In every respect, save, perhaps, that of manœuvring, she was an improvement upon her French rival. Her ports were about 8 feet 6 inches from the water as compared with 5 feet 8 inches in the _Gloire_, those of the latter, though comparing favourably with the distance which prevailed in the earlier ships of the line, both sail and steam, being considered much too near the water to permit of her main deck guns being fought except in fine weather. Her gun carriages, too, were a great improvement upon anything of the kind that had been fitted in an English ship. A system of pivoting the carriages under the trunnions of the guns was applied, so that the guns could be trained through portholes only 2 feet wide, or half the size of those fitted in other ships, and as the sides of the ports were plated with 7-inch iron, an additional measure of protection was afforded the crew. Her tonnage was 6,177 tons, builder’s measurement, but her total weight with stores and guns was about 9,000 tons. The _Warrior_ was a combination of the longitudinal system of ship construction designed by Scott Russell, and the ordinary method of transverse framing, the plans being prepared by the Admiralty. The sixth longitudinal was used to rest the backing and armour upon. The unprotected ends of the vessel were built on the transverse system, and were given a number of watertight compartments. An important feature in the construction was that the transverse plates between the longitudinals were solid but had three holes cut in them to lighten them, and it was in dealing with these plates that some of the earliest improvements were made in following ships. As a further means of giving strength, a vertical watertight longitudinal bulkhead extended from the third longitudinal on each side up to the main deck, to which it was rigidly secured, thus forming an exceedingly strong wing passage and box girder, which was further strengthened by transverse bulkheads. She had not a complete double bottom. Externally, she was fitted with two bilge keels to prevent rolling. The _Black Prince_, which followed the _Warrior_, was 380 feet in length, and exceeded the length of the _Gloire_ by 130 feet; her beam was 58 feet 4 inches, and her displacement 9,210 tons. She also was a full-rigged ship, and had an overhanging or schooner bow, the ram being thought unnecessary, as ramming was no longer looked upon as an important feature of naval tactics. “These were the last, however, in which the essentials of pictorial beauty were held of paramount importance.”[37]