The ship herself may have been revolutionary, but the day to day lives of her crew differed little from service in the great wooden warships. Manpower was still essential. To many on board it must have seemed, as it did to those at home, that Warrior's career would go on forever. Old Warriors - If you are related to someone who served in the ship during her history we would be grateful if you could offer any information for our growing Genealogical Archive.
Get in touch - library nmrn. The Captain was the ship's undisputed ruler, answerable to the Admiralty for everybody and everything on board. His comfortable quarters were at the aft end of the main deck. They comprised day and sleeping cabins.
He also had private heads toilet , a personal steward who worked from a nearby pantry. Beyond his quarters were the rudder yoke and propeller well. Number two was the Commander, who was responsible for the ship's day to day routines, fighting capability and general appearance. He was also Wardroom Mess President. His quarters were next to the Captain's as were those of the Master. His title was a throwback to when merchant ships and their masters were commandeered for naval use.
The Captain could only enter the wardroom by invitation of the other officers. The wardroom was their mess. It was on the lower deck, with their 14 cabins, 6 feet by 10 feet, arranged around a central dining and leisure area.
With the Royal Navy's new professional status some of the younger wardroom members would have graduated from the officer training school on Illustrious or later Britannia. The ship's chaplain was also the schoolmaster, teaching the ordinary crew and the junior ranks comprising 20 to 30 midshipmen and sub-lieutenants. These very young officers led a less formal life in the gunroom - their lower deck mess - where the chief gunner was in charge of the midshipmen.
They slept in hammocks. Also sharing the lower deck were the engineers, the boatswain, gunner, shipwright carpenter and chief petty officers, all of whom had cabins and messes. If you wanted to serve on board Warrior, you needed brawn rather than brain.
The average sailor manned the guns, hoisted the sails, turned capstans, hauled on ropes, lifted and lowered boats, pulled on oars and cranked the massive pumps that moved water around the ship. A large number of the crew helped raise the ship's four anchors located at the bow and stern. Each weighed 5. Over men hauled one anchor up at a time through linked capstans with its chain fed into cable lockers amidships to keep the ship balanced. The crew slept in hammocks slung above the guns, and lived and ate in messes between the guns.
The lot of the Jack Tar was improving. Press gangs had been abolished. Instead, seamen would be recruited for a fixed period and could then re - enlist or take a pension. Uniforms had been introduced in , the year before Warrior's launch. The dress depended on the job and the time of day or week. The normal outfits comprised dark blue jumpers and white trousers. All white outfits were worn for drills.
Stokers wore white suits of duck - a material similar to canvas, all the time and on Sundays, hats - black in winter and white in summer - were compulsory except in wet weather. Clothes were issued monthly from the Paymaster and the cost of the uniform deducted from the seaman's wages. Hat ribbons were offered at a cost of 1 shilling each, a day's wages to a second class ordinary seaman. The Paymaster was a key figure on the ship. He controlled the victualling, clothes and pay from his lower deck office.
Pay parade was monthly and formal. Off-watch seamen reported to the pay office and, at the command, a seaman took off his hat so that his wages could be put in it. Wooden warships had attained their optimum length, their multiple gun decks making them unstable. Warrior's ingenious design incorporated just one long, very stable gun deck - feet longer than any previous warship.
Her firepower could blow any other vessel out of the water. While wooden ships carried pounder guns, Warrior had pounders and pounders. She was the ultimate deterrent. Of the two types of heavy gun carried by Warrior the 68 pounder was most numerous, with twenty six on board. This gun was designed in by Colonel Dundas, weighing 6 tons on its elm carriage. Although equipped with fitted sights, the trajectory was erratic.
Due to the smooth bore nature of the gun effective range was limited to 2, yards. Complementing the 68 lb muzzle loading guns were ten pound guns. The Admiralty opted for these relatively untried breech loading guns, designed in by Tyneside engineer, William Armstrong and weighing 4. Again a gun crew of 18 men were required to discharge one round every 50 seconds.
