated warship, whose dimensions were approximately equal to those of Gloire.
It does not appear that Wake-Walker or his chief constructor – Isaac Watts – ever seriously considered wood as a building material. Wooden ships had reached their maximum size, and some of the largest were beginning to show signs of fatigue. When coupled with the tremendous problems of timber supply, and the need for the ship to be built quickly – iron ships were far quicker to build than wooden – the only choice was for an iron-hulled ship. Given that armour plating precluded a design with several gun-decks, a broadside of 17 guns with 15 feet between guns on a single deck gave a central battery of great length. With an appropriate bow, and the creation of a stern, the design called for a ship some 380 feet (116 m) long, or 100 ft (30 m) longer than any warship built prior to this point.
Warrior was called "the first modern battleship" by W. Brownlee, and her innovative features were described by the same author in an article in Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
.
The Admiralty design was approved at the end of December 1858 but, having no experience with iron hulls, the Board of Admiralty called for designs from the country's most prominent iron shipbuilders. These designs were received in April 1859, but Isaac Watts felt that none of them met the various criteria as well as his own had, and so the tender to build the new iron-cased frigate to the Admiralty design was awarded to the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company
Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company
The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf on the west side and at Canning Town on the east side...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The contract called for a launch date 11 months after the date of the contract -- an enormously optimistic timescale that was not met.
Warrior froze to the slipway when she was launched on 29 December 1860, during the coldest winter for 50 years, and six tugs were required to haul her into the river. She was completed on 24 October 1861 at a cost of £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
357,291, equivalent to £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
23M in 2006; she entered service just 35 months from when the need for the ship was established in November 1858.
Warrior had a similar area of sail to contemporary line-of-battle ships, but her larger size meant she was slower in ordinary weather and had to use steam to keep up. However, her iron construction and the stability it imparted to the ship meant she could carry more sail in a strong wind and was then as fast as the rest. Her longer, finer hull gave her great power in a seaway, so that she could take the windward position sailing against wooden rivals in bad weather. Although sails continued to feature on later designs of warship, on each one they became increasingly ineffectual as the ships' sizes increased. George Tryon
George Tryon
Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, KCB was a British admiral who died when his flagship HMS Victoria collided with HMS Camperdown during manoeuvres off Tripoli, Lebanon.-Early life:...
, her first commander (second in command) reported that in trials with her sister ship HMS Black Prince
HMS Black Prince (1861)
HMS Black Prince was the third ship of that name to serve with the Royal Navy. She was the world's second ocean-going, iron-hulled, armoured warship, following her sister ship, . For a brief period the two s were the most powerful warships in the world, being virtually impregnable to the naval guns...
off Gibraltar in November 1862, Warrior was the faster. Warrior retained the fine looks of the sailing ships and was considered one of the handsomest ironclads ever built.
Armament
Warrior was originally to be armed with 40 68-pounders, two on the upper deck to act as stern and bow chasers, and the rest on the main deck. Before the ship entered service this was changed with the replacement of 14 of the 68-pounders with 10 RBL 7 inch Armstrong guns and 4 RBL 40 pounder Armstrong gunRBL 40 pounder Armstrong gun
The Armstrong RBL 40 pounder gun was an early attempt to use William Armstrong's new and innovative breechloading mechanism for medium artillery.-Design history:...
s. It had been planned to replace all the 68-pounders with RBL 7 inch Armstrong guns, but poor results from the RBL 7 inch Armstrong gun in testing brought a halt to this plan.
The ship also carried 2 20-pounders
RBL 20 pounder Armstrong gun
The Armstrong Breech Loading 20 pounder gun, later known as RBL 20 pounder, was an early modern 3.75 inch rifled breech-loading light gun of 1859.-History:The gun was effectively a larger version of the successful RBL 12 pounder 8 cwt Armstrong gun...
and 1 12 pounder
RBL 12 pounder 8 cwt Armstrong gun
The Armstrong Breech Loading 12 pounder 8 cwt, later known as RBL 12 pounder 8 cwt, was an early modern 3-inch rifled breech-loading field gun of 1859.-Design:The gun incorporated some advanced features for its day...
, largely intended for use in the ship's boats or for use as field guns, although they were mounted for use on board. Finally, a 6-pounder brass cannon was carried for practice use.
