Figure 1: HMS Black Prince at anchor with a steam launch alongside, circa the 1880s. Note the sheet anchor amidships, just below the forward funnel, and this ship's distinctive 15-foot figurehead. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: HMS Black Prince at anchor with a steam launch alongside, circa the 1880s. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: Line engraving of HMS Black Prince published in Harper's Weekly, 1866. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: "Jubilee"
Fleet Review at Portsmouth, England, 23 July 1887. British warships anchored off Portsmouth,
England, during the naval review held in honor of Queen Victoria's 50th year on
the throne. Identifiable ships (all dressed with flags) include (from left to
right): HMS Minotaur (with five masts); HMS Agincourt (with five
masts); HMS Glatton (right center, in middle distance); HMS Black
Prince (behind Glatton); and HMS Prince Albert (to the right
of Glatton). A small yacht is steaming by in the right foreground. US
Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5:
"Jubilee" Fleet Review at Portsmouth, England, 23 July 1887. British warships
firing salutes while anchored off Portsmouth, England, during the naval review
held in honor of Queen Victoria's 50th year on the throne. Identifiable ships (all
dressed with flags) include: HMS Minotaur (extreme left); HMS Agincourt
(with five masts, in left distance); HMS Glatton (left center); HMS Black
Prince (center, with three masts); and HMS Prince Albert (right
center, nearest to camera). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on
photograph for larger image.
Figure 6:
Original caption on this photograph was: “H M
iron single screw battleship (later cruiser) H.M.S. Black Prince,” launched at Glasgow,
Scotland, in 1861 and scrapped in 1923. Masts manned and flying flags as per a
naval review prior to 1903. Photograph is from the book The Royal Navy : A History from the Earliest
Times to the Present, Volume 7, by William Laird Clowes, published 1903 by
S. Low, Marston and Company. London, England. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: Officers of HMS Black Prince in 1898. Royal Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: The crew of HMS Black Prince in 1898. Royal Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Sail instruction on board HMS Black Prince when she was used as a training ship, circa 1898. Royal Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Built by Robert Napier & Sons at Glasgow, Scotland, the 9,200-ton HMS Black Prince was an ironclad frigate that was completed on 27 September 1862. She was the third ship in the Royal Navy to bear that name and was the second ocean-going, iron-hulled, armored warship, following her sister ship, HMS Warrior. For a brief period in naval history, the two Warrior class ironclads were the most powerful warships in the world, their armor being nearly impregnable to the naval guns that existed at that time. Black Prince was approximately 420 feet long and 58 feet wide and had a crew of 707 officers and men. The ship was armed with 26 smoothbore muzzle-loading 68-pounder guns, 10 rifled breech-loading 110-pounder guns, and four rifled breech loading 40-pounder guns. Black Prince was equipped with sails and one two-cylinder steam engine that produced 5,772 horsepower, giving the ship a top speed of 13.6 knots under steam power alone. Both Black Prince and Warrior were also rigged with 48,400 square feet of sail. Black Prince, though, could only do 11 knots under sail, two knots slower than Warrior.
After entering service, Black Prince was assigned to the Royal Navy’s English Channel Fleet until 1866, then spent a year as flagship off the coast of Ireland. The ship was overhauled and re-armed from 1867 to 1868 and then became the guard ship on the Clyde River. The routine of that duty was interrupted in 1869, when she and her sister ship, HMS Warrior, towed a large floating dry dock from the Azores to Bermuda.
Black Prince was again overhauled from 1874 to 1875 and then rejoined the Channel Fleet as the flagship of Rear Admiral Sir John Dalrymple-Hay, second-in-command of the Royal Navy. In 1878, Captain H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh took command of Black Prince and the ship crossed the Atlantic to participate in the installation of a new Governor General of Canada. After returning to England, Black Prince was placed in reserve at Devonport and re-classified as an armored cruiser. The ship was re-activated periodically to participate in annual fleet exercises.
Unfortunately, rapid advances in naval armament and technology, as well as the manufacture of new steel warships, soon made ironclads like Black Prince and Warrior obsolete. No longer capable of confronting steel battleships, Black Prince became a harbor training ship in 1896, stationed at Queenstown, Ireland. She was re-named Emerald in 1903. In 1910, the ship was taken to Plymouth for use as a training ship and was re-named Impregnable III. The old ship was eventually sold for scrapping in 1923, after a career spanning an amazing 61 years.
Ships like Black Prince and Warrior bridged the gap between wooden warships and the new steel battleships that were built towards the end of the nineteenth century. For a limited period in naval history, ironclads were the most powerful warships in the world.
