It's Your History

This circular from the Admiralty to all Captains, dated August 26th, 1856 is from the Navy List of December 1860. It would appear that steam power was being used unnecessarily, and coal was being wasted. "...steam power shall not be resorted to when the service on which the vessel is employed can satisfactorily be performed without it" and "all Commanding Officers are whenever steam is raised, to cause the same to be noted in the Log Book, together with their reason for so doing, stating whether it be the emergency of the occasion, the necessity of performing the service with the utmost dispatch, or other cause which, in their opinion, may justify them having recourse to steam power. The Navy list of 1860 is available as a downloadable CD-ROM, and can be found in the Navy Lists section, along with other Navy Lists spanning the period between 1805 and 1914.

On March 10th, 1777 John Aitkin, since known as Jack the Painter was hung on a gallows sixty four and a half feet high, being formed of the mizen-mast of the Arethusa at Portsmouth Dockyard. His body was afterwards hung in chains on Block-house Beach for all to see. John Aitkin was tried and found guilty of starting a fire at the Hemp House in Portsmouth Dockyard on the evening of December the 7th, 1776. Aitkin, by birth a Scotchman, conceived the horrid idea of destroying the whole maritime power of this country, unassisted, and apparently with little prospect of reward. Originally the fire was thought to be an accident until, on January 15th, 1777 when one of his incendiary machines was discovered. It consisted of a large piece of wood, hollowed out and filled with combustibles, was covered with tin, full of holes to admit air, with a tube and a match each end, which appeared to have been on fire, but went out. This interesting story was found in The Portsmouth Guide of 1822 downloadable CD-ROM, which can be found in the Portsmouth Guides section, along with other guides spanning 1775 to 1930.

HMS Warrior, the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, was built for the Royal Navy in response to the French ironclad warship La Gloirefirst, which was launched a year earlier. She was built in London, and was launched into the River Thames on December 29th, 1860. When she was completed in October 1861, Warrior was by far the largest, fastest, most heavily-armed and most heavily-armoured warship the world had ever seen. She was almost twice the size of La Gloire and thoroughly outclassed the French ship in speed, armour, and gunnery. The image to the right is the entry for Warrior in the Royal Navy List of 1890, she was 9,210 tons, and had 5,270 horsepower. The references to the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1801, and victory over the French and Spanish in 1805 relate to the previous HMS Warrior launched on October 18th, 1781, at Portsmouth. The ironclad Warrior of 1860 never saw battle during her years of service. The Navy list of 1890 is available as a downloadable CD-ROM, and can be found in the Navy Lists section, along with other Navy Lists dating back to 1805.

As the world's first iron-hulled armoured warship, Warrior was recognised as one of the Royal Navy's most historically important warships, and was restored. Her restoration took place in the Coal Dock at Hartlepool, began in 1979 and took eight years. Her decks, interior compartments, engines, masts, rigging, funnels, woodwork and fittings were restored or recreated, and a new figurehead was carved using photographs of the original as a guide. Warrior is now a museum ship berthed at Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard.

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