The HMS Black Prince , launched on February 27, 1861, was the third ship of the same name in service with the British Royal Navy . She was the second ironclad in the world with a steel hull that was able to cross the ocean. Together with her sister ship HMS Warrior , it belonged to the Warrior class . For a short time, these two ships were the strongest ironclad in the world, practically invulnerable to the ship's cannons of their time. Rapid advances in warship technology quickly made the Black Prince and her sister ship obsolete. Nevertheless, she was eventually used as a reserve and training ship longer than in active service.
The Black Prince was built in Glasgow , Scotland. Its completion was delayed until September 1862 due to an accident in dry dock during the equipment. In service, the Black Prince was assigned to the Canal Fleet until 1866. After that she was the flagship of the command on the Irish coast for a year. From 1867 to 1868 she was overhauled and re-armed to serve as a guard ship in the Clyde Estuary. In 1869 the Black Prince and Warrior moved a large floating dock from the Azores to Bermuda .
The Black Prince was refitted again in 1874-1875 and assigned to the Canal Fleet as the flagship for the deputy commander. At the end of the same decade, she crossed the Atlantic to visit Canada. From 1878 she belonged to the reserve and was now classified as an armored cruiser. During this time she was regularly reactivated to take part in annual fleet maneuvers.
The Black Prince became a training ship in Queenstown Harbor , Ireland , in 1896 . It was renamed Emerald in 1903 . In 1910 she was transferred to Plymouth to be used in the local training facility under the name Impregnable III . The old ship was sold for scrapping in 1923.
literature
Roger Chesneau, Eugene M. Kolesnik: Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 . Ed .: Robert Gardiner. Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London 1979, ISBN 0-85177-133-5 , pp.7 .
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