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86-512: The Ottoman Turks used the word liman (from Greek limēn ) to refer to harbours in general, but in the 15th century they also adopted and increasingly began to use the term tersane (often misinterpreted as tershane , incorporating the term hane , "house") from Italian darsena , "shipyard"—likewise the origin of the English " arsenal "—which in turn derived from the Arabic dār al-sināʿa . In

172-476: A torpedo , with less vulnerability to quick-firing 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 . HMS  Warrior carried

258-473: A breech, adopted by the French in 1873. Just as compellingly, the growing size of naval guns and consequently, their ammunition, made muzzle-loading much more complicated. With guns of such size there was no prospect of hauling in the gun for reloading, or even reloading by hand, and complicated hydraulic systems were required for reloading the gun outside the turret without exposing the crew to enemy fire. In 1882,

344-496: A claim to the title of the first ironclad warships but they were capable of only 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph) under their own power: they operated under their own power at the Battle of Kinburn, but had to be towed for long-range transit. They were also arguably marginal to the work of the navy. The brief success of the floating ironclad batteries convinced France to begin work on armored warships for their battlefleet. By

430-569: A few rounds. Smoke and the general chaos of battle only added to the problem. As a result, many naval engagements in the 'Age of the Ironclad' were still fought at ranges within easy eyesight of their targets, and well below the maximum reach of their ships' guns. 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

516-515: A major expansion, for which 200,000 ducats were allocated by the treasury. In addition to shipyards, covered dry docks were built to facilitate maintenance of warships during winter. By 1515, with 160 docks constructed, the Galata arsenal had surpassed Gallipoli, and the main Ottoman naval base was moved there. In the 1526 map of Piri Reis , the arsenal is shown as a continuous line of docks lining

602-545: A mixture of 110-pounder 7-inch (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. Breech-loading guns seemed to offer important advantages. A breech-loader could be reloaded without moving

688-617: A modern hospital was built within the Arsenal in 1805, followed by the first medical academy ( Tibhane ) in 1806. A great dry-dock for the maintenance of modern ships of the line was built in 1797–1800, a second in 1821–25, and a third in 1857–70. In 1838, under the auspices of the American Foster Rhodes, the Imperial Arsenal produced its first steamship. By the reign of Abdülmecid I ( r.  1839–1861 ),

774-424: 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. From the 1860s to the 1880s many naval designers believed that the ram was again a vital weapon in naval warfare. With steam power freeing ships from the wind, iron construction increasing their structural strength, and armor making them invulnerable to shellfire,

860-509: A wooden hull. Encouraged by the positive reports of the iron hulls of those ships in combat, the Admiralty ordered a series of experiments to evaluate what happened when thin iron hulls were struck by projectiles, both solid shot and hollow shells, beginning in 1845 and lasting through 1851. Critics like Lieutenant-general Sir Howard Douglas believed that the splinters from the hull were even more dangerous than those from wooden hulls and

946-501: Is a place of temporary storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition, such as any temporary post or patrol vehicle that is only operational in certain times of the day. The term in English entered the language in the 16th century as a loanword from French : arsenal , itself deriving from the term Italian : arsenale , which in turn is thought to be a corruption of Arabic : دار الصناعة , dār aṣ-ṣināʿa , meaning "manufacturing shop". A lower-class arsenal, which can furnish

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1032-464: Is now in operation out of these three shipyards. Haliç Shipyard is the oldest shipyard in continuous operation in the world. The Imperial Arsenal was under the direct supervision of the Kapudan Pasha, and its administration was headed by three officials: the kethüda , the agha , and the emin . The emin was the chief fiscal officer, and hence the most important official; his staff kept

1118-466: The Age of Sail (late 17th–mid-19th centuries), each ship's superintendent, treasurer and scribe were also considered as part of the officer corps, while "captains, mariners, overseers, messengers, shipwrights, caulkers, oar makers, ironsmiths, repairmen, spoolers, towmen, grenade-makers, guards, and retired personnel" comprised the numerous "common folk" of the Arsenal. As part of Selim III's military reforms,

