Qualla: HMS Resistance (1861)

HMS Resistance (1861): Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stephen Cribb, Public domain. She had a steel beak shaped like a plough's blade welded to her bow, and that was why they called her Old Rammo. HMS Resistance was the second of two Defence-class ironclads built for the Royal Navy in the 1860s, and she was the first capital ship in the British fleet to be fitted with a naval ram -- a Victorian revival of an idea last taken seriously by the Greeks at Salamis. The thinking was that the new ironclad armour made guns less effective and old shipboard tactics needed reconsidering. The Resistance was the test of that thinking. She was launched at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs on 11 April 1861, served thirty-eight years, and on a stormy night in February 1899 nearly went down inside Holyhead Breakwater on her way to the scrapyard.

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Image: Stephen Cribb | Public domain

HMS Resistance (1861): Old Rammo

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. She displaced 6,070 long tons -- considerable for the period, though more than 3,000 tons less than the larger Warrior-class ironclads that preceded her. She was 280 feet long overall, 54 feet in the beam, drew 26 feet at full load. Her hull was subdivided by watertight transvers...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

HMS Resistance (1861): The Question of Armament

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Her original armament was a mix of smoothbore muzzle-loaders and breech-loaders -- eighteen 68-pounder smoothbores firing 68-pound solid shot at a muzzle velocity of 1,579 feet per second, plus a handful of rifled 110-pounder Armstrong breech-loaders, plus saluting guns. The 68-p...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

HMS Resistance (1861): A Working Life

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. She was ordered on 14 December 1859 and laid down a week later by Westwood, Baillie at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs in London. Launched 11 April 1861, commissioned July 1862, completed at a cost of £258,120. She served first in the Channel Fleet until 1864, then was transferre...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

HMS Resistance (1861): The Last Voyage

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. She was sold for scrap to J. S. Turnbull of Glasgow on 11 November 1898. On 4 February 1899 she departed Spithead in tow of the Liverpool tugs Pathfinder and Wrestler, bound for the Mersey and the breakers. On 8 February a gale caught the convoy in the Irish Sea. The Resistance's...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain