Wake-Walker makes Warrior a heavy frigate

Britain's response to the French ironclad Gloire was not predetermined: the Admiralty considered much larger two-deck designs with far more guns. One alternative even proposed armoring only the lower gun deck, a questionable arrangement because ammunition for the exposed upper battery would still have to pass into protected spaces. Baldwin Wake-Walker's long-standing advocacy of a deployable 40-gun heavy frigate helped produce Warrior and Black Prince instead. His earlier Mersey and Orlando had already pushed the heavy-frigate idea far enough to act as unarmored precursors to the new ironclads. The result balanced armor, speed, firepower, and worldwide employment strongly enough to eclipse Gloire without committing Britain to an excessive leap before the new technology had been tested. The two-ship order probably approached available building capacity, and waiting for trials before ordering successors offered a chance to improve the design.