The first battle between ironclads: CSS Virginia (left) vs. USS Monitor, in 1862 at the Battle of Hampton Roads

An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship of the later 19th century, protected by iron or steel armor plates.^[1] Look up ironclad in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the 19th century warships, see Ironclad warship. ... Image File history File links Monitorvirginia. ... Image File history File links Monitorvirginia. ... Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders John L. Worden Franklin Buchanan Catesby R. Jones Strength 1 ironclad, 3 wooden warships 1 ironclad, 2 wooden warships, 1 gunboat, 2 tenders Casualties 2 wooden warships sunk, 1 wooden warship damaged 261 killed 108 wounded 1 ironclad damaged 7... // The term steam engine may also refer to an entire railroad steam locomotive. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... General Name, symbol, number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, period, block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Standard atomic weight 55. ... For other uses, see Steel (disambiguation). ...

The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells. The first ironclad battleship, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in 1859;^[2] she prompted the British Royal Navy to start building ironclads. After the first clashes of ironclads took place during the American Civil War, it became clear that the ironclad had replaced the unarmored line-of-battle ship as the most powerful warship afloat.^[3] Shells of WWI. From left to right: 90 mm fragmentation shell - 120 mm pig iron incendiary shell 77/14 model - 75 mm high explosive shell model 16 - 75 mm fragmentation shell A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, contains an explosive or other filling... The French Navys La Gloire (Glory) was the first ocean-going ironclad battleship in history. ... The French Navy, officially called the National Navy (French: Marine Nationale) is the maritime arm of the French military. ... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders John L. Worden Franklin Buchanan Catesby R. Jones Strength 1 ironclad, 3 wooden warships 1 ironclad, 2 wooden warships, 1 gunboat, 2 tenders Casualties 2 wooden warships sunk, 1 wooden warship damaged 261 killed 108 wounded 1 ironclad damaged 7... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... Ships of the line were 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-rated ships in the rating system of the Royal Navy. ...

Ironclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, coastal defense ships, and long-range cruisers. The rapid evolution of warship design in the late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel which carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns (the ironclads of the 1880s carried some of the heaviest guns ever mounted at sea)^{[citation needed]}, more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy which made steel shipbuilding possible. For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... USS Port Royal (CG-73), a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser (really an uprated guided missile destroyer), launched in 1992. ...

The rapid pace of change in the ironclad period meant that many ships were obsolete as soon as they were complete, and that naval tactics were in a state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the ram or the torpedo, which a number of naval designers considered the crucial weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but towards the end of the 1890s the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to a standard pattern and designated battleships or armored cruisers. A Naval ram was a weapon carried by varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. ... The torpedo, historically called a locomotive torpedo, is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target. ... Schematic section of a typical armoured cruiser with an armoured upper and middle deck and side belt (red), lateral protective coal bunkers (grey) and a double-bottom of watertight compartments. ...

Before the Ironclad

The ironclad became technically feasible and tactically necessary because of developments in shipbuilding in the first half of the 19th century. According to naval historian R.D. Hill:

"The (ironclad) had three chief characteristics: a metal-skinned hull, steam propulsion and a main armament of guns capable of firing explosive shells. It is only when all three characteristics are present that a fighting ship can properly be called an ironclad."

– R.D. Hill.^[4]

Each of these developments was introduced separately in the decade before the first ironclads.

Steam propulsion

Le Napoléon (1850), the first steam battleship

In the 18th and early 19th centuries fleets had relied on two types of major warship, the ship of the line and the frigate. The first major change to these types was the introduction of steam power for propulsion. While paddle steamer warships had been used from the 1830s onwards, steam propulsion only became suitable for major warships after the adoption of the screw propellor in the 1840s.^[5] Image File history File linksMetadata Napoleon(1850). ... Image File history File linksMetadata Napoleon(1850). ... Le Napoléon was a battleship of the French Navy, and the first purpose-built steam battleship in the world [1]. She is also considered as the first true steam battleship, and the first screw battleship ever [2]. Launched in 1850, she was the lead ship of a class of... Ships of the line were 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-rated ships in the rating system of the Royal Navy. ... For the bird, see Frigatebird. ... A steam engine is a heat engine that makes use of the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, converting it to mechanical work. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... A paddle steamer, paddleboat, or paddlewheeler is a ship or boat propelled by one or more paddle wheels driven by a steam engine. ... A propeller can be seen as a rotating fin in water or a wing in air. ...

The first steam-powered screw frigates were built in the mid-1840s, and at the end of the decade the French Navy introduced steam power to its line of battle. The desire for change came from the ambition of Napoleon III to gain greater influence in Europe, which required a challenge to the British at sea.^[6] The first purpose-built steam battleship was the 90-gun Le Napoléon in 1850.^[5] Le Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h), regardless of the wind conditions: a potentially decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The French Navy, officially called the National Navy (French: Marine Nationale) is the maritime arm of the French military. ... British and Danish ships in line of battle at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801). ... Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (April 20, 1808 - January 9, 1873) was the son of King Louis Bonaparte and Queen Hortense de Beauharnais; both monarchs of the French puppet state, the Kingdom of Holland. ... Le Napoléon was a battleship of the French Navy, and the first purpose-built steam battleship in the world [1]. She is also considered as the first true steam battleship, and the first screw battleship ever [2]. Launched in 1850, she was the lead ship of a class of...

The introduction of the steam ship-of-the-line led to a building competition between France and Britain. Eight sister-ships to Le Napoléon were built in France over a period of ten years, but the United Kingdom soon managed to take the lead in production. Altogether, France built ten new wooden steam battleships and converted 28 from older ships of the line, while the United Kingdom built 18 and converted 41.^[5]

Explosive shells

A Paixhans naval shell gun. Musée de la Marine.

The era of the wooden steam ship-of-the-line was brief, because of new, more powerful naval guns. In the 1820s and 1830s, warships began to mount increasingly heavy guns, replacing 18-pounder guns with 32-, 36- or even 42-pounders on sailing ships and introducing 68-pounders on steamers. At the same time, the first shell guns firing explosive shells were introduced following their development by the French Général Henri-Joseph Paixhans, and by the 1840s were part of the standard armament for naval powers including the French Navy, British Royal Navy, Imperial Russian Navy and United States Navy. It is often held that the power of explosive shells to smash wooden hulls, as demonstrated by the Russian destruction of a Turkish squadron at the Battle of Sinope, spelled the end of the wooden-hulled warship.^[7] An alternative view is that the more practical threat to wooden ships was from conventional cannon firing red-hot shot, which could lodge in the hull of a wooden ship and cause a fire or ammunition explosion. Some navies even experimented with hollow shot filled with molten metal for extra incendiary power.^[8] Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 480 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,500 × 900 pixels, file size: 263 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 480 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,500 × 900 pixels, file size: 263 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Henri-Joseph Paixhans was a French artillery officer of the beginning of the 19th century. ... Shells of WWI. From left to right: 90 mm fragmentation shell - 120 mm pig iron incendiary shell 77/14 model - 75 mm high explosive shell model 16 - 75 mm fragmentation shell A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, contains an explosive or other filling... Model of the French submarine Plongeur at the Musée national de la Marine, Paris. ... Shells of WWI. From left to right: 90 mm fragmentation shell - 120 mm pig iron incendiary shell 77/14 model - 75 mm high explosive shell model 16 - 75 mm fragmentation shell A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, contains an explosive or other filling... The Mortier monstre, invented by Henri-Joseph Paixhans. ... The French Navy, officially called the National Navy (French: Marine Nationale) is the maritime arm of the French military. ... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... Russian Navy Jack Russian Navy Ensign The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Navy of Imperial Russia, before the Soviet Union. ... USN redirects here. ... Combatants Tsarist Russia Ottoman Empire Commanders Osman Pasha Strength 6 battleships, 2 frigates, 3 steamers 7 frigates, 5 corvettes Casualties none 7 frigates, 4 corvettes sunk {{{notes}}} The naval Battle of Sinope (or Sinop) occurred on 30 November 1853 at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey, when Imperial Russian...

Iron armor

French Navy ironclad floating battery Lave, 1854. This ironclad, together with the similar Tonnante and Dévastation, vanquished Russian land batteries at the Battle of Kinburn (1855).

