Inconstant had an iron hull but no armour. The Royal Navy still regarded the substantial hull as some protection even without an armour belt. Her mixed sail and steam design belonged to the transition between wooden sailing frigates and later protected cruisers. After front-line service, she became a hulk and training vessel under names including Impregnable II and Defiance. She survived from her 1868 launch until sale in 1955, then was broken up in Belgium in 1956, before large-scale warship preservation had become established.
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Inconstant's unarmoured iron hull and unusually long afterlife
Inconstant was an iron-hulled screw frigate without armour that later became a training ship and survived until the 1950s.