Fifteen ironclads faced a matching line of screw ships, with gunboats extending the formation and the whole fleet flying the White Ensign. HMS Minotaur led the ironclads with a mixed battery of seven- and nine-inch rifled muzzle-loaders, but her heavy coal consumption and poor sailing qualities limited the impressive design. Captain Cowper Coles's turret ship HMS Royal Sovereign looked awkward to observers while presenting a small, heavily protected target that the fleet's guns could scarcely damage. The spectacle revealed a navy testing competing solutions to steam, armour, sail, and turret warfare rather than a parade of perfected ships.
Notable Point · 48:28-52:24
Minotaur and Royal Sovereign at the 1867 review
The review's lines of ironclads, screw ships, and gunboats displayed both the power and the experimental uncertainty of the Victorian Royal Navy.