In the 1860s rapid changes were taking place in the technology of armament production, and calibres were increasing by about an inch per year.

As a battleship normally took not less than three years to progress from laying-down to launch, and as at that time warship gun designs were being upgraded approximately annually, this was a real and serious problem.

Lighter guns were placed outside the box, near the bow and the stern, to provide fore and aft fire.

She remained on this station for six years, moving between Nova Scotia and the West Indies, broken only by a short relief by HMS Defence for docking.

An engineering survey discovered that her boilers were so corroded that she could achieve a steam pressure of only 10 pound/sq.