Building a Warrior: Industry, Empire and the Royal Navy's Iron Ships 1847-1860

Between 1845 and 1860, the Royal Navy engaged in transitioning from wooden hull construction to those built of iron. Though HMS Warrior has consistently been identified as the first successful British iron ship of war, the role of the economy, diplomacy, politics and industry in the developmental process of Warrior has not been fully developed in the historiography. Previous work on the Royal Navy's nineteenth century trajectory has inordinately focused on outdated methodologies of military history. These historians neglected to reconcile the role played by the Admiralty in politics, diplomacy, industry and economy, and the part each of these elements played in the creation of a cohesive maritime defense of the British Empire. Warrior represents the collective manifestation of the aforementioned four themes out of the British Empire of the long nineteenth century. How these forces helped shape and reshape the military's response to various challenges against the British Empire's will be explored through sources like The Times and The United Service Magazine, the yearly Naval Estimates as a part of the broader Parliamentary Budget, and the various records of the private shipbuilding companies involved in the early iron construction for the Royal Navy and private commercial use. The role played by the Admiralty in the maintenance and defense of the British imperial domain is critically important to fully understand the relationship between the Royal Navy and the British Empire during the middle of the nineteenth century. A close study of the transition from HMS Simoom through Warrior will help establish links between the British political system, the British imperial economy, British industry and the British diplomatic policy and the construction of these respective warships.