The RBL 40 pounder Armstrong guns were replaced with a better design of the same calibre in 1863. In 1867 the ship was further rearmed, with the 68-pounders and RBL 7 inch Armstrong guns being removed and replaced by 4 8-inch rifled muzzle loaders
RML 8 inch 9 ton gun
The British RML 8 inch 9 ton guns Mark I - Mark III were medium rifled muzzle-loading guns used to arm smaller ironclad warships and coast defence batteries in the later 19th century.-Design:...
and 28 7-inch rifled muzzle loaders.
Armour
Warriors armour consisted 4.5 inches of iron backed by 18 inches of teakTeak
Teak is the common name for the tropical hardwood tree species Tectona grandis and its wood products. Tectona grandis is native to south and southeast Asia, mainly India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Burma, but is naturalized and cultivated in many countries, including those in Africa and the...
. The iron armour was made up of plates 3 feet by 12 feet that interlocked via the tongue and groove
Tongue and groove
A strong joint, the tongue and groove joint is widely used for re-entrant angles. The effect of wood shrinkage is concealed when the joint is beaded or otherwise moulded...
method. It was bolted through the teak to the iron hull. The teak consisted of two 9 inches (228.6 mm) layers laid at right angles to each other. The teak served to strengthen the armour by damping the shock waves caused by the impact of shells that would otherwise serve to break the bolts that connected the armour to the hull.
The ship's bow and stern were unarmoured, which meant that the steering gear was vulnerable to enemy fire. Another weakness was that the armour became less resistant to impact at lower temperatures due to increased brittleness.
Engines
Warrior was fitted with a trunk engine built by John Penn and Sons that was rated at 1,250 nhp. John Penn and Sons won the contract with a tender of £74,409 largely on the basis of the quality of their engines. This allowed her to reach 14.3 knots under engine power alone. The engines powered a single 24.5 feet (7.5 m) propeller designed by Robert Griffiths. In order to allow the best possible sailing performance, the propeller could be lifted and the funnels lowered. In practice, since Warrior needed to be in steam to allow her to manoeuvre safely, the propeller was left in the lowered position rotating slowly even when Warrior was under sail.
Service career
Warrior never saw battle in her time in service, although, when launched, she and Black Prince were the biggest and most powerful warships in the world. Naval technology advanced so fast that both ships were removed from the front line within ten years.On 19 September 1861 Warrior sailed for Portsmouth. After a short period in dry dock, the ship began her trials on 14 October.
Between March and June 1862 defects exposed during the ship's trials were rectified, and damage received during the trials repaired. Changes included the fitting of a lighter bowsprit
Bowsprit
The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a pole extending forward from the vessel's prow. It provides an anchor point for the forestay, allowing the fore-mast to be stepped farther forward on the hull.-Origin:...
and a shorter jib boom, along with the provision of extra heads
Head (watercraft)
The head is a ship's toilet. The name derives from sailing ships in which the toilet area for the regular sailors was placed at the head or bow of the ship.-Design:In sailing ships the toilet was placed in the bow for two reasons...
amidships.
In March 1863 the finest ship in the Royal Navy was sent to escort Princess Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
, who was sailing to Britain to marry the Prince of Wales. Alexandra was greatly impressed by the ability of the larger ship to keep station on the royal yacht, so that upon arrival she sent the message 'princess is much pleased'. Warriors captain had the words inscribed in brass letters into the ship's wheel which stood upon the quarterdeck. In autumn 1863 the Channel fleet toured the ports of Britain where Warrior was the centre of attraction. In November 1864 her first crew was paid off.
Warrior then underwent a refit. She was briefly commissioned with the intention of becoming Guardship at Queenstown (Cobh) and with this crew appeared in the 1867 Fleet Review. However this commission was cancelled after 24 days, and on 25 July 1867 she was again re-commissioned under Captain Henry Boys. After working up at Spithead
Spithead
Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds, except those from the southeast...
, she sailed to join the channel squadron on 24 September. Shortly after, she sailed to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, where further training was carried out, after which she returned to England in December. She was then deployed to Osborne Bay
Osborne Bay
Osborne Bay is a bay on the north east coast of the Isle of Wight, England, in the eastern arm of the Solent. It lies to the east of East Cowes. Its shoreline is 2km in length and is gently curving. It stretches from Old Castle Point in the west to Barton Point to the east.The seabed is a mixture...
to guard Queen Victoria at Osborne House
Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat....