1204-480: The Battle of Sinop , spelled the end of the wooden-hulled warship. The more practical threat to wooden ships was from conventional cannon firing red-hot shot, which could lodge in the hull and cause a fire or ammunition explosion. Some navies even experimented with hollow shot filled with molten metal for extra incendiary power. The use of wrought iron instead of wood as the primary material of ships' hulls began in

1290-648: The Fall of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II ( r.  1444–1446, 1451–1481 ) established an imperial shipyard across the Golden Horn from Constantinople proper, in the formerly Genoese suburb of Galata , probably on the same site as the Genoese vetus tersana ("old shipyard"). Work on the new arsenal was completed under the reign of Mehmed's successor Bayezid II ( r.  1481–1512 ), but in winter 1513/4 Selim I ( r.  1512–1520 ) began

1376-584: The Gloire and her sisters had full iron-armor protection along the waterline and the battery itself. The British Warrior and Black Prince (but also the smaller Defence and Resistance ) were obliged to concentrate their armor in a central "citadel" or "armoured box", leaving many main deck guns and the fore and aft sections of the vessel unprotected. The use of iron in the construction of Warrior also came with some drawbacks; iron hulls required more regular and intensive repairs than wooden hulls, and iron

1462-773: The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74 . This resulted in another round of reforms under the Kapudan Pasha Cezayirli Gazi Hasan Pasha , including the establishment of a naval engineering school in 1775/6 ( Hendese Odası , later the Mühendishane-i Bahr-i Hümâyûn ). At the same time, French naval experts were called to teach Ottoman shipwrights new techniques: the engineers Le Roi and Durest, and, in 1793, Jacques-Balthazard le Brun , who built several vessels for Sultan Selim III ( r.  1789–1807 ). In addition,

1548-424: The materiel and equipment of a small army, may contain a laboratory, gun and carriage factories, small-arms ammunition, small-arms, harness, saddlery tent and powder factories; in addition, it must possess great storehouses. In a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at

1634-537: The naval ram , the torpedo , or sometimes both (as in the case with smaller ships and later torpedo boats), which several naval designers considered the important weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but toward the end of the 1890s, the term ironclad dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to a standard pattern and designated as battleships or armored cruisers . The ironclad became technically feasible and tactically necessary because of developments in shipbuilding in

1720-457: The public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). " Arsenal ". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Ironclads An ironclad was a steam-propelled warship protected by steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells . The first ironclad battleship, Gloire ,

1806-565: The screw propeller in the 1840s. 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 . Napoleon III 's ambition to gain greater influence in Europe required a sustained challenge to the British at sea. The first purpose-built steam battleship was the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850. Napoléon

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1892-711: The tersane emini was replaced in 1804 by the Ministry of Naval Affairs ( Umur-ı Bahriye Nezareti ), while a modern financial department and treasury were created for the Arsenal in the next year. In 1845, the separate Ministry of the Imperial Arsenal ( Tersane-i Amire Nezareti ) was created. Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired , stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned . Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly regarded as synonyms, although subtle differences in usage exist. A sub-armory

1978-678: The 1830s; the first "warship" with an iron hull was the gunboat Nemesis , built by Jonathan Laird of Birkenhead for the East India Company in 1839. There followed, also from Laird, the first full-sized warship with a metal hull, the 1842 steam frigate Guadalupe for the Mexican Navy . The latter ship performed well during the Naval Battle of Campeche , with her captain reporting that he thought that there were fewer iron splinters from Guadalupe ' s hull than from

2064-423: The 1880s has been criticized 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 the first Armstrong guns. From 1875 onwards, the balance between breech- and muzzle-loading changed. Captain de Bange invented a method of reliably sealing

2150-538: The 81-ton, 16-inch guns of HMS  Inflexible fired only once every 11 minutes while bombarding Alexandria during the Urabi Revolt . The 102-long-ton (104 t), 450 mm (17.72 inch) guns of the Duilio class could each fire a round every 15 minutes. 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

2236-551: The British Admiralty agreed to build five armored floating batteries on the French plans. The French floating batteries were deployed in 1855 as a supplement to the wooden steam battle fleet 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

2322-729: The British to equip ships with muzzle-loading weapons of increasing power until the 1880s. After a brief introduction of the 100-pounder or 9.2-inch (230 mm) smoothbore Somerset Gun , which weighed 6.5 long tons (6.6 t), the Admiralty introduced 7-inch (178 mm) rifled guns, weighing 7 long tons (7 t). These were followed by a series of increasingly mammoth weapons—guns weighing 12 long tons (12 t), 18 long tons (18 t), 25 long tons (25 t), 38 long tons (39 t) and finally 81 long tons (82 t), with caliber increasing from 8 inches (203 mm) to 16 inches (406 mm). The decision to retain muzzle-loaders until

2408-627: The Confederacy ;– especially in Russia, the only country to openly support the Union through the war. Only CSS Stonewall was completed, and she arrived in Cuban waters just in time for the end of the war. Through the remainder of the war, ironclads saw action in the Union's attacks on Confederate ports. Seven Union monitors, including USS  Montauk , as well as two other ironclads,

2494-613: The Crimean War, Emperor Napoleon III ordered the development of light-draft floating batteries, equipped with heavy guns and protected by heavy armor. Experiments made during the first half of 1854 proved highly satisfactory, and on 17 July 1854, the French communicated to the British Government that a solution had been found to make gun-proof vessels and that plans would be communicated. After tests in September 1854,

2580-553: The Imperial Arsenal for outfitting. With the introduction of galleons in the late 17th century, and later with steamships and ironclads , this was no longer possible, and the Empire's shipbuilding efforts were concentrated in the Imperial Arsenal at Galata. However, during the 18th century the warships built there were not of high quality, as displayed during the confrontations with the Imperial Russian Navy during

2666-455: The Imperial Arsenal had fallen into neglect and underinvestment; Abdülmecid started a massive investment programme which modernised not just the Imperial Arsenal but also shipyards in Izmit and Gemlik . The facilities are still in use today and go by the common name " Haliç Shipyards ". Camialtı Shipyard, Taşkızak Shipyard and The Haliç Shipyard are three distinct facilities. Only Haliç Shipyard

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2752-450: The Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto (1571), the Imperial Arsenal was extensively renovated, with eight new dockyards built inland, surrounding the royal garden ( has bahçe ). By the end of the 16th century, two large storehouses had been built: the Kurşunlu storehouse, for shipbuilding and rigging materials and other ship equipment, and a storehouse for timber. By the mid-17th century,

2838-478: The Union, but they were adequate for their intended use. More Western Flotilla Union ironclads were sunk by torpedoes (mines) than by enemy fire, and the most damaging fire for the Union ironclads was from shore installations, not Confederate vessels. The first fleet battle, and the first ocean battle, involving ironclad warships was the Battle of Lissa in 1866. Waged between the Austrian and Italian navies,

2924-591: 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. 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- and 24-pounder guns with 32-pounders on sailing ships-of-the-line and introducing 68-pounders on steamers. Then,

3010-484: The accounting department - was also responsible to the defterdar (one of the treasury ministers). Records were kept in the merdiban system. Special accounts were kept for wood (vital in all aspects of shipbuilding) and also for slaves and convicts (who were treated as a resource; either working in the shipyard or oarsmen on the ships). Many materials were bought in from other parts of the empire; rope from Egypt , pitch from Thrace , ironmongery from Bulgaria . In

3096-576: The armored frigate New Ironsides and a light-draft USS  Keokuk , participated in the failed attack on Charleston ; one was sunk. Two small ironclads, CSS  Palmetto State and CSS  Chicora participated in the defense 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 three gunboats . On

3182-638: The arsenal contained a storehouse for oars, the "store of the seventy captains" housing equipment for 70 ships and seven other storehouses, the offices ( divanhane ) of the Kapudan Pasha (the fleet's chief admiral), the powder magazine tower, the Sanbola dungeon, the Cirid Meydan pavilion, the gates of Şahkulu and the Meyyit harbour. By 1557, the arsenal counted 123 docks. Following the destruction of

3268-403: 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

3354-439: The base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, and placed so as to draw in readily the resources of the country. The importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress . In the early 21st century, the term " floating armoury " described a ship storing weapons to be supplied to merchant vessels in international waters subject to piracy , so that

3440-573: The battle pitted combined fleets of wooden frigates and corvettes and ironclad warships on both sides in the largest naval battle between the battles of Navarino and Tsushima . 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

