Design and Description
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. The naval architect and historian David K. Brown commented, "What made truly novel was the way in which these individual aspects were blended together, making her the biggest and most powerful warship in the world." 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 HMS Mersey. 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.
Read more about this topic: Warrior Class Ironclad
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