Customer Reviews

Warrior: The World's First Ironclad Then and Now

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Escaping more or less by accident from the scrap-o-rama that decimated the historic Royal Navy in the latter 50 years of the 20th century, HMS Warrior, the world's first true ironclad battleship, has recently been restored and has joined HMS Victory in Portsmouth as a jewel of Royal Navy history. Andrew Lambert discusses in this excellent book how the ship was designed, how she was (accidentally) preserved by being used as a jetty at a Royal Navy fueling facility (!), and how several years of hard work in Hartlepool restored her to her original grace. The book is exceptionally well illustrated with period and modern photographs, as well as line drawings and plans, and will appeal to anyone interested in a generally overlooked period of naval history, when sail and wood were giving way to steam and steel.

Let us be honest instead of biased for a change.

The Warrior and Black Prince: Read pages 34 through 36 of Ironclads at War by Greene and Massignani, they concur with what all sane historians agree with: 'It would be France that would carry the naval revolution a step further with a seagoing ironclad ship. ... Due to their extreme length they were less handy than the French ironclads, and they faced a French Navy that gave its "officers the most advanced scientific training in Europe." Further, the French were busily building 10 identical ironclads in the early 60s armored with 5.9" of iron plate (compared to the warrior's 4" - 4.5"). A squadron like this would have an advantage over the hodgepodge of designs that Great Britain would turn out in these early years, ... The backwardness of the British shipbuilding industry was such that Stanley Sandler wrote, "Throughout the period of the introduction of the ironclad there was no scholl of naval architecture in Britain. ..."

The Warrior did have water tight compartments, but was simply an iron hulled broadside ironclad without armor at the bow and stern. The Warrior did 14 knots or so, and the French La Gloire etc. did 13 knots or so, and the French seem to have had better guns.

Sincerely, Chris in Detroit, Michigan