Navies of the world

by Edward W. Very

Had it not been for the dire necessity for an armored vessel to hold the Merrimac in check, Ericsson would not have won for the United States the credit of introducing the monitor type of vessel. Whilst he was designing the lines and arrangements of the Monitor, Coles was engaged in almost precisely the same work for the Danish Government, designing the Rolf Krake.

From the successful work of the French floating batteries that government passed at a stride to the Gloire, laid down in 1858. Scarcely was this vessel’s frame up before the keel of the Warrior was laid in England. In designing these two ships the honors of development are divided between the countries. England introduced iron ship-construction, France combined thickness and disposition of armor as well as dimensions of vessels which required the least change as development progressed. Before the end of 1862 all Europe had been aroused to the new marine development. France and England already possessed iron-clad fleets, whilst Spain, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Russia, Holland, and Sweden were ordering ships wherever they could be obtained. In the United States a powerful fleet of monitors and armored river gun-boats was being rapidly formed, whilst to this country the eyes of the world were turned for the actual warfare tests of the new idea.

In England the development of the broadside sea-going iron-clad extends from 1858 to 1867. Commencing with the Warrior, there is a gradual increase in dimensions until the maximum of unwieldiness is reached in the Minotaur, the false development ceasing at her and falling back in the Bellerophon and Lord Warden, the last of the pure broadside type, to nearly the dimensions laid down by the French at the commencement of their work. In disposition of armor the English departed in the same manner from true development. Commencing with simply an armored battery in the Warrior, altering to a fully armored main-deck in the Valiant, changing again in the Achilles to an armored water-line and battery, and ending with a full water-line and main-deck armor in the Minotaur and Bellerophon—the system adopted by France at the start. During this period Coles’s turret-ship development commenced with two different types of ships—a harbor-defence type, represented by the old line-of-battle ship Royal Sovereign, which was cut down, armored, and provided with revolving turrets mounted on a low flush deck, and the Rolf Krake, Scorpion, and Wyvern, constructed for foreign governments, and intended as low-freeboard sea-going vessels.

In France the lifetime of the pure broadside type was about the same as in England. Commencing with the Gloire, a tentative development of iron construction was made in the Couronne, but was not followed up. Remaining satisfied with the Gloire type as it was perfected in the Flandre, the French built up a homogeneous and effective fleet, making but one false step in the development. This was in the attempt to carry height and weight of battery to a maximum by introducing a two-decked frigate. In the Magenta and Solferino the armor of the upper gun-deck was confined to the battery, leaving the ends exposed as in the Warrior, but with far more injurious consequences; for the upper works in these ships being of wood were open to the ravages of fire caused by shell and hot shot, which would have inevitably put these ships hors de combat. The turret-ship development was also commenced at this period with the ram Taureau, an amplification of Coles’ Lady Nancy; passing from thence to the Cerbere type, which was closely allied to the American monitors. In the private ship-yards of France, Germany had commenced an independent type with the Prinz Adalbert, a false design which was repeated but once, in the Confederate ram Stonewall. In comparing the developments of France and England, there is one novel feature worthy of remark. France, ignoring iron construction, made no attempt to convert her wooden line-of-battle ships into armored vessels. England, throwing wood construction out entirely as unfit for application, converted a number of her wooden vessels into armored ones.

In the United States, attention was turned almost entirely to the development of the monitor type, passing from the single to the double turreted class, and overstepping the limit in the three-turreted converted ship Roanoke. The Confederates having designed an independent armored battery-ship (Merrimac type), the Federals developed it in the New Ironsides, carrying it to the end in the Dunderberg.

Spain, Austria, and Italy adopted the French development of the broadside ship, the latter country making a false step in the Affondatore, which belonged to the Rolf Krake type. The northern nations introduced the American development almost unchanged.

In 1867 England struck the death-blow to the pure broadside ship by the design of the belt and box ship Enterprise, passing rapidly and in a true line to the Pallas, Penelope, Hercules, Sultan, and ending with the Audacious. During this period the faulty development of Coles’s low-freeboard sea-going turret system culminated in the Captain, with whose loss the inventor perished. His work was not lost, however, for in the Monarch appears the true development of his system. During this period also the English, taking the American monitor type in connection with Coles’s turret, advanced the combination in the Rupert, Cerberus, Glatton, and Fury (Devastation).

In France the broadside type was modified by introducing the short main-deck battery, supplemented by the spar-deck barbette turrets in the Belliqueuse, carried forward in the Alma and culminating in the Ocean and Richelieu.

In the United States, iron-clad development had entirely ceased. In Germany the König Wilhelm represented the full development of the English Enterprise, and the Friedrich Carl entered her fleet as the model of the second-rate armored cruiser belonging to the Alma type. Russia failed in an attempt to advance the New Ironsides type in the cruising iron-clad Perwenec. Holland, with the Buffel, introduced a new type of high-freeboard monitor, and Turkey appeared developing a fleet of the Hercules type.

Since 1871 the English have in their sea-going frigates mainly developed individual ships of different types—the Alexandria, Temeraire, Nelson, and Shannon. Their turreted ships have advanced from the Devastation to the Dreadnought and Inflexible, and with these ships the English have for a time rested.