A Sad and Lonely Journey

A Sad and Lonely Journey. . , Hulked and Rotten Row , On May 14th 1883 Warrior entered Portsmouth for the last time under her own steam. In her 22 years of service, six of them in full commission and eight as a first line reserve, Warrior had sailed some 90,000 sea miles without ever seeing an enemy ship or firing a shot in anger. She had now been withdrawn from sea service her engines, boilers and guns stripped out and, for several years she languished in ‘Rotten Row', a remote corner of Portsmouth Harbour. Now little more than a floating hulk, although still officially classed an armoured cruiser Warrior was progressively forgotten. , , Did you know? .. Warrior was home to the first naval wireless radio experiments. , , Vernon III 1904-1923 , In 1902, Warrior took on a new lease of life as she was fitted out to become depot ship for the Portsmouth Destroyer Flotilla of small torpedo boats. But this role was only a brief one. In 1904 she became an auxiliary workshop for Vernon, the Royal Navy's floating Torpedo Training School, and was renamed Vernon III. It was hardly a return to glory as she was used to supply steam and electricity to other hulks moored alongside. , , In 1923 Vernon moved ashore and once more Warrior was paid off. But again she survived at a time when her sister ship Black Prince and many others went to the scrapyard. Reprieved from destruction was taken in hand on 22nd October 1927 for conversion into a mooring hulk. , , Pembroke Dock 1929-1979 , On 13th March 1929 she was towed to her new home, Llanion Fuel Depot at Pembroke in Wales to begin life as a floating oil jetty under the name of Oil Fuel Hulk C77. Over the next 50 years some 5,000 ships refuelled alongside. Kept in reasonable condition by the Royal Navy - who dry docked her regularly - her armoured hull showed little sign of deterioration. As a result Warrior was the only example of the 45 ironclads built between 1861 and 1877 to survive. , , 1979 , By now all other Victorian Battleships had either sunk or gone to the ship breakers - only Warrior clung to life.