3526-419: The broadside-firing, masted designs of Gloire and Warrior . The clash of the Italian and Austrian fleets at the Battle of Lissa (1866), also had an important influence on the development of ironclad design. The first use of ironclads in combat came in the U.S. Civil War . The U.S. Navy at the time the war broke out had no ironclads, its most powerful ships being six unarmored steam-powered frigates. Since

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3612-595: The bulk of the Navy remained loyal to the Union, the Confederacy sought to gain advantage in the naval conflict by acquiring modern armored ships. In May 1861, the Confederate Congress appropriated $ 2 million dollars for the purchase of ironclads from overseas, and in July and August 1861 the Confederacy started work on construction and converting wooden ships. On 12 October 1861, CSS  Manassas became

3698-626: The course of their expansion , the Ottomans captured a number of ports and shipyards on both the Aegean and the Black Sea shores, such as those of Iznikmid ( Nicomedia , modern İzmit ), Gemlik (Cius), and Aydincik (Kyzikos). The main naval base and arsenal of the Ottoman navy during the early period, however, was at Gallipoli , which was definitively occupied by the Ottomans in 1377. After

3784-532: The critics and ordered that the four iron-hulled propeller frigates ordered by the Tories be converted into troopships . No iron warships would be ordered until the beginning of the Crimean War in 1854. Following the demonstration of the power of explosive shells against wooden ships at the Battle of Sinop , and fearing that his own ships would be vulnerable to the Paixhans guns of Russian fortifications in

3870-401: The custody, issue and receipt of stores. Frederick Taylor introduced command and control techniques to arsenals, including the U.S.'s Watertown Arsenal (a principal center for artillery design and manufacture) and Frankford Arsenal (a principal center for small arms ammunition design and manufacture). [REDACTED]   This article incorporates text from a publication now in

3956-582: The day was that wrought iron begins to become brittle at temperatures below 20 °C (68 °F). Many of the tests were conducted at temperatures below this while the battles were fought in tropical climates. The early experimental results seemed to support the critics and party politics came into play as the Whig First Russell ministry replaced the Tory Second Peel Ministry in 1846. The new administration sided with

4042-412: The decade before the first ironclads. 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 onward, steam propulsion only became suitable for major warships after the adoption of

4128-619: The defenses at the Battle of Kinburn 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. The British floating batteries Glatton and Meteor arrived too late to participate to the action at Kinburn. The British planned to use theirs in the Baltic Sea against the well-fortified Russian naval base at Kronstadt. The batteries have

4214-431: 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, Gloire , begun in 1857 and launched in 1859. Gloire ' s wooden hull was modelled on that of a steam ship of the line, reduced to one deck, and sheathed in iron plates 4.5 inches (114 mm) thick. She

4300-422: The explosive conversion of a solid propellant 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

4386-597: The first shell guns firing explosive shells were introduced following their development by the French Général Henri-Joseph Paixhans . By the 1840s they were part of the standard armament for naval powers including the French Navy , 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 an Ottoman squadron at

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4472-404: The first half of the 19th century. According to naval historian J. Richard 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." Each of these developments was introduced separately in

4558-648: The first ironclad to enter combat, when she fought Union warships on the Mississippi during the Battle of the Head of Passes . She had been converted from a commercial vessel in New Orleans for river and coastal fighting. In February 1862, the larger CSS  Virginia joined the Confederate Navy, having been rebuilt at Norfolk . Constructed on the hull of USS  Merrimack , Virginia originally

4644-434: The gun, a lengthy process particularly if the gun then needed to be re-aimed. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns also had the virtue of being lighter than an equivalent smoothbore and, because of their rifling, more accurate. Nonetheless, the design was rejected because of problems which plagued breech-loaders for decades. The weakness of the breech-loader was the obvious problem of sealing the breech. All guns are powered by

4730-595: The heaviest calibers of gun ever used at sea. HMS  Benbow carried two 16.25-inch (413 mm) breech-loading guns , each weighing 110 long tons (112 t). A few years afterwards, the Italians used 450 mm (17.72 inch) muzzle-loading guns on the Duilio class ships. One consideration which became more acute was that even from the original Armstrong models, following the Crimean War, range and hitting power far exceeded simple accuracy, especially at sea where