One innovation was the barrel's rifling. This made the shot fly true and spin so that the tapered point hit the target first. This heralded the introduction of the percussion fuse, which detonated the shell on impact. Another new feature was the loading method. The guns did not have to be drawn back into the ship; both projectile and charge were loaded through the breech screw and the chamber sealed with a block.
Equipped with tangent elevated sights and a rifled bore, accuracy up to 4, yards was expected, making it far more efficient than any smooth bore gun in use at the time.
The guns were not as impressive at sea as first hoped. It proved impossible to create a gas tight seal between the block and breech, reducing the ability to fire rapidly and safely. The stokers and trimmers had the worst jobs so were paid 50 per cent more.
They toiled in the stokehold in appalling conditions, shovelling tons of coal and ash by hand in temperatures of about degrees Fahrenheit 43 degree Centigrade. The air was thick with dust, and the noise was indescribable. Another vital task was coaling up. This took place every few weeks when suitable port facilities were available. The job was dirty and complicated, and involved all the crew. The gun deck was cleared with tables up, guns back and ports opened.
Seamen and Marines filled two cwt kg wicker panniers aboard the collier berthed alongside. The panniers were hauled through the gunports, lifted over the deck and emptied down six chutes to stokers in the bunkers below. Two full days were needed to load tons of coal. The ship's resident 16 piece band played rousing melodies to keep the crew's morale up. Tons of dry coal blackened the gun deck to such an extent that it took a week to clean up afterwards.
Warrior Preservation Trust welcomes donations for the collection within the limits of our Acquisitions and Collections Development Policies. In broad terms, this involves items relating to Warrior and her sister ship Black Prince through all stages of their careers.
We cannot always accept material offered for the collection, for instance if it duplicates an item we already have.
If we cannot accept an item, we may be able to recommend an alternative home. We are currently improving our archive facilities, which will be accessible and open to potential users in the near future. If you are looking to donate to the collection, please include digital photographs or scans of items where possible , or have any information you think may be of interest, please contact library nmrn.
Please allow at least one month for a response. For any other enquiry, please contact library nmrn. Enquiries are dealt with free of charge but donations towards supporting our work are appreciated.
Warrior Preservation Trust is collecting information relating to the crew of HMS Warrior across all her service periods and subsequent namesakes, but particularly so for her first commission from — We would love to hear from you if you have service records, diaries, logbooks, photographs, paintings - in fact, any record or material that relates to your relative and the ship or her namesakes.
If you have something that may be of interest, please include digital photographs or scans of items where possible, and contact library nmrn. Warrior Preservation Trust does not hold official service records within our collections. For advice about what these are, what they contain and where full service records can be obtained, please look at the National Archives Guides and Resources. Supporters and visitors gathered on the deck of HMS Warrior at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard this morning to celebrate the culmination of a multi-million pound conservation project.
Join naval legends this year onboard Queen Victoria's favourite ship as you commemorate Pickle Night and celebrate Christmas with friends. HMS Warrior was rescued in the s, restored and brought back home to Portsmouth and is owned by Warrior Preservation Trust, an independent charity. Sadly, time has it taken its toll and today she is in a fragile state - her bulwarks, which keep her watertight, have failed and are deteriorating to a point which places her at significant risk.
We were delighted to secure a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Make no mistake: the ship is a survivor — since she first sailed the seas in , Warrior has faced storms, war, neglect and old age.
Yet incredibly, she is still here to tell her stories. Please visit support us to find out more. Travel back in time to the Tour of Britain From the jetty to the boiler room, Warrior has been reimagined as it was in Immerse yourself in Victorian ingenuity As soon as you step on-board, the story of the great event will unfold before you. Share This Page. Top Questions. What is the Round-Britain tour?
What changes have taken place? Will I see all the actors onboard? Do you offer guided tours onboard? Previous Attraction. Next Attraction. Travel Website Development.
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