The first HMS WARRIOR, a "Third Rate Line-of-Battle" ship built of English Oak in Portsmouth Dockyard and displacing 1,621 tons, was launched on 18 October 1781.
Her 74 smooth bore, breech loading, broadside guns gave her "Rate" and that coupled with her ability to absorb punishment entitled her to take her place in the "Line of Battle". The first HMS WARRIOR took part in two major engagements: Battle of the Saintes - 1782 - With Admiral Rodney's Fleet and Battle of Copenhagen - 1801 - With Admiral Parker's Fleet.
She was also involved in events leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar. In 1818 she became a Receiving Ship and from 1840 was used as a Convict Ship until, at the ripe old age of 76, she was broken up in 1857.
In 1860, from The Thames Ironworks in Blackwall, there was launched one of the most revolutionary warships ever built - the Steam Frigate HMS WARRIOR, she was designed and built as Britain's answer to the French LA GLOIRE.
The whole idea, as far as the government was concerned, was to finish the arms race before it even began. She was referred to by Napoleon III as "A raven among the daws". LA GLOIRE was a wooden sailing frigate, just under 300 ft long with added iron "armour plates".
The WARRIOR was 418 ft long, displaced 9210 tons, carried a full rig of 48,400 Sq Ft of canvas on 3 masts and had a continuously rated steam propulsion plant developing 5469 HP. Under plain sail the ship would make 13 knots, under steam the ship recorded 14.354 knots.
Maximum speed could be obtained by combining the two to give 17.2 knots. The range was 3500 miles. She cost £377,292. It was the 40 guns which, under the classification rules of the day, led to her being designated a Frigate.
HM STEAM FRIGATE WARRIOR could outsail and outfight every Line-of-Battle Ship in existence at that time and this fact was recognised by the Admiralty Board who subsequently afforded her 3rd Rate Line-of-Battle Ship status on the basis of her 705 ship's company. In the late 1880s the anomaly of her rate was finally resolved when the Admiralty classified her as a Battle Ship - the first RN ship ever to be so designated.
Since she is still afloat and has outlived all other RN Battleships she is of course the first and last of a distinguished and unbroken line stretching from 1860 to the present day. She never fired a shot in anger and had rather an undistinguished Naval career - perhaps she was an early and effective form of deterrent.
After being commissioned into the Channel Fleet (1861), serving as Guard Ship at Portland (1875) and becoming a Training Ship on the Clyde for Naval Reservists (1881) she was paid off into Reserve as an Armoured Cruiser on May 31 1883, remaining on the effective list.
She was designated a screw battle ship in 1887, and became finally a first class armoured cruiser in May of 1892. She was reduced to a hulk in 1898, recommissioned as a depot ship for torpedo boat destroyers in 1902, commissioned as Vernon 3 in 1904. She was paid off from this role in 1924, converted to a fuelling hulk at Portsmouth in 1927, and arrived at Pembroke Dock in 1929.
In 1929 she suffered the indignity of being renamed HULK C77 and was towed to Milford Haven to become a floating jetty at the Llanion Oil Storage Depot. When, in 1979, she was taken over by the Maritime Trust she was found (at the age of 119) to have only fresh water in her bilges - a remarkable tribute to her builders and caretakers over the years.
This revolutionary ship underwent a major restoration at Hartlepool is now on permanent display afloat in Portsmouth Naval Base.
On 25 November 1905 the third HMS WARRIOR was launched at Pembroke Dock. She was destined to fight and die during the early summer of 1916 in the last major engagement between surface fleets before the advent of maritime air power - the Battle of Jutland.
At the outbreak of war she joined Admiral Jellicoe's Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow and along with HMS DEFENCE, HMS DUKE OF EDINBURGH (both Pembroke built) and HMS BLACK PRINCE formed the first Cruiser Squadron under Rear Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot.
At 1755 on Wednesday 31 May, the first cruiser squadron engaged an enemy Cruiser on the starboard beam at about 16000 yd, registering a hit with the third shell of the first salvo. Within minutes two enemy Light Cruisers were sighted to port.
HMSs DEFENCE and DUKE OF EDINBURGH were engaging these targets and investigating a reported Minelayer sighting when the squadron came under fire from unseen ships firing heavy calibre shells with the result that HMS DEFENCE was sunk and HMS BLACK PRINCE exploded.
