Model of ironclad battleship HMS 'Warrior' (1860)

Full hull model of HMS 'Warrior' (1860), a broadside ironclad battleship, scale: 1:48. A contemporary half block model of the ironclad battleship HMS 'Warrior' (1860) mounted on its original wooden backboard. It is finished with black topsides and copper bottom below the waterline, with a rudder and single screw mounted at the stern. The gun ports are let in along the hull, along with the quarter and stern galleries, although the figurehead is missing. The 'Warrior' was built by Thames Ironworks, Blackwall and measured 380 feet in length by 58 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 9210. Carrying 40 breech-loading guns along the single deck, it was built in reply to the French warship 'Gloire', a powerful ironclad wooden-hulled frigate of 1859. The powerful Penn horizontal trunk steam engine produced a speed of 14 knots and as a result of the ships superiority over any afloat, it never fired a shot in anger.

'Warrior' spent its sea-going service with the Channel Fleet until 1872 and was then re-fitted as a coastguard ship at Portland. It was eventually paid off in 1900 and converted as a torpedo depot ship at Portsmouth, being renamed 'Vernon III' in 1904. In 1923, the hull was stripped and used as a floating pontoon oil jetty at Pembroke. Finally in 1979, 'Warrior' was towed to Hartlepool for restoration and is now moored afloat in Portsmouth Dockyard fully restored and open to the public.