The Victoria class consisted of a pair of 121-gun, first-rate ships of the line built for the Royal Navy during the 1850s, , and . The ships spent the bulk of their careers in ordinary or on secondary duties like stationary flagships for various administrative positions or as training ships, although Victoria spent three years in the 1860s as the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Background and description The Victoria-class ships were authorised by the Admiralty in 1855 in response to the French first rate, the 130-gun , despite the alliance between France and Britain during the ongoing Crimean War. Both the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham and the Surveyor of the Navy, Captain Baldwin Wake Walker, believed that "France would resume her role as Britain's principal rival at sea".Lambert, p. 43 The ships measured on the gun deck and on the keel. They had a beam of , and a depth of hold of . The ships had a tonnage of 4,116 tons burthen and had an intended displaced of . The great size of the Victoria class required that their hulls be reinforced by thick diagonal wrought-iron straps.Friedman, p. 64 The ships were the only British three-deck ships of the line to be designed from the start for screw propulsion, and were the largest wooden battleships of their time.Winfield 2010, pp. 118–121

The ships were powered by a two-cylinder, horizontal trunk steam engine that was rated at 1,000 nominal horsepower; it used steam from eight fire-tube boilers to drive the single propeller shaft. Howes engine was built by John Penn and Sons and it produced during her sea trials which gave her a maximum speed of , albeit without masts or supplies. Victorias engine was built by Maudslay, Sons and Field and it produced during the ship's sea trials which gave her a maximum speed of . The Victoria-class ships were unique in the RN as the only steam battleships with boiler rooms fore and aft of the engine room.Lambert, p. 122 Each boiler room was fitted with a funnel that could be retracted to reduce drag when under sail. The ships had three masts and were ship rigged.

The armament of the ships consisted of thirty-two shell guns on their lower gun deck, thirty 8-inch shell guns on the middle gun deck and thirty-two 32-pounder (56 cwt) guns"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 56 cwt referring to the weight of the gun. on their upper gun deck. Between their forecastle and quarterdeck, they carried twenty-six 32-pounder (42 cwt) guns and a single 68-pounder (95 cwt) on a pivot mount. Their crew numbered 1000 officers and ratings.Winfield 2014, p. 22

Ships While under construction in 1857–1858, Walker decided that the ships needed finer lines and ordered that their bows be extended by Phillips, p. 164 and the beam increased by .

+ Construction dataShipBuilderOrderedLaid downLaunchedCompletedFate HM Dockyard, Portsmouth3 April 1854 1 April 1856 12 November 1859 20 April 1860Sold for scrap, 31 May 1893HM Dockyard, Pembroke10 March 18567 March 186016 August 1860 Sold for scrap, 18 February 1921

Service history Although Victoria was completed in 1860, the ship was not commissioned until 1864 when she became the flagship of Britain's Mediterranean Fleet. She was paid off in 1867 into the reserve fleet and was later sold for scrap.

Howe never served on active duty during her lifetime. She spent her early career as the flagship of the Reserve Fleet before being renamed Bulwark in 1885. The ship was renamed a second time to Impregnable the following year and became a stationary boys training ship,Warlow, p. 76 while also serving as the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, but briefly reverted to Bulwark in 1919 before being sold for scrap.

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