all portholes. Tryon commented that some of the noisiest and most eccentrically dressed attendees were those on the steamer bringing members of the House of Commons. Royal Albert paid off on 24 August 1858 and on 4 November he joined Victoria and Albert. Each year one of the two lieutenants on board would be promoted and replaced. For nine months of the year the yacht had little to do and her officers lived on board the Royal George hulk in Portsmouth harbour. At the end of his two years he duly received promotion, leaving with a commendation from Captain Joseph Denman, 'as an officer of great zeal and promise. His ready resource, active intelligence, sound judgement and good temper, especially qualify him for success in his profession; and I consider it my duty to recommend him strongly to their Lordships as an officer likely to perform any service required of him with ability.' Commander (1860–1866) Tryon was placed on half pay after promotion to commander in October 1860. In June 1861 he was selected to become second in command of HMS Warrior, the world's first ocean-going iron-hulled armoured battleship. Warrior was still under construction, so temporarily he was appointed to Fisguard. Warrior's sister ship was a year later in entering service, but in November 1862 the two ships carried out speed trials, where Warrior was deemed to be the faster. Although the ships' armour was considered impregnable at the time they were constructed, they immediately instigated an arms race between armour and gun designers which continued up to World War II, where each successive ship had to have more of each to remain ahead. This meant that despite her initial claim to invulnerability, she rapidly became obsolete. In March 1863 Warrior acted as escort for Princess Alexandra of Denmark, who came to Britain to marry the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII). Alexandra was much impressed by the station-keeping of the much larger warship, so much so that her signal to the ship, 'Princess is much pleased,' was inscribed into the ship's wheel. In the autumn the Channel fleet toured ports around the coast of Britain where Warrior was much admired. In July 1864 Tryon was appointed to command , a 680-ton screw- and sail-propelled gunboat in the Mediterranean. Tryon was given the task of rescuing the British barque Energy, which had run aground on the coast of Sicily