In the 1850s, the British and French navies deployed iron-armored floating batteries as a supplement to the wooden steam battlefleet in the Crimean War. The role of the battery was to assist unarmored mortar and gunboats bombarding shore fortifications. The French used three of their ironclad batteries (Lave, Tonnante and Dévastation) in 1855 against the defenses at the Battle of Kinburn (1855) on the Black Sea, where they were effective against Russian shore defences. They would later be used again during the Italian war in the Adriatic in 1859.^[9] The British plan to use theirs in the Baltic Sea against Kronstadt was influential in causing the Russians to sue for peace.^[10] The Battle of Kinburn was a naval engagement during the final stage of the Crimean War. ... A floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries a heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship. ... Combatants Allies: Second French Empire British Empire Ottoman Empire Kingdom of Sardinia Russian Empire Bulgarian volunteers Casualties 90,000 French 35,000 Turkish 17,500 British 2,194 Sardinian killed, wounded and died of disease ~134,000 killed, wounded and died of disease The Crimean War (1853–1856) was fought... The Battle of Kinburn was a naval engagement during the final stage of the Crimean War. ... For other uses, see Black Sea (disambiguation). ... Combatants Second French Empire Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia Austrian Empire Commanders Napoleon III Victor Emmanuel II Giuseppe Garibaldi Ferencz Graf Gyulai Franz Josef I Strength 206,000 242,000 The Second War of Italian Independence, Franco-Austrian War, or Austro-Sardinian War was fought by Napoleon III of France and... The Adriatic Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea separating the Apennine peninsula (Italy) from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. ... For other uses, see Baltic (disambiguation). ... 1888 map of the Kronstadt bay Kronstadt (Russian: ), also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt (German: for Crown and Stadt for City) is a Russian seaport town, located on Kotlin Island, thirty kilometers west of Saint Petersburg near the head of the Gulf of Finland. ...

The batteries have a claim to the title of the first ironclad warships^[11] but they were capable of only 4 knots (7.4 km/h) under their own power and were towed into action,^[12] and were marginal to the work of the navy.^[10] The brief success of the floating ironclad batteries convinced France to begin work on armored warships for their battlefleet.^[10]

Early Ironclad ships and battles

Model of the French La Gloire (1858), the first ocean-going ironclad

By the end of the 1850s it was clear that France was unable to match British building of steam warships, and to regain the strategic initiative a dramatic change was required. The result was the first ocean-going ironclad, the La Gloire, begun in 1857 and launched in 1859.^[13] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2560 × 1920 pixel, file size: 759 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Photograph by Rama File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2560 × 1920 pixel, file size: 759 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Photograph by Rama File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The French Navys La Gloire (Glory) was the first ocean-going ironclad battleship in history. ...

La Gloire's wooden hull was modelled on that of a steam ship of the line, reduced to one deck, sheathed in iron plates 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick. She was propelled by a steam engine, driving a single screw propeller for a speed 13 knots (24 km/h). She was armed with thirty-six 6.4-inch (160 mm) rifled guns. France proceeded to construct 16 ironclad warships, including two more sister ships to La Gloire, and the only two-decked broadside ironclads ever built, Magenta and Solferino.^[14] An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... The French ironclad Solferino, of the Magenta class, the only two-decked broadside ironclad battleships ever built. ...

HMS Warrior (1860), Britain's first all iron warship

Britain's venture into iron was not in the form of an ironclad (a wooden hull armour plated) but the world's first all iron ship, (iron hull, armour plated) HMS Warrior. HMS Warrior File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... HMS Warrior File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched only a year earlier. ...

The Royal Navy had not been keen to sacrifice their advantage in steam ships of the line, but was determined that the first British iron ship would outmatch the French ships in every respect, particularly speed. A fast iron ship would have the advantage of being able to choose a range of engagement which could make her invulnerable to enemy fire. The British specification was more a large, powerful frigate than a ship-of-the-line. The requirement for speed meant a very long vessel, which had to be built from iron.^[10] The resulting vessel was Warrior, built and launched in 1860, Britain's first iron warship. Warrior was a successful design; her weapons and armor were more effective than that of La Gloire, and with the largest set of steam engines yet fitted to a ship she could steam at 14.3 knots.^[10] For the bird, see Frigatebird. ... HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched only a year earlier. ...

By 1862, navies across Europe had adopted ironclads. Britain and France each had sixteen either completed or under construction, though the British vessels were larger. Austria, Italy, Russia, and Spain were also building ironclads.^[15] However, the first battles using the new ironclad ships involved neither Britain nor France, and involved ships markedly different from the broadside-firing, masted designs of La Gloire and Warrior. The use of ironclads by both sides in the American Civil War, and the clash of the Italian and Austrian fleets at the Battle of Lissa, had an important influence on the development of ironclad design.

First battles between ironclads: The U.S. Civil War

The first battles May 1861 to buy ironclads from overseas, and in July and August started work on construction and converting wooden ships.^[16]

On 12 October 1861, the CSS Manassas, the CSS Louisiana, and the CSS Mississippi became the first ironclads to enter battle, when they fought Union warships on the Mississippi. They were all built in New Orleans for river and coastal fighting. In February 1862, the even larger CSS Virginia joined the Confederate Navy, having been built at Norfolk. By this time the Union had completed seven ironclad gunboats of the City class, and was about to complete the USS Monitor, an innovative design proposed by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson. The Union was also building a large armored frigate, the USS New Ironsides, and the smaller USS Galena.^[17] is the 285th day of the year (286th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1861 (MDCCCLXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... CSS Manassas, formerly the steam propeller Enoch Train, was built at Medford, Massachusetts, by J. O. Curtis in 1855. ... The CSS Louisiana was an ironclad ship of the Confederate States Navy built to aid in defense of the lower Mississippi from invasion of the Union Navy. ... CSS Virginia was an ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War (built using the remains of the scuttled USS Merrimack). ... USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy. ... This article is about John Ericsson, the Swedish-American inventor. ... USS New Ironsides was a broadside ironclad United States Civil War ship, named in honor of USS Constitution, who earned the nickname Old Ironsides during her engagement with HMS Guerrière in the War of 1812. ... USS Galena, an ironclad screw steamer, was one of the first three ironclads, each of a different design, built by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. ...

The first battle between ironclads happened on 9 March 1862, as the Monitor was deployed to protect the Union's wooden fleet from the Virginia and other Confederate warships. In this engagement, named the Battle of Hampton Roads, the two ironclads repeatedly tried to ram one another while shells bounced off their armor. The battle attracted attention worldwide, making it clear that the wooden warship was now out of date with the ironclads destroying them easily.^[18] is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about 1862 . ... Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders John L. Worden Franklin Buchanan Catesby R. Jones Strength 1 ironclad, 3 wooden warships 1 ironclad, 2 wooden warships, 1 gunboat, 2 tenders Casualties 2 wooden warships sunk, 1 wooden warship damaged 261 killed 108 wounded 1 ironclad damaged 7...

USS Cairo (1861), an example of a City class ironclad gunboat

The Civil War saw more ironclads built by both sides, and they played an increasing role in the naval war alongside the unarmored warships, commerce raiders and blockade runners. The Union built a large fleet of fifty monitors modelled on their namesake. The Confederacy built ships designed as smaller versions of the Virginia (Merrimack), of which all saw action,^[19] but their attempts to buy ironclads overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for the Confederacy — especially in Russia, the only country to openly support the Union through the war. Only CSS Stonewall was completed, the only other non Russian ironclad to be completed over seas, and she arrived in American waters just in time for the Battle of Galveston.^[20] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... USS Cairo was an ironclad river gunboat in the United States Navy. ... A monitor was a special form of warship, little more than a self-propelled floating artillery platform that could move close inshore and give its support to military operations on land. ... Kōtetsu literally Ironclad), later renamed Azuma East)) was the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. ... The Battle of Galveston occurred on January 1, 1863 when Confederate forces under Gen. ...

Through the remainder of the war, ironclads saw action in the Union's attacks on Southern ports. Seven Union monitors, including USS Montauk, as well as two other ironclads, the ironclad frigate New Ironsides and a light-draft Keokuk, participated in the failed attack on Charleston; one was sunk. Two small ironclads, CSS Palmetto State and CSS Chicora and two large ironclads, CSS Shenandoah and CSS Raleigh participated in the defence of the harbor. For the later attack at Mobile Bay, the Union assembled four monitors as well as 11 wooden ships, facing the CSS Tennessee, the Confederacy's most powerful ironclad and the CSS Mobile, CSS Montgomery, CSS Peach State, and CSS Arizona.^[21] The first USS Montauk was a single-turreted monitor in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. ... Nickname: Motto: Aedes Mores Juraque Curat (She cares for her temples, customs, and rights) Location of Charleston in South Carolina. ... CSS Palmetto State, an ironclad ram, was built by Cameron and Co. ... CSS Chicora, a Confederate ironclad ram, was built under contract at Charleston, South Carolina in 1862, by James M. Eason to John L. Porters plans, using up most of a $300,000 State appropriation for construction of marine batteries; Eason received a bonus for skill and promptitude. ... The CSS Shenandoah, formerly Sea King, was an iron-framed, teak-planked, full-rigged vessel with auxiliary steam power, under Captain James Waddell, CSN, a North Carolinian with twenty years service in the Federal navy. ... Two ships of the Confederate States Navy were named CSS Raleigh, after the city of Raleigh, North Carolina: The gunboat CSS Raleigh served as a tender to CSS Virginia during the Battle of Hampton Roads. ... Combatants United States of America (U.S. Navy) Confederate States of America (Confederate States Navy) Commanders David Farragut (navy) Gordon Granger (army) Franklin Buchanan (navy) Dabney H. Maury (army) Strength 14 wooden ships (including 2 gunboats) 4 ironclad monitors 5,500 Land Force Troops Three gunboats, One ironclad, 2,000... // CSS Tennessee, a slow-moving ironclad ram, was built at Selma, Alabama, where she was commissioned on February 16, 1864, Lieutenant James D. Johnston, CSN, in command. ...

Lissa: First Ironclad fleet battle

The fleets engaging for the Battle of Lissa.

The first fleet battle, and the first ocean battle, involving ironclad warships was the Battle of Lissa in 1866. Waged between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian navies, the battle pitted combined fleets of wooden frigates and corvettes and ironclad warships on both sides in the largest naval battle between Navarino and Tsushima.^[22] Image File history File links Battle_of_Lissa_-_1866_-_Initial_Situation. ... Image File history File links Battle_of_Lissa_-_1866_-_Initial_Situation. ... Combatants Italy Austria Commanders Carlo di Persano Wilhelm von Tegetthoff Strength 12 ironclads 10 cruisers 4 gunboats (approx 68,000 tons) 7 ironclads 1 steam battleship 6 cruisers 12 gunboats (approx 50,000 tons) Casualties 2 ironclads sunk 620 dead 40 wounded 38 dead 138 wounded The Battle of Lissa... Combatants Italy Austria Commanders Carlo di Persano Wilhelm von Tegetthoff Strength 12 ironclads 10 cruisers 4 gunboats (approx 68,000 tons) 7 ironclads 1 steam battleship 6 cruisers 12 gunboats (approx 50,000 tons) Casualties 2 ironclads sunk 620 dead 40 wounded 38 dead 138 wounded The Battle of Lissa... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ... For the bird, see Frigatebird. ... French steam corvette Dupleix (1856-1887) Canadian corvettes on antisubmarine convoy escort duty during World War II. A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft. ... Combatants United Kingdom France Russian Empire Ottoman Empire Ottoman Vilayet of Egypt Ottoman Vilayet of Tunisia Commanders Edward Codrington (C-in-C) Henri de Rigny Login Heyden Ibrahim Pasha (C-in-C) Amir Tahir Pasha (Adm comm) Moharram Bey Capitan Bey Strength 10 battleships 10 frigates 4 brigs 2 schooners... Combatants Empire of Japan Russian Empire Commanders Heihachiro Togo Zinovi Rozhdestvenski # Nikolai Nebogatov Strength 4 battleships 27 cruisers destroyers and auxiliary vessels 8 battleships 3 coastal battleships 8 cruisers Casualties 117 dead 583 injured 3 torpedo boats sunk 4,380 dead 5,917 captured 21 ships sunk 7 captured 6...

The Italian fleet consisted of 12 ironclads and a similar number of wooden warships, escorting transports which carried troops intending to land on the Adriatic island of Lissa. Among the Italian ironclads were seven broadside ironclad frigates, four smaller ironclads, and the newly-built Affondatore – a double-turretted ram. Opposing them, the Austrian navy had seven ironclad frigates.^[23] Affondatore was an Italian ironclad warship of the 1860s. ...

The Austrians believed their ships to have less effective guns than their enemy, so decided to engage the Italians at close range and ram the enemy. The Austrian fleet formed into an arrowhead formation with the ironclads in the first line, charging at the Italian ironclad squadron. In the melee which followed both sides were frustrated by the lack of damage inflicted by guns, and by the difficulty of ramming—nonetheless, the effective ramming attack being made by the Austrian flagship against the Italian attracted great attention in following years.^[24]

The superior Italian fleet lost its two ironclads, Re d'Italia and Palestro, while the Austrian unarmoured screw two-decker Kaiser remarkably survived close actions with four Italian ironclads. The battle ensured the popularity of the ram as a weapon in European ironclads for many years, and the victory won by Austria-Hungary established it briefly as the predominant naval power in the Adriatic.^[25] The Adriatic Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea separating the Apennine peninsula (Italy) from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. ...

The battles of the American Civil War and at Lissa were very influential on the designs and tactics of the ironclad fleets that followed. In particular, it taught a generation of naval officers the misleading lesson that ramming was the best way to sink enemy ironclads.

Armament and tactics

The adoption of iron armor meant that the traditional naval armament of dozens of light cannon became useless, since their shot would bounce off an armored hull. To penetrate armor, increasingly heavy guns were mounted on ships; nevertheless, the view that ramming was the only way to sink an ironclad became widespread. The increasing size and weight of guns also meant a movement away from the ships mounting many guns broadside, in the manner of a ship-of-the-line, towards a handful of guns in turrets for all-round fire. A Naval ram was a weapon carried by varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. ...

Ram craze

Punch cartoon, showing Britannia dressed in the armour of an ironclad. Note the ram.

From the 1860s to the 1880s many naval designers believed that the development of the ironclad meant that the ram was again the most important weapon in naval warfare. With steam power freeing ships from the wind, and armor making them invulnerable to shellfire, the ram seemed to offer the opportunity to strike a decisive blow. Punch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. ... For other uses, see Britannia (disambiguation). ... A Naval ram was a weapon carried by varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. ...

The scant damage inflicted by the guns of Monitor and Virginia at Battle of Hampton Roads and the spectacular but lucky success of the Austrian flagship Ferdinand Max sinking the Italian Re d'Italia at Lissa gave strength to the ramming craze.^[26] From the early 1870s to early 1880s most British naval officers thought that guns were about to be replaced as the main naval armament by the ram. Those who noted the tiny number of ships sunk by ramming attacks struggled to be heard.^[27] Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders John L. Worden Franklin Buchanan Catesby R. Jones Strength 1 ironclad, 3 wooden warships 1 ironclad, 2 wooden warships, 1 gunboat, 2 tenders Casualties 2 wooden warships sunk, 1 wooden warship damaged 261 killed 108 wounded 1 ironclad damaged 7...

The revival of ramming had a significant effect on naval tactics. Since the 17th century the predominant tactic of naval warfare had been the line of battle, where a fleet formed a long line to give it the best fire from its broadside guns. This tactic was totally unsuited to ramming, and the ram threw fleet tactics into disarray. The question of how an ironclad fleet should deploy in battle to make best use of the ram was never tested in battle, and if it had been, combat might have shown that rams could only be used against ships which were already stopped dead in the water.^[28] British and Danish ships in line of battle at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801). ... USS Iowa Broadside (1984) A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous (or near simultaneous) fire in naval warfare. ...

The ram finally fell out of favour in the 1880s, as the same effect could be achieved with a torpedo, with less vulnerability to quick-firing guns.^[29]

Development of naval guns

The armament of ironclads tended to become concentrated in a small number of powerful guns capable of penetrating the armor of enemy ships at range; calibre and weight of guns increased markedly to achieve greater penetration. Throughout the ironclad era navies also grappled with the complexities of rifled versus smoothbore guns and breech-loading versus muzzle-loading. The word caliber (American English) or calibre (British English) comes from the Italian calibro, itself from the Arabic quâlib, meaning mould. ... Rifling of a Canon de 75 modèle 1897 A 35 caliber Remington, with a microgroove rifled barrel with a right hand twist. ... Smoothbore refers to a firearm which does not have a rifled barrel. ... A breech-loading weapon, usually a gun or cannon, is one where the bullet or shell is inserted, loaded, into the gun at the rear of the barrel, the breech; the opposite of muzzle-loading. ... A muzzleloader is any firearm into which the bullet is loaded from the muzzle of the gun (open end of the gun barrel). ...

Breech-loading 110 pounder Armstrong gun on HMS Warrior

HMS Warrior carried a mixture of 110-pounder (7 in or 178 mm) breech-loading rifles and more traditional 68–pounder smoothbore guns. Warrior highlighted the challenges of picking the right armament; the breech-loaders she carried, designed by Sir William Armstrong, were intended to be the next generation of heavy armament for the Royal Navy, but were shortly withdrawn from service.^[30] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 1280 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 1280 pixel, file size: 2. ... The Armstrong Gun is a type of muzzleloading, rifled cannon manufactured in England during the Crimean War and the American Civil War. ... HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched only a year earlier. ... HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched only a year earlier. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... Block quote Sir William George Armstrong William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong (November 26, 1810 – December 27, 1900) was an English industrialist, the effective founder of the Armstrong Whitworth manufacturing empire. ...

Breech-loading guns seemed to offer important advantages. A breech-loader could be reloaded without moving the gun, a lengthy process particularly if the gun then needed to be re-aimed. The Warrior's Armstrong guns also had the virtue of being lighter than an equivalent smoothbore and, due to their rifling, more accurate.^[31] Nonetheless, the design was rejected because of problems which plagued breech-loaders for decades.

The weakness of the breech-loader was due to the problem of sealing the breech. All guns are powered by the explosive conversion of gunpowder into gas. This explosion propels the shot or shell out of the front of the gun, but also imposes great stresses on the gun-barrel. If the breech—which experiences some of the greatest forces in the gun—is not entirely secure, then there is a risk that either gas will discharge through the breech or that the breech will break. This in turn reduces the muzzle velocity of the weapon and can also endanger the gun crew. The Warrior's Armstrong guns suffered from both problems; the shells were unable to penetrate the 4.5 in (118 mm) armor of La Gloire, while sometimes the screw which closed the breech flew backwards out of the gun on firing. Similar problems were experienced with the breech-loading guns which became standard in the French and German navies.^[32] A modern black powder substitute for muzzleloading rifles in FFG size Gunpowder (also called black powder) is a pyrotechnic composition, an explosive mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre or saltpeter) that burns rapidly, producing volumes of hot solids and gases which can be used as... A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ...

These problems influenced the British to equip ships with muzzle-loading weapons of increasing power until the 1880s. After a brief introduction of 100-pounder (9.5-inches or 241 mm) smoothbore Somerset Gun, which weighed 6.5 tons, the Admiralty introduced 7-inch (178 mm) rifled guns, weighing 7 tons. These were followed by a series of increasingly mammoth weapons—guns weighing 12, 25, 25, 38 and finally 81 tons, with calibre increasing from 8-inch (203 mm) to 16-inch (406 mm). A long ton is the name used in the US for the unit called the ton in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used (alongside the metric system) in the United Kingdom and to some extent in other Commonwealth countries. ... The word caliber (American English) or calibre (British English) comes from the Italian calibro, itself from the Arabic quâlib, meaning mould. ...

The decision to retain muzzle-loaders until the 1880s has been criticised by historians. However, at least until the late 1870s, the British muzzle-loaders had superior performance in terms of both range and rate of fire than the French and Prussian breech-loaders, which suffered from the same problems as had the first Armstrong guns.^[33]

Reloading the muzzle-loading guns of Duilio

From 1875 onwards, the balance between breech- and muzzle-loading changed. The aptly named Captain de Bange invented a method of reliably sealing a breech, adopted by the French in 1873. Just as compellingly, the growing size of naval guns made muzzle-loading much more complicated. With guns of such size there was no prospect of hauling in the gun for re-loading, or even re-loading by hand, and complicated hydraulic systems were required for re-loading the gun outside the turret without exposing the crew to enemy fire. In 1882, the 81-ton guns of HMS Inflexible fired only once every 11 minutes while bombarding Alexandria during the Urabi Revolt.^[34] The 450 mm (17.72 inch) guns of Duilio could each fire a round every 15 minutes. ^[35]. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The RN Caio Dulio was the lead ship in a class of two ironclad battleships built in Italy for the Regia Marina in the 1870s. ... For other ships with the same name, see HMS Inflexible. ... This article is about the city in Egypt. ... The Urabi Revolt was an uprising in Egypt in 1881-82 against the Khedive and European influence in the country. ...

In the Royal Navy, the switch to breech-loaders was finally made in 1879; as well as the significant advantages in terms of performance, opinion was swayed by an explosion on board HMS Thunderer caused by a gun being double-loaded, a problem which could only happen with a muzzle-loading gun.^[36] HMS Thunderer was a British Royal Navy Devastation-class battleship. ...

The calibre and weight of guns could only increase so far. The larger the gun, the slower it would be to load, the greater the stresses on the ship's hull, and the less the stability of the ship. The size of the gun peaked in the 1880s, with some of the heaviest calibres of gun ever used at sea. HMS Benbow carried two 16.25-inch (413 mm) guns, each weighing 110 tons—no British battleship would ever carry guns as large. The Italian 450 mm (17.72 inch) guns would be larger than any gun fitted to a battleship until the 18-inch (457 mm) armament of the Japanese Yamato class of World War II.^[37] For other ships with the same name, see HMS Benbow. ... The Yamato class battleships ) of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) were the largest naval vessels of World War II and were the largest, heaviest battleships ever constructed to this day, displacing 72,800 metric tons (at full load) and armed with nine 46 cm (18. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Another method of increasing firepower was to vary the projectile fired or the nature of the propellant. Early ironclads used black powder, which expanded rapidly after combustion; this meant cannons had relatively short barrels, to prevent the barrel itself slowing the shell. The sharpness of the black powder explosion also meant that guns were subjected to extreme stress. One important step was to press the powder into pellets, allowing a slower, more controlled explosion and a longer barrel. A further step forward was the introduction of chemically different "brown powder" which combusted more slowly again. It also put less stress on the insides of the barrel, allowing guns to last longer and to be manufactured to tighter tolerances.^[38] A modern black powder substitute for muzzleloading rifles in FFG size Gunpowder (also called black powder) is a pyrotechnic composition, an explosive mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre or saltpeter) that burns rapidly, producing volumes of hot solids and gases which can be used as... For other uses, see Cannon (disambiguation). ...

The development of smokeless powder, based on nitroglycerine or nitrocellulose, by the French inventor Paul Vielle in 1884 was a further step allowing smaller charges of propellant with longer barrels. The guns of the pre-Dreadnought battleships of the 1890s tended to be smaller in calibre compared to the ships of the 1880s, most often 12 in (305 mm), but progressively grew in length or barrel, making use of improved propellants to gain greater muzzle velocity.^[38] Smokeless powder Smokeless powder is the name given to a number of gunpowder-like propellants used in firearms which produce negligible smoke when fired, unlike the older black powder which it replaced. ... Paul Marie Eugène Vieille (2 September 1854 – 14 January 1934) was a French chemist and the inventor of smokeless gunpowder in 1884. ...

The nature of the projectiles also changed during the ironclad period. Initially, the best armor-piercing projectile was a solid cast-iron shot. Later, shot of chilled iron, a harder iron alloy, gave better armor-piercing qualities. Eventually the armor-piercing shell was developed.^[38] A Chill is an object used in making metal castings. ... Armour piercing shell of the APBC 1 Light weight ballistic cap 2 Steel alloy piercing shell 3 Desensitized bursting charge (TNT, Trinitrophenol, RDX...) 4 Fuse (set with delay to explode inside the target) 5 Bourrelet (front) and driving band (rear) An armour piercing shell is a type of ammunition designed...

Positioning of armament

Broadside ironclads

The conventional broadside of HMS Warrior of 1860

The first British, French and Russian ironclads, in a logical development of warship design from the long preceding era of wooden ships of the line, carried their weapons in a single line along their sides and so were called "broadside ironclads." Both La Gloire and HMS Warrior were examples of this type. Because their armor was so heavy, they could only carry a single row of guns along the main deck on each side rather than a row on each deck.^[39] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 1280 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 1280 pixel, file size: 2. ... USS Iowa Broadside (1984) A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous (or near simultaneous) fire in naval warfare. ... HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched only a year earlier. ... Ships of the line were 1st, 2nd, or 3rd-rated ships in the rating system of the Royal Navy. ... USS Iowa Broadside (1984) A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous (or near simultaneous) fire in naval warfare. ... The French Navys La Gloire (Glory) was the first ocean-going ironclad battleship in history. ... HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched only a year earlier. ...

A significant number of broadside ironclads were built in the 1860s, principally in Britain and France, but in smaller numbers by other powers including Italy, Austria, Russia and the United States. The advantages of mounting guns on both broadsides was that the ship could engage more than one adversary at a time, and the rigging did not impede the field of fire.^[40]

Broadside armament also had disadvantages, which became more serious as ironclad technology developed. Heavier guns to penetrate ever-thicker armor meant that fewer guns could be carried, and so it was important that every gun could be brought to bear. Furthermore, the adoption of ramming as an important tactic meant the need for ahead and all-round fire.^[41] These problems led to broadside designs being superseded by designs that gave greater all-round fire, which included central-battery, turret, and barbette designs.^[42]

Turrets, batteries and barbettes

A barbette of Redoutable of 1876

There were two main alternatives to the broadside. In one design, the guns were placed in an armoured casemate amidships: this arrangement was called the 'box-battery' or 'centre-battery'. In the other, the guns could be placed on a rotating platform to give them a broad field of fire; when fully armored, this arrangement was a turret and when partially or unarmored a barbette. Image File history File links Redoutable-barbette. ... Image File history File links Redoutable-barbette. ... A barbette is the fixed area underneath a rotating gun turret on a warship. ... The Redoutable (1876) was a central battery and barbette ship of the French Navy. ... Corbelled corner turrets at Newark Castle, Port Glasgow. ... A barbette is the fixed area underneath a rotating gun turret on a warship. ...

The centre-battery was the simpler and, during the 1860s and 1870s, the more popular method. Concentrating guns amidships meant the ship could be shorter and handier than a broadside type. The first full-scale centre-battery ship was HMS Bellerophon of 1865; the French laid down centre-battery ironclads in 1865 which were not completed until 1870. Centre-battery ships often, but not always, had a recessed freeboard enabling some of their guns to fire directly ahead.^[43] HMS Bellerophon was a Victorian central battery ironclad battleship of the Royal Navy; she was a major step forward in design technology as compared to previous classes in terms of engine power, armament, armour, hull design and seaworthiness. ...

The turret made its debut with USS Monitor in 1862, with a type of turret designed by the Swedish engineer John Ericsson. A competing turret design was proposed by the British inventor Cowper Coles. Ericsson's turret turned on a central spindle, and Coles's turned on a ring of bearings.^[38] Turrets offered the maximum arc of fire from the guns, but there were significant problems with their use in the 1860s. The fire arc of a turret would be considerably limited by masts and rigging, so they were unsuited to use on the earlier ocean-going ironclads. The second problem was that turrets were extremely heavy—unless a ship was very large, the weight of the turrets meant a ship needed a low freeboard or would suffer from stability problems.^[44] HMS Captain, designed by Coles as an example of how this circle could be squared, capsized in 1870. Her half-sister Monarch was restricted to firing from her turrets only on the port and starboard beams. The third Royal Navy ship to combine turrets and masts was HMS Inflexible of 1876, which carried two turrets on either side of the centre-line, allowing both to fire fore, aft and broadside.^[45] This article is about John Ericsson, the Swedish-American inventor. ... Captain Cowper Phipps Coles, C.B., R.N. (1819 - September 7, 1870), the son of the Reverend John Coles and his wife Mary Ann Goodhew Rogers, was an English naval captain and inventor. ... Freebord model X-80, bottom side Freebords are a recent modification of the skateboard. ... For other ships of the same name, see HMS Captain. ... The HMS Monarch was the first sea-going warship to carry her guns in turrets, and the first British warship to carry guns of 12-inch calibre. ... For other ships with the same name, see HMS Inflexible. ...

A lighter alternative to the turret, particularly popular with the French navy, was the barbette. These were fixed armored towers which held a gun on a turntable; the gun was often on a 'disappearing mount' which carried it entirely into the barbette for loading and out for firing. The crew was sheltered from direct fire, but vulnerable to plunging fire, for instance from shore emplacements. The barbette was lighter than the turret, needing less machinery and no roof armor—though nevertheless some barbettes were stripped of their armor plate to reduce the top-weight of their ships. The barbette became widely adopted in the 1880s, and with the addition of an armored 'gun-house', transformed into the turrets of the pre-Dreadnought battleships.^[38]

Torpedos

The ironclad age saw the development of explosive torpedos as naval weapons, which helped complicate the design and tactics of ironclad fleets. The first torpedoes were static mines, used with dubious efficiency in the American Civil War. That conflict also saw the development of the spar torpedo, an explosive charge pushed against the hull of a warship by a small boat. For the first time, a large warship faced a serious threat from a smaller one—and given the relative inefficiency of shellfire against ironclads, the threat from the spar torpedo was taken seriously. The U.S. Navy converted four of its monitors to become turretless armored spar-torpedo vessels while under construction in 1864–5, but these vessels never saw action.^[46] Another proposal, the towed or 'Harvey' torpedo, involved an explosive on a line or outrigger; either to deter a ship from ramming or to make a torpedo attack by a boat less suicidal. The torpedo, historically called a locomotive torpedo, is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapon, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater toward a target, and designed to detonate on contact or in proximity to a target. ... Polish wz. ... A spar torpedo is a weapon consisting of a bomb placed at the end of a long pole, or spar, and attached to a boat. ...

A more practical and influential weapon was the self-propelled or 'Whitehead' torpedo. Invented in 1868 and deployed in the 1870s, the Whitehead torpedo formed part of the armament of ironclads of the 1880s like HMS Inflexible and the Italian Duilio and Dandolo. The ironclad's vulnerability to the torpedo was a key part of the critique of armored warships made by the Jeune Ecole school of naval thought; it appeared that any ship armored enough to prevent destruction by gunfire would be slow enough to be easily caught by torpedo. In practice, however, the Jeune Ecole was only briefly influential and the torpedo formed part of the confusing mixture of weapons possessed by ironclads.^[47] The Jeune Ecole (Young School) was a French naval school of thought developed during the 19th century. ...

Ironclad armor and construction

The French Redoutable (1876), the first battleship to use steel as the main building material

The first ironclads were built on wooden or iron hulls, and protected by wrought iron armor backed by thick wooden planking. Ironclads were still being built with wooden hulls into the 1870s, and this was only in part due to the relative cost and scarcity of iron. Image File history File links LeRedoutablePhoto. ... Image File history File links LeRedoutablePhoto. ... The Redoutable (1876) was a central battery and barbette ship of the French Navy. ...

Hulls: Iron, wood and steel

Using iron construction for warships offered advantages for the engineering of the hull. However, unarmored iron had many military disadvantages, and offered technical problems which kept wooden hulls in use for many years, particularly for long-range cruising warships.

Iron ships had first been proposed for military use in the 1820s. In the 1830s and 1840s France, Britain and the USA had all experimented with iron-hulled but unarmored gunboats and frigates. However, the iron-hulled frigate was abandoned by the end of the 1840s, because iron hulls were more vulnerable to solid shot; iron was more brittle than wood, and iron frames more likely to fall out of shape than wood.^[48]

The unsuitability of unarmored iron for warship hulls meant that iron was only adopted as a building material for battleships when protected by armor. However, iron gave the naval architect many advantages. Iron allowed larger ships and more flexible design, for instance the use of watertight bulkheads on the lower decks. Warrior, built of iron, was longer and faster than the wooden-hulled La Gloire. Iron could be produced to order and used immediately, in contrast to the need to give wood a long period of seasoning. And, given the large quantities of wood required to build a steam warship and the falling cost of iron, iron hulls were increasingly cost-effective. The main reason for the French use of wooden hulls for the ironclad fleet built in the 1860s was that the French iron industry could not supply enough, and the main reason why Britain built its handful of wooden-hulled ironclads was to make best use of hulls already started and wood already bought.^[49] Wood drying also know as seasoning lumber or timber seasoning in the UK refers to reducing the moisture content of wood prior to its use. ...

Wooden hulls continued to be used for long-range and smaller ironclads, because iron nevertheless had a significant disadvantage. Iron hulls suffered quick fouling by marine life, slowing the ships down—manageable for a European battlefleet close to dry docks, but a difficulty for long-range ships. The only solution was to sheath the iron hull first in wood and then in copper, a laborious and expensive process which made wooden construction remain attractive.^[50] Iron and wood were to some extent interchangeable: the Japanese Kongo and Hiei ordered in 1875 were sister-ships, but one was built of iron and the other of composite construction.^[51] The term fouling refers to the fouling of heat-transferring system components through ingredients contained in the cooling water. ... U.S. Navy submarine USS Greeneville in dry dock following collision with a fishing boat. ...

After 1872, steel started to be introduced as a material for construction. Compared to iron, steel allows for greater structural strength for a lower weight. The French Navy led the way with the use of steel in its fleet, starting with the Redoutable, laid down in 1873 and launched in 1876.^[52] Redoutable nonetheless had wrought iron armor plate, and part of her exterior hull was iron rather than steel. General Name, symbol, number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, period, block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Standard atomic weight 55. ... For other uses, see Steel (disambiguation). ... The Redoutable (1876) was a central battery and barbette ship of the French Navy. ...

Even though Britain led the world in steel production, the Royal Navy was slow to adopt steel warships. The Bessemer process for steel manufacture produced too many imperfections for large-scale use on ships. French manufacturers used the Siemens-Martin process to produce adequate steel, but British technology lagged behind.^[53] The first all-steel warships built by the Royal Navy were the dispatch vessels Iris and Mercury, laid down in 1875 and 1876. The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from a molten pig iron. ... ... This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ...

Armor and protection schemes

The iron-and-wood armor of HMS Warrior

Iron-built ships used wood as part of their protection scheme. HMS Warrior was protected by 4.5 in (114 mm) of wrought iron backed by 15 in (381 mm) of teak, the strongest shipbuilding wood. The wood played two roles, preventing spalling and also preventing the shock of a hit damaging the structure of the ship. Later, wood and iron were combined in 'sandwich' armor, for instance in HMS Inflexible.^[54] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 1280 pixel, file size: 2. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (960 × 1280 pixel, file size: 2. ... HMS Warrior was the first iron-hulled, armour-plated warship, built for the Royal Navy in response to the first ironclad warship, the French La Gloire, launched only a year earlier. ... A wrought iron railing in Troy, New York. ... Species Tectona grandis Tectona hamiltoniana Tectona philippinensis Teak (Tectona), is a genus of tropical hardwood trees in the family Verbenaceae, native to the south and southeast of Asia, and is commonly found as a component of monsoon forest vegetation. ... Spall are flakes of a material that are broken off a larger solid body. ... For other ships with the same name, see HMS Inflexible. ...