. This was not merely an honorary guard, since this was the year of the Fenian Rising
Fenian Rising
The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood .After the suppression of the Irish People newspaper, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists had continued to smoulder, and during the later part of 1866 IRB leader James...
, and there was intelligence that suggested that the Queen might be in danger from Irish nationalists. At some point during the time Warrior was performing this duty the ship received an informal visit from Queen Victoria. In April 1868 she was part of a squadron that escorted the royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert II
HMY Victoria and Albert II
HMY Victoria and Albert, a 360 foot steamer launched 16 January 1855, was a Royal Yacht of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom until 1900, owned and operated by the Royal Navy. She displaced 2,470 tons, and could make 15 knots on her paddles...
to Dublin for an official visit by the then Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
, the future King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. June was spent on a channel training cruise with the rest of the channel squadron. In August the squadron departed for a cruise to Scotland. During the cruise, Warrior collided with HMS Royal Oak
HMS Royal Oak (1862)
HMS Royal Oak was the first ship of the Prince Consort class, and is sometimes described as a half-sister to the other three ships.In common with the others of her class, she started life as a wooden two-decked second-rate line-of-battle ship of 91 guns...
, losing her figurehead and jib boom and seriously damaging Royal Oaks cutter.
For Warrior 1869 began with four cruises from Portugal. Between 4 July and 28 July Warrior, with Black Prince and the wooden paddle frigate HMS Terrible
HMS Terrible (1845)
HMS Terrible was when designed the largest steam-powered wooden paddle wheel frigate built for the Royal Navy. She was designed by Oliver Lang and laid down at HMNB Devonport under the name HMS Simoom, but was renamed on 23 December 1842, and launched on 6 February 1845...
, was employed to tow the specially built 'Bermuda' floating dry dock
Dry dock
A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform...
across the Atlantic from Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
to Ireland Island, Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. The dock had taken a total of 36 days to be transferred from England. After recoaling, she sailed for England on 31 July. After a time in dry dock to have her bottom cleaned and the figurehead lost in the collision with HMS Royal Oak replaced, Warrior rejoined the channel squadron and carried out further cruises from Lisbon. Another brief period in dry dock followed before Warrior joined the Mediterranean fleet. Warrior was part of the fleet present when HMS Captain
HMS Captain (1869)
HMS Captain was an unsuccessful warship built for the Royal Navy due to public pressure. She was a masted turret ship, designed and built by a private contractor against the wishes of the Controller's department...
was lost due to severe weather on 7 September 1870. Further cruising followed including trips to Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Gibraltar. While departing Gibraltar, Warrior was part of the squadron present at the grounding of HMS Agincourt
HMS Agincourt (1865)
HMS Agincourt was one of three Minotaur class ironclads, the sistership of HMS Minotaur and a near sister to HMS Northumberland...
on Pearl Rock.
In September 1871 Warrior began a refit that lasted until 1875. The work carried out included the addition of a poop deck
Poop deck
In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or "aft", part of the superstructure of a ship.The name originates from the French word for stern, la poupe, from Latin puppis...
, a shorter bowsprit and the replacement of her boilers. In April 1875 Warrior re-entered commission, having been relegated to the First Reserve. Her primary duties were acting as a guardship at Portland
Portland Harbour
Portland Harbour is located beside the Isle of Portland, off Dorset, on the south coast of England. It is one of the largest man-made harbours in the world. Grid reference: .-History:...
. During this time, she went on yearly summer cruises to various ports. In 1878 she was mobilised in reaction to concern that Russia might be about to attack Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, but the attack did not materialise, and Warrior cruised to Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay
Bantry Bay is a bay located in County Cork, southwest Ireland. The bay runs approximately from northeast to southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. It is approximately 3-to-4 km wide at the head and wide at the entrance....
. In April 1881 she was transferred to the Clyde District, where she served as guardship until 31 May 1883.
She was then used as a storage hulk
Hulk (ship)
A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Although sometimes used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, the term most often refers to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment removed, retaining only its flotational qualities...
