Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1877. Ironclads fail to impress

The famous Civil War naval clash between the ironclad ships Monitor and Merrimac started a new wave in warship construction, which The Providence Journal called in 1877 "a race between armor and guns."

New ships were being built with thicker and thicker armor plating.

In response, guns were made bigger to pierce the plate.

What resulted were expensive "floating castles," such as a new English ship with a reported two feet of armor plating and a gun weighing 35 tons, The Journal reported May 15, 1877.

The Journal didn't like the new breed of metal warship:

"There has always seemed something radically wrong about the system of iron clads. It has looked like a return to the Middle Ages and an imitation of the knights who so fenced and burdened themselves with armor that they could neither hurt nor be hurt, and their chief danger was in falling off their horses, for they could never rise again without assistance, as the great fear of the crews of the iron clads was that their vessels should go to the bottom like a pot."

A new weapon was about to challenge the ironclads, The Journal reported.

Journal files / UPI photo

The Journal editorialized that Whitehead torpedoes were a more effective war tool than ironclad ships, such as the Leigh, shown above.

"It is called the Whitehead torpedo, and can be fired into the water from a frame constructed for the purpose, after which, its engines, driven by compressed air, will force it to its point with great rapidity, and with a perfect adjustment under water."

The new torpedo would devastate a fleet of plodding ironclads, the paper predicted, meaning that battles would be decided by the brains of captains and crew, not the strength of their machines.

"The swiftest vessel, the most vigilant and daring crews will win the day as they used to do."