150 years to the month since Britain’s first ever metal frigate, HMS Warrior, took its maiden voyage this carefully restored tourist attraction located at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard featured on the BBC’s National Treasures Live television programme on the evening of August 17, 2011 when the newly restored sick berth was officially "opened". Learn about the early history and career of this iconic man-of-war.
First of the Ironclads, HMS Warrior, Launched in 1860
HMS Warrior, Britain’s first ironclad warship, was commissioned in 1859 by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir John Pakington, as a deterrent to the French navy which was building its own metal ship called La Gloire. Construction of the ship began at the Thames Ironworks and Ship Building Company’s shipyard on the Thames between Blackwall and Millwall (very close to where the Museum of London Docklands stands today).
She was officially launched by Sir John Pakinton on December 29, 1860, a day which was so cold that, according to The Times of December 31, 1860, it had “... frozen her down to the ‘ways’ so firmly that nothing would move her.” It took the combined efforts of three tugs, hydraulic presses and even the firing of some of her heavy guns to actually break the frozen grease and ice so the ship could slip into the water.
HMS Warrior’s First Voyage Took Place in August 1861
But, she didn’t go far on that launch day – she was merely tugged from her initial slip at the shipyard into the Victoria Docks next door for the fitting of her engines and more iron cladding. Just over eight months later, she needed to be moved to a deeper berth because the weight of her engines and extra iron cladding meant she was but two feet clear of the bottom of the dock.
It was on August 8, 1861 that HMS Warrior left Victoria Docks and made her way, under her own steam, down the Thames to Greenhithe, Kent for more equipment fitting. Like launch day, the day of her maiden voyage was the subject of severe weather which was described by The Times the following day as involving “torrents of rain that swept across the river like banks of mist.”
Warrior’s Sea Trials in 1861 Caused Design Modifications
After six weeks or so at Greenhithe, where the ship’s internal fittings were completed and stores and other equipment were loaded, the Warrior set sail for her first sea trials on September 18, 1861 when she travelled to the mouth of the Thames estuary and then right into the English Channel and down to Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
A series of sea trials followed which resulted in some modifications to the innovative ship – most significantly the shortening of her bowsprit and by June 1862 HMS Warrior was ready for active service. She spent the next twenty years or so protecting Britain’s coastal waters before being decommissioned in May 1883 when rot was discovered in her fore and main masts.
Visit the Restored HMS Warrior at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
She spent some years after her decommissioning, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper of July 12, 1979, “… as a floating naval workshop before disappearing off the Navy list in the 1920s.” By the 1970s, she was acting as an oil jetty at Pembroke Docks near Milford Haven. When the oil depot at the Docks closed in 1978, the tatty old warship was handed over to the Maritime Trust.
The Maritime Trust (and later the Warrior Preservation Trust) arranged for her restoration and, after careful refurbishment, on July 16, 1987 Britain’s first ever ironclad warship, HMS Warrior, returned to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. She is still there today and the ship, including its new sick berth opened by the BBC team in August 2011, is worth taking time out to explore if you are in the area.
Other sources:
- All links accessed August 17, 2011
- The Times Digital Archive [subscription only]
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