3-009-016 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Launch of Her Majesty's armour-plated screw-frigate Caledonia, 31 guns, at Woolwich, [London], 1862. '...the vessel having been named by Miss Nicolson, daughter of the Commodore Superintendent, powerful jackscrews were applied to the keel, and the noble vessel glided down the launching-ways, and swung out into the centre of the river [Thames] amidst the cheers of the spectators, the bands performing "Rule Britannia"...The Caledonia was laid down about three years since as a 90-gun timber-frigate, hut, the Admiralty having abandoned the building of such vessels, she was altered and reconstructed as an armour-plated ship under the direction of Mr. Turner, master shipwright, who introduced several improvements in the construction of her frame, which is more than usually, solid and substantial, and fully capable of sustaining the immense weight of iron which will be on her sides. The contractor for the supply of her 4½in. wrought-iron plates is Mr. Brown, of Sheffield, and the most complete machinery, consisting of hydraulic-presses, planing and drilling machines, has been fitted up in a shed erected close to the dock where the vessel remains'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.