4816-413: The insides of the barrel, allowing guns to last longer and to be manufactured to tighter tolerances. 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 caliber compared to

4902-405: The inventories and records of all the Arsenal establishments and was responsible for expenditure. There was also an additional record office with a reis ("head") of the Arsenal, a reis of the harbour, the çavuş of the Arsenal, and superintendents of the registers. Directors were typically assigned for two years, and were well paid, at 5000 akçes . The secretary of the shipyard - the head of

4988-538: The ironclad had replaced the unarmored ship of the line as the most powerful warship afloat. Ironclad gunboats became very successful in the American Civil War. Ironclads were designed for several uses, including as high-seas battleships , long-range cruisers , and coastal defense ships. Rapid development of warship design in the late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel that carried sails to supplement its steam engines into

5074-445: The line, but was determined that the first British ironclad would outmatch the French ships in every respect, particularly speed. A fast ship would have the advantage of being able to choose a range of engagement that 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. The result

5160-399: The main naval armament by the ram. Those who noted the tiny number of ships that had actually been sunk by ramming struggled to be heard. 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

5246-561: The melée 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. The superior Italian fleet lost its two ironclads, Re d'Italia and Palestro , while the Austrian unarmored screw two-decker SMS  Kaiser remarkably survived close actions with four Italian ironclads. The battle ensured

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5332-408: The newly built Affondatore  – a double-turreted ram. Opposing them, the Austrian navy had seven ironclad frigates. The Austrians believed their ships to have less effective guns than their enemy, so decided to engage the Italians at close range and ram them. The Austrian fleet formed into an arrowhead formation with the ironclads in the first line, charging at the Italian ironclad squadron. In

5418-568: The northern shore of the Golden Horn, from the gate of Azab Kapisi to the vicinity of Hasköy . The name " Tershane " was officially applied to the Galata shipyard at about the same time. In 1546–49, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha built a small stone storehouse, with a flat, lead-covered roof, behind each dock, for the storing of the ship's gear and shipbuilding materials. He also walled off the arsenal grounds from their landward side to conceal its activity from prying eyes. In addition, during this period

5504-430: The number of docks had risen to 140. At its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Imperial Arsenal was a major industrial concern, "with dry docks, shipyards, storehouses, a spinning mill for making cordage, and iron foundries (for making anchors), supplemented by public buildings, including a mosque, fountains, a hospital, and a prison, all clustered in the Golden Horn". Nevertheless, the 17th century saw decline: in 1601

5590-471: The popularity of the ram as a weapon in European ironclads for many years, and the victory won by Austria established it as the predominant naval power in the Adriatic . 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 (ultimately erroneous) lesson that ramming

5676-504: The ram seemed to offer the opportunity to strike a decisive blow. The scant damage inflicted by the guns of Monitor and Virginia at Hampton Roads and the spectacular but lucky success of the Austrian flagship SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max sinking the Italian Re d'Italia at Lissa gave strength to the ramming craze. From the early 1870s to early 1880s most British naval officers thought that guns were about to be replaced as

5762-422: The rivers, the first two of which differed from the ocean-going monitors in that they contained a paddle wheel ( USS  Neosho and USS  Osage ). The Union ironclads played an important role in the Mississippi and tributaries by providing tremendous fire upon Confederate forts, installations and vessels with relative impunity to enemy fire. They were not as heavily armored as the ocean-going monitors of

5848-421: The ships of the 1880s, most often 12 in (305 mm), but progressively grew in length of barrel, making use of improved propellants to gain greater muzzle velocity. 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

5934-434: The shipyard had 3524 employees but this number steadily fell, reaching 726 in 1700. During this period an increasing amount of work was done by other shipyards. This was facilitated by the fact that galleys, which formed the bulk of the Ottoman navy until the late 17th century, could be built by any skilled shipwright, and that consequently they were frequently built in the provinces at coastal or river sites, and only brought to

6020-526: The slightest roll or pitch of the vessel as 'floating weapons-platform' could negate the advantage of rifling. American ordnance experts accordingly preferred smoothbore monsters whose round shot could at least 'skip' along the surface of the water. Actual effective combat ranges, they had learned during the Civil War, were comparable to those in the Age of Sail—though a vessel could now be smashed to pieces in only