Steel was also an obvious material for armor. It was tested in the 1860s, but the steel of the time was too brittle and disintegrated when struck by shells. Steel became practical to use when a way was found to fuse steel onto wrought iron plates, giving a form of compound armor. This compound armor was used by the British in ships built from the late 1870s, first for turret armor (starting with HMS Inflexible) and then for all armor (starting with Colossus of 1882).^[55] The French and German navies adopted the innovation almost immediately, with licenses being given for the use of the 'Wilson System' of producing fused armor.^[56] A material is brittle if it is subject to fracture when subjected to stress i. ... Compound armour was a type of armour used on warships in the 1880s . ... HMS Colossus (1882) The second HMS Colossus was a Colossus class second-class battleship, launched in 1882 and commissioned in 1886. ...

The first ironclads to have all-steel armor were the Italian Duilio and Dandolo. Though the ships were laid down in 1873 their armor was not purchased from France until 1877. The French navy decided in 1880 to adopt compound armor for its fleet, but found it limited in supply, so from 1884 the French navy was using steel armor.^[57] Britain stuck to compound armor until 1889. The RN Caio Dulio was the lead ship in a class of two ironclad battleships built in Italy for the Regia Marina in the 1870s. ... The RN Enrico Dandolo was an ironclad battleship built in Italy for the Regia Marina in the 1870s. ...

The ultimate ironclad armor was case hardened nickel-steel. In 1890, the U.S. Navy tested steel armor hardened by the Harvey process and found it superior to compound armor. For several years 'Harvey steel' was the state of the art, produced in the U.S., France, Germany, Britain, Austria and Italy. In 1894, the German firm Krupp developed gas cementing, which further hardened steel armor. The German Kaiser Friedrich III, laid down in 1895, was the first ship to benefit from the new 'Krupp armor' and the new armor was quickly adopted; the Royal Navy using it from HMS Canopus, laid down in 1896. By 1901 almost all new battleships used Krupp armor, though the U.S. continued to use Harvey armor alongside until the end of the decade. A replica Colt 1873 revolver, showing case hardening colors on the frame Case hardening or surface hardening is the process of hardening the surface of a metal, often a low carbon steel, by infusing elements into the materials surface, forming a thin layer of a harder alloy. ... Harvey armour was a type of steel armour developed in the early 1890s in which the front surfaces of the plates were case hardened. ... The three rings were the symbol for Krupp, based on the radreifen - the seamless railway wheels patented by Alfred Krupp. ... Krupp armour was a type of steel armour used in the construction of capital ships starting shortly before the end of the 19th century. ... HMS Canopus was a pre-Dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard and laid down on the 4 January 1897, launched 21 June 1898 and completed in December 1899. ...

The equivalent strengths of the different armor plates was as follows: 15 in (381 mm) of wrought iron was equivalent to 12 in (305 mm) of either plain steel or compound iron and steel armor, and to 7.75 in (197 mm) of Harvey armor or 5.75 in (146 mm) of Krupp armor.^[58] An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ...

Ironclad construction also prefigured the later debate in battleship design between tapering and 'all-or-nothing' armour design. Warrior was only semi-armoured, and could have been disabled by hits on the bow and stern.^[59] As the thickness of armor grew to protect ships from the increasingly heavy guns, the area of the ship which could be fully protected diminished. Inflexible's armor protection was largely limited to the central citadel amidships, protecting boilers and engines, turrets and magazines, and little else. An ingenious arrangement of cork-filled compartments and watertight bulkheads was intended to keep her stable and afloat in the event of heavy damage to her un-armored sections.^[60]

Propulsion: Steam and sail

La Gloire under sail

The first ocean-going ironclads carried masts and sails like their wooden predecessors, and these features were only gradually abandoned. Early steam engines were inefficient; the wooden steam fleet of the Royal Navy could only carry "5 to 9 days coal",^[61] and the situation was similar with the early ironclads. Warrior also illustrates two design features which aided hybrid propulsion; she had retractable screws to reduce drag while under sail (though in practice the steam engine was run at a low throttle), and a telescopic funnel which could be folded down to the deck level.^[62] Image File history File links Gloire. ... Image File history File links Gloire. ...

Ships designed for coastal warfare, like the floating batteries of the Crimea, or USS Monitor and her sisters, dispensed with masts from the beginning. The British HMS Devastation, started in 1869, was the first large, ocean-going ironclad to dispense with masts. Her principal role was for combat in the English Channel and other European waters; and while her coal supplies gave her enough range to cross the Atlantic, she would have had little endurance on the other side of the ocean. The Devastation and the similar ships commissioned by the British and Russian navies in the 1870s were the exception rather than the rule. Most ironclads of the 1870s retained masts, and only the Italian navy, which during that decade was focused on short-range operations in the Adriatic,^[63] built consistently mastless ironclads.^[64] USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy. ... HMS Devastation in 1896. ...

During the 1860s, steam engines improved with the adoption of double-expansion steam engines, which used 30–40% less coal than earlier models. The Royal Navy decided to switch to the double-expansion engine in 1871, and by 1875 they were widespread. However, this development alone was not enough to herald the end of the mast. Whether this was due to a conservative desire to retain sails, or was a rational response to the operational and strategic situation, is a matter of debate. A steam-only fleet would require a network of coaling stations worldwide, which would need to be fortified at great expense to stop them falling into enemy hands. Just as significantly, because of unsolved problems with the technology of the boilers which provided steam for the engines, the performance of double-expansion engines was rarely as good in practice as it was in theory.^[65] // The term steam engine may also refer to an entire railroad steam locomotive. ...

Inflexible, after the replacement of her sailing masts with 'military masts'

During the 1870s the distinction grew between 'first-class ironclads' or 'battleships' on the one hand, and 'cruising ironclads' designed for long-range work on the other. The demands on first-class ironclads for very heavy armor and armament meant increasing displacement, which reduced speed under steam; and the fashion for turrets and barbettes made a sailing rig increasingly inconvenient. HMS Inflexible, launched in 1876 but not commissioned until 1881, was the last British battleship to carry masts, and these were widely seen as a mistake. The start of the 1880s saw the end of sailing rig on ironclad battleships.^[66] Download high resolution version (1073x750, 84 KB)HMS Inflexible (1881) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (1073x750, 84 KB)HMS Inflexible (1881) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For other ships with the same name, see HMS Inflexible. ...

Sails persisted on 'cruising ironclads' for much longer. During the 1860s the French navy had produced the Alma and La Galissoniere classes as small, long-range ironclads as overseas cruisers^[67] and the British had responded with ships like Swiftsure of 1870. The Russian ship General Admiral, laid down in 1870 and completed in 1875, was a model of a fast, long-range ironclad which was likely to be able to out-run and out-fight ships like Swiftsure. Even the later HMS Shannon, often described as the first British armored cruiser, would have been too slow to outrun General Admiral. While Shannon was the last British ship with a retractable propellor, later armored cruisers of the 1870s retained sailing rig, sacrificing speed under steam in consequence. It took until 1881 for the Royal Navy to lay down a long-range armored warship capable of catching enemy commerce raiders, Warspite, which was completed in 1888.^[68] While sailing rigs were obsolescent for all purposes by the end of the 1880s, rigged ships were in service until the early years of the 20th century. The HMS Swiftsure, launched 1903, was the lead ship of her class of pre-Dreadnought battleships. ... The eighth HMS Shannon was the first British armoured cruiser. ... One HMS Warspite was an Imperieuse-class first-class armoured cruiser, launched on 29 December 1884 and commissioned in 1886. ...

The final evolution of ironclad propulsion was the adoption of the triple-expansion steam engine, a further refinement which was first adopted in HMS Sans Pareil, laid down in 1885 and commissioned in 1891. Many ships also used a forced draught to get additional power from their engines, and this system was widely used until the introduction of the steam turbine in the mid-1900s.^[69] HMS Sans Pareil was a Victoria Class battleship of the British Royal Navy. ... A rotor of a modern steam turbine, used in a power plant A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into useful mechanical work. ...

Ironclad fleets

While ironclads spread rapidly in navies worldwide, there were few pitched naval battles involving ironclads. Most European nations settled differences on land, and the Royal Navy dominated the sea to such an extent that no rival power could take Britain on. The naval engagements involving ironclads normally involved colonial actions or clashes between second-rate naval powers. This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ...

