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Britannia ruled the waves when Queen Victoria came to the throne. Wooden sailing ships were on the decline, making way for new maritime innovations like the paddle steamer, Great Western, and the iron hulled, screw-driven SS Great Britain. The Admiralty had, however, grown complacent about Britain's command of the seas. Steam engines had been installed in some wooden ships of the line, and smaller vessels had been constructed with the new types of propulsion or iron hulls, but it was a shock when in 1858 the French started building La Gloire, the first armoured iron-hulled ship. La Gloire was launched in 1859 The original intention of the French was to replace their whole fleet with iron hulls, but French industrial capacity proved incapable of delivering enough iron. 
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Construction
Horizontal Trunk Steam Engine Instead, almost all ships had wooden hulls clad with iron up to five inches thick above the waterline. Emperor Napoleon III was certain his projected new-look Navy could out-manoeuvre and outgun the British. News of the construction of La Gloire and naval expansion across the Channel caused an explosion of anti-French feeling in Britain. The Press stirred fears of an invasion. Prince Edward asked the Admiralty what it was doing to match this "new engine of war". Surveyor of the Navy, Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, said he believed iron hulls would never replace wooden ships! Iron-cladding the fleet was the simplest option, but Sir John Pakington, the First Lord of the Admiralty, supported the iron-hull lobby. |