6106-449: The smaller USS  Galena . The first battle between ironclads happened on 9 March 1862, as the armored Monitor was deployed to protect the Union's wooden fleet from the ironclad ram Virginia and other Confederate warships. In this engagement, the second day of the Battle of Hampton Roads , the two ironclads tried to ram one another while shells bounced off their armor. The battle attracted attention worldwide, making it clear that

6192-453: The steel-built, turreted battleships, and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns, more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in ferrous metallurgy that made steel shipbuilding possible. The quick pace of change meant that many ships were obsolete almost as soon as they were finished and that naval tactics were in a state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of

6278-418: The tests partially confirmed this belief. What was ignored was that 14 inches (356 mm) of wood backing the iron would stop most of the splinters from penetrating and that relatively thin plates of iron backed by the same thickness of wood would generally cause shells to split open and fail to detonate. One factor in the performance of wrought iron during these tests that was not understood by metallurgists of

6364-428: The weapon and can also endanger the gun crew. Warrior ' s Armstrong guns suffered from both problems; the shells were unable to penetrate the 4.5-inch (114 mm) armor of 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. These problems influenced

6450-475: The weapons do not enter territorial waters where they would be illegal. The branches in a great arsenal are usually subdivided into storekeeping , construction and administration : In the manufacturing branches are required skill, and efficient and economical work, both executive and administrative; in the storekeeping part, good arrangement, great care, thorough knowledge of all warlike stores, both in their active and passive state, and scrupulous exactness in

6536-560: The western front, the Union built a formidable force of river ironclads, beginning with several converted riverboats and then contracting engineer James Eads of St. Louis , Missouri to build the City-class ironclads. These excellent ships were built with twin engines and a central paddle wheel, all protected by an armored casemate. They had a shallow draft, allowing them to journey up smaller tributaries, and were very well suited for river operations. Eads also produced monitors for use on

6622-556: The wooden warship was now out of date, with the ironclads destroying them easily. 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 modeled on their namesake. The Confederacy built ships designed as smaller versions of Virginia , many of which saw action, but their attempts to buy ironclads overseas were frustrated as European nations confiscated ships being built for

6708-611: Was a conventional warship made of wood, but she was converted into an iron-covered casemate ironclad gunship, when she entered the Confederate Navy . By this time, the Union had completed seven ironclad gunboats of the City class , and was about to complete USS  Monitor , an innovative design proposed by the Swedish inventor John Ericsson . The Union was also building a large armored frigate, USS  New Ironsides , and

6794-471: Was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), regardless of the wind conditions: a potentially decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of the steam ship-of-the-line led to a building competition between France and Britain. Eight sister ships to Napoléon were built in France over a period of ten years, but

6880-668: Was launched by the French Navy in November 1859, narrowly preempting the British Royal Navy . However, Britain built the first completely iron-hulled warships. They were first used in warfare in 1862 during the American Civil War , when ironclads operated against wooden ships and, in a historic confrontation, against each other at the Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia . Their performance demonstrated that

6966-463: Was more susceptible to fouling by marine life. 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. However, the first battles using the new ironclad ships took place during the American Civil War, between Union and Confederate ships in 1862. These were markedly different from

7052-450: Was propelled by a steam engine, driving a single screw propeller for a speed of 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). She was armed with thirty-six 6.4-inch (160 mm) rifled guns. France proceeded to construct 16 ironclad warships, including two sister ships to Gloire , and the only two-decked broadside ironclads ever built, Magenta and Solférino . The Royal Navy had not been keen to sacrifice its advantage in steam ships of

7138-409: 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. The caliber 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

7224-418: Was the best way to sink enemy ironclads. 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

7310-427: Was the construction of two Warrior -class ironclads; HMS  Warrior and HMS  Black Prince . The ships had a successful design, though there were necessarily compromises between 'sea-keeping', strategic range and armor protection. Their weapons were more effective than those of Gloire , and with the largest set of steam engines yet fitted to a ship, they could steam at 14.3 knots (26.5 km/h). Yet

7396-423: 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. The ram finally fell out of favor in the 1880s, as the same effect could be achieved with

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