Iron Men and Iron Ships

One hundred forty-eight years ago today, the Confederate Navy launched their secret weapon: an ironclad warship called the C.S.S. Virginia, built on the salvaged hulk of the U.S.S. Merrimack. Virginia was a revolutionary ship. Where other experimental ironclads of the 1850s had been little more than normal sail-and-steam warships with some armor plate bolted on the sides, Virginia didn't bother with masts, and her sides were angled in like the ramparts of a fortress to deflect incoming shells. Armed with 10 cannon and a ram, she seemed unstoppable. Certainly none of the Union ships in Hampton Roads could harm her.

On her maiden voyage she ravaged the Union fleet blockading Norfolk, and spread panic to Northern port cities as far away as New York. President Lincoln's Cabinet members discussed abandoning Washington. But when Virginia sortied on March 9, 1862, there was something in her path: another ironclad supership, the U.S.S. Monitor. The ironclads slugged it out inconclusively all day, and finally Virginia steamed back into the naval yard under the protection of the heavy guns of the coastal forts. Her career as the most powerful warship in the world was over after twenty-four hours.

It's a familiar part of American history, but it sounds like science fiction:  a new technology which renders everything the enemy has obsolete, but then the other side whips up their own counter just in time. It's hard to think of any other example from history. Even in fiction it would sound implausible; the sort of thing people used to criticize "Doc" Smith for putting in his Skylark of Space tales. Indeed, the American Civil War is probably unique in the sheer volume of fundamental military innovations generated during a purely internal struggle. In addition to ironclads the Civil War saw Gatling guns, observation balloons, and submarines. Nearly all the technologies of World War I were there in embryo.

On March 8, 1862, every wooden-hulled sailing warship on Earth suddenly became obsolete. The steam ironclad and its descendants ruled the seas for another 79 years, until they, too, were doomed by a new technology. One hopes that the next big thing in sea power won't be tried out on the unfortunate U.S. Navy yet again.

Comments

[Hugh Fisher]

Nice article and interesting viewpoint on the Civil War, but goes too far with "every wooden-hulled sailing warship on Earth suddenly became obsolete." The British Warrior and French Gloire with their wooden hulls had a tremendous advantage over Virginia and Monitor: they could actually sail across the ocean without sinking in heavy waves.
Wood was better than iron for hull structures for another decade or two, until the steel makers got it right.