The Defence-class ironclads were designed as smaller and cheaper versions of the armoured frigates. This meant that they could not fit the same powerful engines of the Warrior-class ships and were therefore 2kn slower and had far fewer guns. The naval architect Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, a future Constructor of the Navy, considered that, in terms of combat, a Defence-class ship was worth one quarter of a Warrior.
HMS Resistance was 280feet long between perpendiculars and 291feet long overall.[2] She had a beam of 54inchesft2inchesin (ftin) and a draft of 26feet.[3] The ship displaced 6070LT and had a ram in the shape of a plough, the first capital ship in the Royal Navy to be fitted with one.[4] The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms. Resistance was 128inchesft8inchesin (ftin) shorter overall and displaced over 3000LT less than the Warrior-class ironclads.[3]
The Defence-class ships had a single two-cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single 211NaN1 propeller.[5] Four rectangular boilers[6] provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of 20psi. The engine produced a total of 2329ihp. During sea trials on 25 August 1873, Resistance had a maximum speed of . The ship carried 450LT of coal,[7] enough to steam 1670nmi at .[2]
The ironclad was ship rigged and had a sail area of 24500square feet. The lower masts and bowsprit were made of iron to withstand the shock of ramming. Resistance could make about under sail and the funnel was semi-retractable to reduce wind resistance while under sail alone. The ship's propeller could be hoisted up into the stern of the ship to reduce drag while under sail.[8] She was re-rigged as a barque from September 1864 to April 1866 before returning to her original ship rig.[9]
The armament of the Defence-class ships was intended to be 18 smoothbore, muzzle-loading 68-pounder guns, eight on each side on the main deck and one each fore and aft as chase guns on the upper deck, plus four rifled breech-loading 40-pounder guns as saluting guns. This was modified during construction to six rifled 110-pounder breech-loading guns, ten 68-pounders and two 32-pounder smoothbore guns, the only such weapons ever mounted in a British ironclad. Both breech-loading guns were new designs from Armstrong and much was hoped of them. Four of the 110-pounder guns were installed on the main deck amidships and the other two became chase guns; all of the 68-pounder guns were mounted on the main deck. Firing tests carried out in September 1861 against an armoured target, however, proved that the 110-pounder was inferior to the 68-pounder smoothbore gun in armour penetration and repeated incidents of breech explosions during the Battles for Shimonoseki and the Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863–1864 caused the navy to begin to withdraw the gun from service shortly afterwards.[10]
The 7.9adj=onNaNadj=on solid shot of the 68-pounder gun weighed approximately 68lb while the gun itself weighed 10640lb. The gun had a muzzle velocity of 1579ft/s and had a range of at an elevation of 12°. The 7adj=onNaNadj=on shell of the 110-pounder Armstrong breech-loader weighed 107lb110lb. It had a muzzle velocity of 1150ft/s and, at an elevation of 11.25°, a maximum range of . The 110-pounder gun weighed 9520lb while the 40-pounder weighed 3584lb. All of the guns could fire both solid shot and explosive shells.[11]
Resistance was rearmed during her 1867–1868 refit with fourteen 7-inch and two 8inches rifled muzzle-loading guns.[12] The new guns were heavier so fewer could be carried. The shell of the 15-calibre 8-inch gun weighed 175lb while the gun itself weighed 9LT. It had a muzzle velocity of 1410ft/s and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal 9.6inches of wrought iron armour at the muzzle. The 16-calibre 7-inch gun weighed 6.5LT and fired a 112lb shell. It was credited with the nominal ability to penetrate 7.7adj=onNaNadj=on armour.[13]
The Defence-class ships had a wrought-iron armour belt, 4.5inches thick, that covered 140feet amidships.[14] The armour extended from upper deck level to 6feet below the waterline. 4.5-inch transverse bulkheads protected the guns on the main deck. The armour was backed by of teak. The ends of the ship were left entirely unprotected which meant that the steering gear was very vulnerable. They were, however, sub-divided into many watertight compartments to minimize any flooding.[15]
Resistance was ordered on 14 December 1859 and laid down a week later by Westwood, Baillie at their shipyard in Cubitt Town, London. She was launched on 11 April 1861, commissioned in July 1862 and completed on 5 October at the cost of £258,120.[16] After completion she served in the Channel Fleet until 1864 when she was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, the first British ironclad assigned to that fleet. In 1867 the ship was paid off in Portsmouth for refit and re-armament. Resistance recommissioned in 1869 as guardship in the River Mersey and served there until 1873 when she returned to the Channel Fleet. In 1877 the ship resumed her post as Mersey guardship until she was paid off in 1880 at Devonport.[17]
In 1885 Resistance began to be used as a target for the testing of armour against the effects of torpedoes and gunfire. On 3 February 1888, she sank in Portchester Creek following the test of a Whitehead torpedo.[18]
Resistance was sold for scrap to J S Turnbull of Glasgow on 11 November 1898.[19] [20] On 4 February 1899 she departed Spithead in tow of the Liverpool tugs Pathfinder and Wrestler for the Mersey, to be broken up. In a gale in the Irish Sea on 8 February, her steam steering engine failed due to a boiler problem, she shipped water in the forward compartments and the stokehold. In view of the leaks and the inability to steer, the tugs sought a port of refuge and brought her to anchor inside Holyhead Breakwater, in the outer harbour. Early the next morning it was realised that the ship was taking in more water and would founder where the water had a depth of 42feet. To prevent a total loss and a potential danger to navigation, she was towed further into the harbour and put ashore in Penrhos Bay.[21] [22]
After salvage operations, Resistance was refloated on 17 February and the tow to the Mersey completed. On 13 March she was beached at Oglet Point, near Garston, where she was broken up by the ironfounders Monks, Hall & Co, of Warrington.[23]