Warrior Class Ironclad - Construction

Construction

The gun ports of the Warrior-class ships were built 46 inches (1.2 m) wide, which allowed the 68-pounders to traverse 52°. While the ships were building the directing bar was developed which consisted of an iron bar that fastened to a pivot bolt in the sill of the gun port. After the gun carriages were modified, this allowed them to pivot much closer to the gun port than had previously been possible and meant that the gun ports could be narrowed to a width of 24 inches (0.6 m) while retaining the same arc of fire. The gun ports were narrowed to the new width by 7 inches (178 mm) of wrought iron. Another delay was the modification of the armour plates with tongue and groove joints to lock the plates together and increase their resistance to armour-piercing shells. All together these modifications delayed the completion of Warrior by a year past her contract completion date.