Just before coming under fire herself HMS WARRIOR sighted the tripod masts of at least 3 enemy capital ships which were subsequently identified as Battle Cruisers.
The enemy Light Cruisers were by this time on fire but within 5 mins of coming under fire HMS WARRIOR had been hit 4 or 5 times and had lost electrical power, port and starboard engine-rooms and ammunition supply.
By 1830 HMS WARRIOR, although still afloat, could neither move nor fight. She was saved by HMS WARSPITE, whose steering was jammed, steaming between her and the enemy and engaging the Battle Cruisers - two of which were subsequently destroyed or seriously damaged.
HMS WARRIOR was taken in tow by the ENGADINE, a Seaplane Tender, at about 1900 but by 0500 next morning with her quarterdeck awash the WARRIOR was abandoned and then scuttled 160 miles east of Aberdeen. 70 of her Ship's Company did not survive the battle.
The Ship's Chaplain, the Reverend E R Bredin, after assisting with evacuation and tending the sick returned to the ship just before she finally sank and rescued the communion silver which the Admiralty presented to him for his own use in recognition of his conduct during and after the action.
These vessels, complete in their original velvet lined teak box, were presented to HMS WARRIOR by the Reverend Bredin before he died.
The 4th HMS WARRIOR was a 1266 ton Yacht built in Troon for F W Vanderbilt in 1904. Launched as WARRIOR she was renamed GIOZEKA ISARRA (MORNING STAR) when she was bought by Sir Ramon De La Sota of Bilbao in 1920. During the Spanish Civil War she was used by the Basque Government sailing between Spanish and French Biscay ports carrying refugees and wounded Spanish children.
In 1937 she was purchased by Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen and reverted to the name WARRIOR. In World War II she was commissioned as HMS WARRIOR II and fitted with 2 x 12 pdr guns. On 11 July 1940 she was sunk, with one fatality, by air attack off Start Point in the Channel.
Her crusader figurehead and decorated binnacle are still retained by the De La Sota family.
Apart from the fact that she was a Grimsby trawler very little is known of the history and fate of the 5th HMS WARRIOR. There is evidence of the name WARRIOR being used for a 192 ton tug between 1914 and 1919, an unknown vessel of 236 tons called WARRIOR II (armed with 1 x 6 pdr) between 1914 and 1918 and two vessels, one a 46 ton yacht, the other a 7 ton tender employed on air sea rescue and training duties in the West Indies between 1940 and 1945.
Because provenance of commissioning is doubtful concerning these vessels the 6th WARRIOR is adjudged to be the light fleet carrier of the COLOSSUS class launched at Belfast on 24 May 1944 and Commissioned on 24 January 1946 into the Royal Canadian Navy.
Displacing 14,000 tons she was capable of 25 kts and was armed with 2 pdr, pom-pom and light anti aircraft guns. She carried 40 aircraft - a mixture of Seafire XVs and mk I Fireflies. In 1948 she was returned to the Royal Navy and in 1956 was completely modernised including the fitting of an angled flight deck, steam catapult, improved radar and new communications systems.
In 1957, after necessary modification, she sailed as Flagship of a Special Service Squadron and acted as the Headquarters Ship for Britain's hydrogen bomb tests at Christmas Island. On 4 November 1958 she was sold to Argentina and renamed the INDEPENDENCIA. She served with the Argentine Navy until she was broken up in 1971.
In 1939 Eastbury Park Northwood became the Headquarters of Coastal Command. It was in fact the RAF who started going underground to build their Headquarters. In 1953 the Headquarters of the NATO Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic area was established at Northwood.
The Commander-in-Chief was also Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet who flew his flag in HMS TYNE at Portsmouth. In 1960 CINC HOME FLEET moved to Northwood and in 1966 the Channel Command (a post also held by CINC HOME FLEET) moved to Northwood. Sometime in the early 1960s the Naval unit at Northwood was commissioned as the 7th HMS WARRIOR under the command of the then Captain of the Fleet.
In 1966 the Command was established for a Commander in Command and in September 1971 the RN took over responsibility for the whole establishment.