There were many types of ironclads:^[70]

• Sea-going ships intended to "stand in the line of battle"; the precursors of the battleship.^[71]
• Coastal service and riverine vessels, including 'floating batteries' and 'monitors'
• Vessels intended for commerce raiding or protection of commerce, called 'armoured cruisers'

For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... A floating battery is a kind of armed watercraft, often improvised or experimental, which carries a heavy armament but has few other qualities as a warship. ... A monitor was a special form of warship, little more than a self-propelled floating artillery platform that could move close inshore and give its support to military operations on land. ... Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a naval strategy of attacking an opponents commercial shipping rather than contending for control of the seas with its naval forces. ... The armored cruiser was a naval cruiser protected by armor on its sides as well as on the decks and gun positions. ...

Navies

The United Kingdom possessed the largest navy in the world for the whole of the ironclad period. The Royal Navy was the second to adopt ironclad warships, and it applied them worldwide in their whole range of roles. In the age of sail, the British strategy for war depended on the Royal Navy mounting a blockade of the ports of the enemy. Because of the limited endurance of steamships, this was no longer possible, so the British planned to engage an enemy fleet in harbor as soon as war broke out. To this end, the Royal Navy developed a series of 'coast-assault battleships', starting with the Devastation class. These 'breastwork monitors' were markedly different from the other high-seas ironclads of the period and were an important precursor of the modern battleship.^[72] Through the 1860s and 1870s the Royal Navy was superior to its potential rivals, but in the early 1880s widespread concern about the threat from France and Germany culminated in the Naval Defence Act which promulgated the idea of a 'two-power standard', that Britain should possess as many ships as the next two navies combined. This standard provoked aggressive shipbuilding in the 1880s and 1890s.^[73] This article is about the navy of the United Kingdom. ... A monitor was a special form of warship, little more than a self-propelled floating artillery platform that could move close inshore and give its support to military operations on land. ...

British ships did not participate in any major wars in the ironclad period. The Royal Navy's ironclads only saw action as part of colonial battles or one-sided engagements like the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. Defending British interests against Ahmed 'Urabi's Egyptian revolt, a British fleet opened fire on the fortifications around the port of Alexandria. A mixture of centre-battery and turret ships bombarded Egyptian positions for most of a day, forcing the Egyptians to retreat; return fire from Egyptian guns was heavy at first, but inflicted little damage, killing only five British sailors.^[74] The Urabi Revolt was an uprising in Egypt in 1881-82 against the Khedive and European influence in the country. ...

The French navy built the first ironclad to try to gain a strategic advantage over the British, but were consistently out-built by the British. Despite taking the lead with a number of innovations like breech-loading weapons and steel construction, the French navy could never match the size of the Royal Navy. In the 1870s, the construction of ironclads ceased for a while in France as the Jeune Ecole school of naval thought took prominence, suggesting that torpedo boats and unarmored cruisers would be the future of warships. Like the British, the French navy saw little action with its ironclads; the French blockade of Germany in the Franco-Prussian War was ineffective, as the war was settled entirely on land.^[75] The Jeune Ecole (Young School) was a French naval school of thought developed during the 19th century. ... A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to launch torpedoes at larger surface ships. ... The USS Port Royal (CG-73), a Ticonderoga class cruiser. ... Combatants Second French Empire North German Confederation allied with South German states (later German Empire) Commanders Napoleon III François Achille Bazaine Patrice de Mac-Mahon, duc de Magenta Otto von Bismarck Helmuth von Moltke the Elder Strength 400,000 at wars beginning 1,200,000 Casualties 150,000...

Russia built a number of ironclads, generally copies of British or French designs. Nonetheless, there were real innovations from Russia; the first true type of ironclad armored cruiser, the General Admiral of the 1870s, and a set of remarkably badly-designed circular battleships referred to as 'popoffkas'. The Russian Navy pioneered the wide-scale use of torpedo boats during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, mainly out of necessity because of the superior numbers and quality of ironclads used by the Turkish navy.^[76] Russia expanded her navy in the 1880s and 1890s with modern armored cruisers and battleships, but the ships were let down by poor crews and leadership, resulting in the famous defeats by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.^[77] Schematic section of a typical armoured cruiser with an armoured upper and middle deck and side belt (red), lateral protective coal bunkers (grey) and a double-bottom of watertight compartments. ... Novgorod is one of the most unusual warships ever constructed, and still survives in popular naval myth, often described as the ugliest warship ever built. She was designed by Admiral Popoff of the Russian Imperial Navy, with the purpose of creating a stable platform armed with a few heavy guns...

The U.S. Navy ended the Civil War with about fifty monitor-type coastal ironclads; by the 1870s most of these were laid up in reserve, leaving the USA virtually without an ironclad fleet. Another five large monitors were ordered in the 1870s. The limitations of the monitor type effectively prevented the USA from projecting power overseas, and until the 1890s the USA would have come off badly in a conflict with even Spain or the Latin American powers. The 1890s saw the beginning of what became the Great White Fleet, and it was the modern pre-Dreadnoughts and armored cruisers built in the 1890s which defeated the Spanish fleet in the Spanish-American War of 1898.^[78] A monitor was a special form of warship, little more than a self-propelled floating artillery platform that could move close inshore and give its support to military operations on land. ... USS Kansas sails ahead of the USS Vermont as the fleet leaves Hampton Roads, Virginia on December 16, 1907. ... Belligerents United States Republic of Cuba Philippine Republic Kingdom of Spain Commanders Nelson A. Miles William R. Shafter George Dewey Máximo Gómez Emilio Aguinaldo Patricio Montojo Pascual Cervera Arsenio Linares Manuel Macías y Casado Ramón Blanco y Erenas Casualties and losses 385 KIA USA 5,000...

Ironclads were widely used in South America. Both sides used ironclads in the Chincha Islands War between Spain and Chile and Peru in the early 1860s. The powerful Spanish Numancia participate on the Battle of Callao but was unable to inflict significative damage to the Callao defences. Besides, Peru was able to deploy two Richmond-class monitors based on American Civil War Designs, the Loa and the Victoria, as well as two British-built ironclads; Independencia, a centre-battery ship, and the turret ship Huáscar. Numancia was the first ironclad to circumnavigate the world, arriving in Cádiz on September 20, 1867, and earning the motto: "Enloricata navis que primo terram circuivit"). In the War of the Pacific in 1879, both Peru and Chile had ironclad warships, including some of those used a few years previously against Spain. While the Independencia ran aground early on, the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar made an impact against Chilean shipping. She was eventually caught by two more modern Chilean centre-battery ironclads, the Blanco Encalada and the Almirante Cochrane at the Battle of Angamos Point.^[79] Combatants Kingdom of Spain Chile; Peru The Chincha Islands War (Spanish: Guerra Hispano-Peruana, Guerra Hispano-Chilena, Spanish-Peruvian War or Spanish-Chilean War, the name changing depending on the nationality of the author) was a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru... Combatants Spain Peru and allies Commanders Casto Méndez Núñez Mariano Ignacio Prado; various commanders Strength 14 ships several ships, infantry, cavalry, townspeople Casualties around 50 dead, 83 wounded around 200 The Battle of Callao (in Spanish, sometimes called el Combate del Dos de Mayo) occurred on May 2... Huáscar is a small armoured turret ship, similar to the monitor type. ... Location Location of Cádiz Coordinates : Time Zone : General information Native name Cádiz (Spanish) Spanish name Cádiz Postal code – Website http://www. ... is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1867 (MDCCCLXVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... For the conflict between Japan and the Allied powers in Asia and the Pacific Ocean from 1937 to 1945, which included World War II campaigns, see Pacific War. ... Huáscar is a small armoured turret ship, similar to the monitor type. ... Combatants Chile Peru Commanders Juan Jose Latorre Miguel Grau † Strength 2 armoured battleships 3 corvettes 1 transport 1 turret ship Casualties 7 dead 31 dead 4 missing 162 captured 1 turret ship captured The Naval Battle of Angamos (October 8, 1879) was an important struggle in the War of the...

The Confederacy's last ironclad was also Japan's first: Stonewall was later renamed Kōtetsu.

