Valiant was hulked in 1897 as part of the stoker training school HMS Indus before becoming a storeship for kite balloons during the First World War.

The Hector-class ironclads,[Note 1] like their immediate predecessors, the Defence class, were designed as smaller and cheaper versions of the Warrior-class armoured frigates.

[1] The hull was subdivided by watertight transverse bulkheads into 92 compartments and had a double bottom underneath the engine and boiler rooms.

[4] Valiant had one 2-cylinder horizontal-return connecting-rod steam engine made by Maudslay Sons & Field driving a single 20-foot-2-inch (6.1 m) propeller.

The ship carried 450 long tons (460 t) of coal,[5] enough to steam 800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi) at full speed.

[10] The Hector-class ships had a wrought-iron waterline armour belt, 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick, that covered 216 feet (65.8 m) amidships and left the bow and stern unprotected.

[12] This company went bankrupt in November 1861 and was ultimately bought by Thames Ironworks,[4] which delayed the ship's launching until 14 October 1863.

After Valiant was commissioned she became the First Reserve guard ship in Southern Ireland, where she remained until 1885, an experience unique among the British ironclads, although she did have one break to have new boilers installed.

On 20 July 1884 Valiant was accidentally rammed by the ironclad HMS Defence in Lough Swilly, damaging her hull and tearing off her boats, davits and fittings on one side of the ship.

[15] The ship was converted to a kite balloon storeship in 1915, during World War I, and her name was changed to HMS Valiant III.