War at Sea in the Ironclad Age

by Hill, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780060891671
• ISBN10: 006089167X
• Format: Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

The nineteenth century saw several major innovations in naval warfare. Reliable steam engines made it so that ships no longer depended on the wind and could maneuver more freely. At the same time, new explosive shells were developed, replacing cannonballs, and no wooden ship could withstand them. In response to these shells, a new class of self-propelled, armored "ironclads" was invented and quickly revolutionized naval warfare. A comprehensive look at the makeup of these "ironclad" warships. A technical view of the powerful weaponry that compelled these radical innovations. A look at the historic battles that proved the necessity of engines and armor. A discussion of the new tactics employed by nineteenth-century navies and the revival of an old classic -- the "ram."

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	5	(4)
Map List	9	(1)
Chronology	10	(10)
INTRODUCTION: TECHNICAL AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT	20	(8)
1. THE TECHNICAL BACKGROUND	28	(44)
2. NAVIES AND THEIR PEOPLE	72	(18)
3. THEORIES OF SEA WARFARE	90	(28)
4. THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR	118	(28)
5. NAVIES AND IMPERIAL EXPANSION	146	(30)
6. FLEET ACTION	176	(44)
Biographical Notes	220	(8)
Further Reading	228	(3)
Index	231	(9)
Picture Credits	240

Excerpts

War at Sea in the Ironclad Age (Smithsonian History of Warfare)

Chapter One

The Technical Background

The Ironclad Age, in the brief space of fifty years, saw the instruments of naval power progress -- in three crucial areas -- hull design and construction, propulsion and armament. Put briefly, it was a case of wood and sail and cannonballs to steel and steam and shells. These developments meant inevitably that any discussion of naval power took matériel as its starting point. It is said that armies equip and arm their troops, while navies man their armaments. That was never more true than in the Ironclad Age.

That is not to say that human and organizational factors were unimportant. The quality of people, their training, their resourcefulness and the way they were commanded, and how they were used both operationally and as forces in being, were all critical elements of effectiveness, and later chapters of this book will discuss them as fully as space allows. But the bedrock of the naval business was its matériel.

It is not surprising, then, that the literature of the period was awash with details of hull form and construction, armour, main and auxiliary machinery, guns and, later, torpedoes. Figures often acquired their own momentum and reputation. Competition both within nations and internationally was intense.There were few enough wars to test the developments as they came along. The Royal Navy's numerical and, usually, technical superiority exercised a powerful deterrence, and such wars as did occur either did not concern Britain or were on a small scale and seldom involved the latest equipments against serious opposition. The more thoughtful designers and planners took careful note of such operational experience as there was, but much of their work was necessarily in the light airs of peace, with little of the wind of experience to drive them. The same went for all the major or emerging naval powers, though some -- notably the French -- did, as will be seen, reach out after developments that might reverse their position as the weaker naval power.

It must be recalled that the Ironclad Age at sea was essentially two-dimensional. That is to say, the surface warship was the only seagoing instrument of power. Its principal challengers were other surface warships or, if it chose to venture within their range, coastal forts. Towards the end of the period the third dimension, in the form of underwater and above-water weapon-carriers, was beginning to emerge, but for most of the period the surface was supreme. Thus this chapter, in its coverage of the rapid material development of the period, will concentrate on surface vessels under the headings of Hull, Propulsion and Armament, and only at the end give a hint of the coming of submarines and aircraft -- both of which were so soon afterwards to change the face of sea warfare completely.

Hull Design and Construction

The first development in hull design of the Ironclad Age was, unsurprisingly, the cladding of warships with iron armour plate. This had first appeared in operational craft during the Russian War at the bombardment of Kinburn in 1855. Here, at the mouth of the Dnieper river, the French -- stealing a march on the British who were developing similar craft -- deployed three ‘floating batteries' which, protected by iron armour, were able to move in close to the Russian shore works and take a major part in battering them to pieces. They did this at minimal cost in damage or casualties although repeatedly hit; the Russian projectiles, both shot and shell, bounced off or exploded harmlessly.

Soon afterwards the French Navy, urged by Napoleon III to challenge Britain's supremacy at sea, embarked on its first large-scale ironclad, the Gloire, designed by the great naval architect Dupuy de Lôme. But the British, encouraged by visionaries like John Scott Russell -- who had already with Brunel produced the gigantic merchant ship Great Eastern -- were already preparing something bigger and better: the Warrior.

This magnificent vessel, still happily afloat and superbly presented in the Heritage area at Portsmouth, England, was, when completed in 1861, comfortably superior in fighting terms to anything else afloat. Iron-framed, her sides clad in 4-inch iron armour backed by two layers of teak, she was a monument to her chief designer Isaac Watts and her builders, Thames Ironworks at Blackwall. This showed the pattern of warship design and construction at this period: Watts was an Admiralty employee, designated the Chief Constructor, but the builders were a private firm and the engines and services were also from contractors. Later in the period the Royal Dockyards built a number of ships, including the biggest, but private yards continued to build the greater proportion of the navy's vessels.

The Warrior proved to be seaworthy, fast under power, and indeed sail too under her full three-masted rig, though she was none too handy under sail alone. She was followed through the early 1860s by a distinguished line of major warships (oddly, they were designated ‘frigates' because Admiralty formulations, based on the number of guns, could not keep up with the pace of technology) on essentially the same plan, which perpetuated the end-to-end gundeck that was characteristic of the first half of the century. But already, under the new Chief Constructor Edward Reed, design was moving on and the centre-battery ship was evolved. This concentrated the main guns, still on the broadside, towards the centre section of the ship where they received maximum protection from increasingly thick iron armour.

Things were very different on the other side of the Atlantic. The American Civil War had broken out in 1861, though primarily a land war, its sea aspects were intense, their importance not always fully appreciated by the statesmen and soldiers on either side. The Northern (Union) forces sought to blockade and ultimately control the Southern (Confederate) littoral; the South concentrated on blockade running and commerce raiding. This specialized sea war, covered later in Chapter 4, generated new types of ship, of which three were prominent.

War at Sea in the Ironclad Age (Smithsonian History of Warfare). Copyright © by Richard Hill. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from War at Sea in the Ironclad Age by Richard Hill
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