«Warrior» классының темір кемелері: Британдық флот тарихындағы жаңа дәуір

Class of ironclads of the Royal Navy

The Warrior class ironclads were a class of two warships built for the Royal Navy between 1859 and 1862, the first ocean going ironclads with iron hulls ever constructed. The ships were designed as armoured frigates in response to an invasion scare sparked by the launch of the French ironclad Gloire and her three sisters in 1858. They were initially armed with a mix of rifled breech loading and muzzle loading smoothbore guns, but the Armstrong breech loading guns proved unreliable and were ultimately withdrawn from service. The ships spent their first commission with the Channel Fleet before being rearmed with new rifled muzzle loading guns in the late 1860s. rejoined the Channel Fleet after her refit while joined the 1st Class Reserve and joined the fleet during its annual manoeuvres. The two ships exchanged roles after another refit in the mid 1870s. Both ships spent most of the last two decades of the 19th century in reserve. Warrior was hulked in 1902 and survived to be restored in 1979 as a museum ship. Black Prince became a training ship in 1896 and was hulked in 1910 before being sold for scrap in 1923.

The Warrior class ships have been described as revolutionary, but in truth they were more evolutionary than not as everything except their wrought iron armour had been in use by ocean going ships for years. They were designed in response to Gloire, which started an invasion scare in Britain, but they had a very different concept of operation to the French ship which was meant as a replacement for wooden ships of the line. They were designed by Chief Constructor of the Navy Isaac Watts as 40 gun armoured frigates largely based on the fine lines of the large frigate Warrior and her sister Black Prince were not intended to stand in the line of battle as the Admiralty was uncertain about their ability to withstand concentrated fire from wooden two and three deck ships of the line. Rather they were designed to be fast enough to force battle on a fleeing enemy and to control the range at which a battle was fought for their own advantage.

The Warrior class ships were 380 feet (116 m) long between perpendiculars and 420 feet (128 m) long overall. They had a beam of 58 feet (18 m) and a draught of 26 feet (8 m). The ships displaced The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms. Two bilge keels were fitted (the first used by the Royal Navy), which significantly reduced the roll of the ships. Because of their length the ships proved to be very sluggish while manoeuvring, as Warrior proved when she collided with in 1868. The Warrior class ships trimmed down by the bow, not least because they were fitted with a iron knee placed at the bow to give it a traditionally pleasing shape. This also prevented the ships from ramming any other ships. The bowsprit was shortened after completion in an effort to reduce the trim, but it was not noticeably successful.

The Warrior class ships had one 2 cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single 24 feet (7 m) propeller. Ten rectangular boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of The engine produced a total of and was the most powerful thus far built for a warship. On sea trials in October 1861 Warrior had a maximum speed around ; Black Prince was about a half knot slower. The ships carried of coal, enough to steam at
The ironclads were ship rigged and had a sail area of The lower masts were made of wood, but the other masts were iron. Warrior made under sail, but Black Prince could only do Under both sail and steam Warrior once logged Both funnels were semi retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail alone. The ships' propellers could be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail. They were the largest hoistable propellers ever made and required about 600 men to be raised. Both breech loading guns were new designs from Armstrong and much was hoped for them. Four of the 110 pounder guns were installed on the main deck amidships and the other two became chase guns; all of the 68 pounder guns were mounted on the main deck. Firing tests carried out in September 1861 against an armoured target, however, proved that the 110 pounder was inferior to the 68 pounder smoothbore gun in armour penetration and repeated incidents of breech explosions during the Battles for Shimonoseki and the Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863–1864 forestalled plans to completely equip the ships with the 110 pounder gun. The solid shot of the 68 pounder gun weighed approximately while the gun itself weighed The gun had a muzzle velocity of and had a range of at an elevation of 12°. The shell of the 110 pounder Armstrong breech loader weighed It had a muzzle velocity of and, at an elevation of 11.25°, a maximum range of The shell of the 40 pounder breech loading gun was in diameter and weighed The gun had a maximum range of at a muzzle velocity of The 110 pounder gun weighed while the 40 pounder weighed In 1863–1864 the 40 pounder guns were replaced by a heavier version with the same ballistics. All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells. Both ships were rearmed during their 1867–1868 refit with a mix of 7 and rifled muzzle loading guns. Warrior received twenty eight 7 inch and four 8 inch guns while Black Prince received four fewer 7 inch guns. Both ships received four 20 pounder breech loading guns for use as saluting guns.