Editing HMS Wivern (1863) (section)

==Construction and career==
The British government seized the pair of ironclads in October 1863, before they could be completed. In early 1864, the Admiralty purchased both for the [[Royal Navy]]. Completed in October 1865, ''Wivern'' was assigned to the Channel Fleet until 1868. After a refit that reduced her sailing rig from a barque to a [[schooner]], the ship served briefly as a [[guard ship]] at [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]] and then went into reserve. In 1880 she was dispatched to [[Hong Kong]] to serve as the station [[guard ship]] there.

The naval architect [[Edward James Reed]] wrote: "the turret-ship 'Wivern', belonging to the Royal Navy, has a low free-board (about 4 feet), and is very lightly armoured, while her armament is also very light. Yet on one occasion her behaviour at sea was so bad that she had to be brought head to wind in order to prevent her shipping large, and, of course, dangerous, quantities of water, the extreme angle of roll rising to 27 degrees each way."<ref>Pages 138-9 [[Edward James Reed|Reed, Edward J]] ''Our Ironclad Ships, their Qualities, Performance and Cost'', published John Murray, 1869.</ref>

One of her commanding officers was Captain [[Hugh Talbot Burgoyne]], VC who was later appointed the commanding officer of {{HMS|Captain|1869|6}}. ''Wivern'' remained in Hong Kong until sold for scrap in 1922, having been reduced to harbor duties from 1904.