mrw311 - Anthology

Ironclad Battleships and Torpedo Technology

In 1862, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Hampton Roads saw the first instance of combat between two "ironclad" warships: the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The ironclad was, in essence, a wooden naval ship that had been outfitted with armor plating on the outer-hull, thus reducing the effectiveness of the standard cannonball. Although several European nations had been dabbling with the idea of armor plating their warships, it was the Battle of Hampton Roads that made it undoubtedly clear that the 19th century practice of using "Ships of the Line" to exchange broadsides was over; broadside tactics were virtually useless against the thicker, sloped armor of the ironclad ship. The adoption of the steam-powered ironclad paved the way for the evolution of armored ships that would eventually become the battleships that fought in World War I. The introduction of sturdier, stronger ships also necessitated the invention of new weapons to combat the improved armor such as rifled cannons and, as this section will touch upon, the undersea torpedo. The British Navy began building exclusively armor-plated ships in 1861 and by 1892 had adopted the term "battleship" as a designation for the warships it was currently producing. Over this time period, however, British naval supremacy began to weaken significantly as the battleship era of warfare produced increasing pressure from rival nations such as France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. In 1906, the British would go on to revolutionize battleship design completely with the HMS Dreadnought, an all big-gun battleship armed with 12 inch guns, thus inspiring all competing nations to develop their own "Dreadnought" battleships - a move that would begin a naval arms race with the growing German Empire. 

This page has paths:

Contents of this path:

This page has tags: