November 1867: HMS Hercules

Hyperbole and awe: the Hercules was the most powerful ship in the Royal Navy, as Jason Ford writes

Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard is home to a technology first that was once the toast of the nation but would be obsolete a decade after she was launched.

HMS Warrior was built in response to developments in France where La Gloire, the first armoured wooden-hulled ship, was launched in 1859. La Gloire was the result of lessons learned during the Crimean War, a conflict in which the Russian navy made short work of wooden hulls with shell-fired guns.

From a seagoing and military viewpoint La Gloire was something of a disaster – she was only effective as an offensive force in calm seas – but her construction is said to have caused enough panic across the English Channel to start a naval arms race, which resulted in Warrior, the first of the Royal Navy’s sail- and steam-propelled Ironclads.