The Hector-class ironclads were a pair of armoured frigates built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1860s. Hector was completed in 1864 and assigned to the Channel Fleet until she began a refit in 1867. Valiant's builder went bankrupt and delayed her launching by a year. The ship then had to wait almost another five years to receive her guns and be commissioned. Both ships were assigned to the Reserve Fleet from 1868 until they were paid off in 1885–86. They were mobilized during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, but saw no action. They were hulked in the late 1890s and assigned to shore establishments. Hector was scrapped in 1905, but Valiant was converted into a floating oil tank in 1926 until she was sold for scrap in 1956.