, and from 1902 to 1904, as a depot ship for a flotilla of destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
s. Her name was changed to Vernon III in March 1904, a month after she joined Portsmouth-based Vernon
HMS Vernon (shore establishment)
HMS Vernon was a shore establishment or 'stone frigate' of the Royal Navy. Vernon was established on 26 April 1876 as the Royal Navy's Torpedo Branch and operated until 1 April 1996, when the various elements comprising the establishment were split up and moved to different commands.-Foundation...
, the Royal Navy's torpedo training school. Her role was supplying steam
Steam
Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...
and electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
to the neighbouring hulks that made up Vernon. In October 1923 Vernon was transferred to a newly built shore installation, rendering Warrior and her companion hulks redundant; the Royal Navy put her up for sale in 1924.
Decrepitude
Pembroke Dock
Pembroke Dock is a town in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, lying north of Pembroke on the River Cleddau. Originally a small fishing village known as Paterchurch, the town was greatly expanded from 1814 onwards following the construction of a Royal Naval Dockyard...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. Upon arrival, she was transformed into a shipkeeper's home and floating oil jetty known from 1942 as Oil Fuel Hulk C77. A similar fate had already overtaken several of her successors by this time; in 1926 HMS Valiant
HMS Valiant (1863)
HMS Valiant was the second ship of the armoured frigates 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...
became a floating oil tank at Hamoaze
Hamoaze
The Hamoaze is an estuarine stretch of the tidal River Tamar, between the River Lynher and Plymouth Sound, England.The Hamoaze flows past Devonport Dockyard, which belongs to the Royal Navy...
, while HMS Agincourt
HMS Agincourt (1865)
HMS Agincourt was one of three Minotaur class ironclads, the sistership of HMS Minotaur and a near sister to HMS Northumberland...
and HMS Northumberland
HMS Northumberland (1865)
HMS Northumberland was a long-hulled broadside ironclad warship of the Victorian era, and was the third and final ship of the Minotaur class to be commissioned.-Construction:...
were both stripped down in 1909 and subsequently used as coal hulks.
For the next fifty years, Warrior lay just offshore from an oil depot at Llanion Cove, occasionally being towed to a nearby dry dock for maintenance work and additionally serving as a base ship for coastal forces craft in World War II. She refuelled something close to 5,000 ships between 1929 and 1979. During that time, Britain's surviving ironclads and their later equivalents, the battleships, were all sold for scrap. Warrior's last surviving contemporary, Agincourt, was scrapped in 1960 after fifty years' service as a coal hulk at Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
.
Restoration
Warrior was saved from being scrapped by the efforts of the Maritime Trust. As the world's first iron-hulled armoured warship, she was recognised as one of the Royal Navy's most historically important warships. In 1968 the Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
chaired a meeting regarding the possibility of rescuing and restoring Warrior, and a year later the Maritime Trust was established with a view to saving the decrepit ironclad and other historic ships. Throughout the 1970s the Maritime Trust carried out negotiations and feasibility studies regarding Warrior, and finally obtained control of the ship in August 1979.
Restoration of Warrior for use as a museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...
began in August 1979, when she began her 800 miles (1,287 km) journey to her temporary home in the Coal Dock at Hartlepool
Hartlepool
Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...
, where the £8 million restoration project would be carried out, largely funded by the Manifold Trust
Manifold Trust
The Manifold Trust was created by Sir John Smith in 1962 to generate funds for conservation in the UK, particularly of buildings, and to support other culturally important activities, including churches, arts, education, and the environment....
. Warrior arrived in Hartlepool on 3 September 1979. Restoration work started with the removal of 80 tons of rubbish, including a thick concrete layer poured onto her upper deck as part of the conversion to an oil jetty. Over the next eight years, Warriors decks, interior compartments, engines, woodwork and fittings were restored or recreated, her masts, rigging and funnels were recreated, and a new figurehead carved from photographs of the original (destroyed in the 1960s) as a guide. She arrived at her current berth in Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
on 16 June 1987, almost fully restored.
The restored ironclad was renamed Warrior (1860) to avoid confusion with the Northwood Headquarters
Northwood Headquarters
Northwood Headquarters is a military headquarters facility of the British Armed Forces in Eastbury, Hertfordshire, England, adjacent to the London suburb of Northwood...
, commissioned as HMS Warrior, which was at the time the operational headquarters of the Royal Navy. In 1995 she received just over 280,000 visitors.
Today, the ship is used as a venue for special events such as Christmas parties, and can be privately hired as a wedding venue.