Ironclads were also used from the inception of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Kōtetsu (Japanese: 甲鉄, literally "Ironclad", later renamed Azuma 東, "East") had a decisive role in the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay in May 1869, which marked the end of the Boshin War, and the complete establishment of the Meiji Restoration. The IJN continued to develop its strength and commissioned a number of warships from British and European shipyards, first ironclads and later armored cruisers. These ships engaged the Chinese Beiyang fleet which was superior on paper at least at the Battle of the Yalu River. Thanks to superior short-range firepower, the Japanese fleet came off better, sinking or severely damaging eight ships and receiving serious damage to only four. The naval war was concluded the next year at the Battle of Weihaiwei, where the strongest remaining Chinese ships were surrendered to the Japanese.^[80] Download high resolution version (690x652, 94 KB)CSS Stonewall (later Japanese battleship Kotetsu) in the Washington Navy Yard c. ... Download high resolution version (690x652, 94 KB)CSS Stonewall (later Japanese battleship Kotetsu) in the Washington Navy Yard c. ... Kōtetsu (Japanese: 甲鉄, literally Ironclad, later renamed Azuma 東, East) was the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. ... For Combined Fleet, please see that article. ... Kōtetsu (Japanese: 甲鉄, literally Ironclad, later renamed Azuma 東, East) was the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. ... Combatants Empire of Japan: Kotetsu Kasuga Hiryu Teibo Yoharu Moshun Chōyō Ezo Republic: Kaiten BanryÅ« Chiyodagata Chōgei Mikaho Commanders Arai Ikunosuke Strength 8 steam warships 5 steam warships Casualties 1 ship sunk 2 ships sunk, 3 captured The Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay (Japanese:函館湾海戦) was fought from 4... Combatants Imperial faction: Satsuma, ChōshÅ«, Tosa Tokugawa Shogunate Commanders Ruler: Meiji Emperor, CIC: Saigō Takamori, Army: Kuroda Kiyotaka Shogunate: Ruler: Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Army: Katsu Kaishu, Navy: Enomoto Takeaki, Ezo Republic: President:Enomoto Takeaki, CIC: Otori Keisuke, Navy: Arai Ikunosuke Casualties ~1,000 killed ~2,000 killed Campaign map of... The Meiji Restoration ), also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japans political and social structure. ... Schematic section of a typical armoured cruiser with an armoured upper and middle deck and side belt (red), lateral protective coal bunkers (grey) and a double-bottom of watertight compartments. ... Ding Yuan, the flagship of Beiyang Fleet The Beiyang Fleet (Traditional Chinese: 北洋艦隊; Simplified Chinese: 北洋舰队; Pinyin: Bêiyáng Jiàndùi) was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. ... The Battle of the Yalu River, also called simply The Battle of Yalu took place on September 17, 1894. ... Combatants Japan China Commanders Marshal Oyama Iwao, Admiral Ito Sukeyuki General Li Hongzhang, Admiral Ding Ruchang† Casualties 29 (killed), 233 (wounded) 4,000 (killed) ukiyoe by Mizuno Toskikata depicting Admiral Ding Ruchang surrendering to Admiral Ito at the Battle of Weihaiwei The Battle of Weihaiwei was a 23 day siege...

End of the ironclad

Main article: Battleship

There is no clearly-defined end to the ironclad. Towards the end of the 19th century, the descriptions 'battleship' and 'armored cruiser' came to replace the term 'ironclad'.^[81] For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Battleship (disambiguation). ... Schematic section of a typical armoured cruiser with an armoured upper and middle deck and side belt (red), lateral protective coal bunkers (grey) and a double-bottom of watertight compartments. ...

The proliferation of ironclad battleship designs came to an end in the 1890s as navies reached a consensus on the design of battleships, producing the type known as the pre-Dreadnought. These ships are sometimes covered in treatments of the ironclad warship. The next evolution of battleship design, the dreadnought, is never referred to as an 'ironclad'.^[82] USS Massachusetts, a pre-dreadnought battleship launched in 1893 The term pre-dreadnought refers to the kind of battleship built in the closing years of the 19th Century and the first years of the 20th century, and which was made obsolete by the launching of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. ... HMS Audacious, a British super-dreadnought launched in 1912 A dreadnought was a battleship of the early 20th century, of a type modelled after the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought of 1906. ...

Most of the ironclads of the 1870s and 1880s served into the first decade of the 20th century. A handful, for instance US navy monitors laid down in the 1870s, saw active service in World War I. Pre-Dreadnought battleships and cruisers of the 1890s saw widespread action in World War I and in some cases through to World War II.

Ironclads today

A number of ironclads have been preserved or reconstructed as museum ships.

• HMS Warrior is today a fully-restored museum ship in Portsmouth, England.
• Huáscar is berthed at the port of Talcahuano, on display for visitors.
• The Eads gunboat USS Cairo is currently on display in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
• The hulk of a breastwork monitor, the HMVS Cerberus, survives in Melbourne, Australia.
• Northrop Grumman in Newport News constructed a a full-scale replica of USS Monitor. The replica was laid down in February, 2005 and completed just two months later. ^[83]'
• The Japanese pre-Dreadnought Mikasa is a museum ship at Yokosuka.
• The Dutch Ramtorenschip (Coastal ram) Buffel is a museum ship at Rotterdam.
• The Dutch Ramtorenschip (Coastal ram) Schorpioen is a museum ship at Den Helder.
• CSS Texas portrayed in the movie Sahara (2005 film).

For other places with the same name, see Portsmouth (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Huáscar is a small armoured turret ship, similar to the monitor type. ... USS Cairo was an ironclad river gunboat in the United States Navy. ... The historic Mississippi River Commission Building in Vicksburg, constructed in 1894 Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... HMVS Cerberus was an ironclad warship launched in 1868 to defend the Australian colony of Victoria. ... This article is about the Australian city; the name may also refer to City of Melbourne or Melbourne city centre (also known as The CBD). ... The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of a 1994 merger between Northrop and Grumman. ... Mikasa (三笠) is a pre-Dreadnought battleship, formerly of the Imperial Japanese Navy, launched in Britain in 1900. ... CSS Texas, a twin-screw ironclad ram of the Confederate Navy, was named for the state of Texas. ... Sahara is a 2005 action/adventure film, directed by Breck Eisner, loosely based on the best-selling book of the same name by Clive Cussler. ...

References

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

a description of defensive measures used by ironclads against torpedos, from Littell's Living Age, 1876

• Eugène M. Koleśnik, Roger Chesneau, N. J. M. Campbell. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905. Conway Maritime Press, 1979. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4
• Archibald, EHH (1984). The Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1897–1984. Blandford. ISBN 0-7137-1348-8.
• Ballard, George, The Black Battlefleet. Naval Institute Press, 1980. ISBN 0870219243
• Baxter, James Phinney III (1933), The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship, Harvard University Press, 1933
• Beeler, John, Birth of the Battleship: British Capital Ship Design 1870–1881. Caxton, London, 2003. ISBN 1-84067-5349
• Brown, DK (2003). Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905. Caxton Editions. ISBN 1-84067-529-2.
• Gardiner, Robert and Lambert, Andrew (2001). Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship, 1815–1905. Book Sales. ISBN 0-7858-1413-2. 
• Canney, Donald L The Old Steam Navy, The Ironclads, 1842–1885. Naval Institute Press, 1993
• Greene, Jack and Massignani, Alessandro (1998). Ironclads At War. Combined Publishing. ISBN 0-938289-58-6. 
• Hill, Richard. War at Sea in the Ironclad Age ISBN 0-304-35273-X
• Jenschura Jung & Mickel, Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1869–1946, ISBN 0-85368-151-1
• Kennedy, Paul M. The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery. Macmillan, London, 1983. ISBN 0-333-35094-4
• Lambert, Andrew Battleships in Transition: The Creation of the Steam Battlefleet 1815–1860. Conway Maritime Press, London, 1984. ISBN 0-85177-315-X
• Noel, Gerard et al, The Gun, Ram and Torpedo, Manoeuvres and tactics of a Naval Battle of the Present Day, 2nd Edition, pub. Griffin 1885
• Northrop Grumman Newport News, Northrop Grumman Employees Reconstruct History with USS Monitor Replica. Retrieved on 2007-05-21
• Reed, Edward J Our Ironclad Ships, their Qualities, Performance and Cost. John Murray, 1869.
• Sondhaus, Lawrence. Naval Warfare 1815–1914. Routledge, London, 2001. ISBN 0-415-21478-5.
• Sandler, Stanley. Emergence of the Modern Capital Ship (Newark, DEL. Associated University Presses, 1979.

Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... Andrew Lambert (born 31 December 1956) has been Laughton Professor of Naval History in the War Studies Department, Kings College, London and Director of the Laughton Naval History unit housed in the Department since 2001. ... Andrew Lambert (born 31 December 1956) has been Laughton Professor of Naval History in the War Studies Department, Kings College, London and Director of the Laughton Naval History unit housed in the Department since 2001. ... Sir Edward James Reed (1830-1906) was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. ...

Notes

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Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Clive class monitors were a series of British ships constructed for the Royal Navy During the first World war. ... For other ships of the same name, see HMS Edinburgh. ...

External links

• The first ironclads 1859–1872, engravings
• Ironclads and Blockade Runners of the American Civil War
• Images and text on the USS Monitor
• The Spanish Navy Numancia, first ironclad warship to circumnavigate the world
• Circular Iron-Clads in the Imperial Russian Navy
• HMSWarrior.org