Ironclad Warship

Examples of Ironclad Warship in the following topics:

• Naval Actions

  • For example, the Civil War saw the first clash of ironclad warships.
  • On October 12, 1861, the CSS Manassas entered combat against Union warships on the Mississippi during the Battle of the Head of Passes.
  • By March 9, 1862, the Union ironclad Monitor entered a fray with Confederate warships, marking the first-ever clash between two ironclad ships.
  • Both sides continued to build ironclads for use in the war, with many of the Union ironclads seeing action in Confederate ports and in the rivers along the western front.
  • The CSS Virginia was the Confederate's ironclad warship.

• Modern Warfare

  • At sea, the greatest innovation was the introduction of ironclad warships, which was facilitated by the development of heavy naval guns, more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy that made steel shipbuilding possible.
  • Ironclads were designed for multiple purposes, serving as high-seas battleships, coastal defense ships, and long-range cruisers.
  • The engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimac was the first engagement between ironclad warships in the Civil War.

• The Setbacks in the Atlantic

  • Many German warships were already at sea when war was declared.
  • This strategy was deeply flawed because a U-boat, with its tiny silhouette, was always likely to spot the surface warships and submerge long before it was sighted.
  • Any submarine found by an aircraft was long gone by the time surface warships arrived.
  • Although the narrow fjords gave U-boats little room for maneuver, the concentration of British warships, troopships, and supply ships provided countless opportunities for the U-boats to attack.
  • In more than 20 attacks, a U-boat did not sink a single British warship.

• McClellan's Peninsular Campaign

  • Another setback for the campaign was the emergence of the first Confederate ironclad ship, the CSS Virginia, which complicated further Union operations along the James River.
  • In the subsequent Battle of Hampton Roads (March 8–9, 1862), the Virginia defeated several Union wooden ships, calling into question their usefulness in the age or the ironclad.
  • The USS Monitor arrived on the scene the next day, leading to the world’s first clash between ironclads.

• The Atlantic Theater

  • In early March of 1862, the blockade of the James River in Virginia was gravely threatened by the first ironclad, the CSS Virginia (also known as the "Merrimack") in the dramatic Battle of Hampton Roads.
  • Only the timely entry of the new Union ironclad USS Monitor forestalled the threat.

• Harassment by Britain

  • One major cause of conflict that remained unresolved by Jay's Treaty in 1794 was the British practice of impressment, whereby American sailors were taken at sea and forced to fight on British warships.
  • Beginning in 1664, the Royal British Navy used this practice in wartime, and during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, impressment allowed the British to crew their warships.
  • The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair was a naval engagement that occurred off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on June 22, 1807, between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake.

• Origins of the War of 1812

  • One major cause was the British practice of impressment, whereby American sailors were taken at sea and forced to fight on British warships; this issue was left unresolved by Jay’s Treaty in 1794.
  • The issue came to a head in 1807 when the HMS Leopard, a British warship, fired on a U.S. naval ship, the Chesapeake, off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia.
  • The Leopard-Chesapeake Affair of 1807 heightened British-American tensions when the HMS Leopard fired on and boarded the American warship, USS Chesapeake.

• The Battle of the Atlantic

  • The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, the United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping.
  • Historians still estimate precise losses and numbers very greatly but it is clear that victory was achieved at a huge cost: between 1939 and 1945, approximately 3,000 Allied merchant ships and 175 Allied warships were sunk.
  • The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German Navy, along with aircrafts of the German Air Force, against Allied merchant convoys.

• The British Strategy

  • The U.S. started a rapidly-expanded program of building warships at Sackets Harbor on Lake Ontario, where 3,000 men were recruited, many from New York City, to build eleven warships early in the war.

• The Quasi-War

  • The success of these U.S. naval endeavors was due to the fact that Congress authorized President Adams to acquire, develop, and arm numerous new warships and train naval sailors.
  • Although Congress never officially declared war, it did authorize Adams to build a navy for the explicit purpose of attacking French warships that sought to capture American merchant vessels.