- 1 day ago
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:26¶¶
00:55In 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson secured
00:59British command of the seas
01:01at the Battle of Trafalgar.
01:08This is his flagship, HMS Victory.
01:13Yet, just a few decades after Trafalgar,
01:17warships like Victory were totally obsolete.
01:21Located near to the home of Nelson's ship
01:24is the nemesis of the warship,
01:27HMS Warrior.
01:36Although she never fired a shot in anger,
01:39the Warrior is one of the most important vessels ever built.
01:44Her staunch iron hull and impenetrable iron armour
01:49was like nothing ever seen before.
01:52With the launch of this ship in 1860,
01:55the Age of the Ironclads began.
02:20The Industrial Revolution
02:22is one of the most significant events in modern history.
02:26The introduction of mechanised production processes
02:29led to irreversible changes in Western life.
02:34The repercussions of the Revolution
02:36were felt in virtually every field of activity.
02:40For the world's naval powers,
02:43industrialisation heralded the dawn of a new age in warship design.
02:49In Britain, this resulted in the creation of ships like the great HMS Warrior.
02:57Well, the Warrior itself was the first of the ironclad navy, basically.
03:02There was another ship in the same class, which was the Black Prince.
03:05So this started, if you like, the ironclad trend.
03:09It didn't actually last for very long.
03:11The ship for about four years was the most powerful warship in the world.
03:15And then technology overtook it quite quickly.
03:18And when it actually went out of commission in 1883,
03:22when you think in just the early 1900s,
03:25they were building dreadnought battleships in ports with naval base.
03:28So that technology moved on so quickly.
03:31But this was actually the trigger which started it all.
03:34In other regions of the world,
03:36ships unlike anything ever seen before
03:39would prove themselves in battle.
03:41It was an age that changed the design of the warship forever.
03:48Although the ironclad warrior never once went to battle,
03:52just months after her commission,
03:54the first battle of ironclads did take place.
03:58Not in Europe, but across the Atlantic Ocean.
04:03In the spring of 1861,
04:06the American Civil War broke out.
04:09Four years of bloodshed followed,
04:11in what was the first major war of the industrial age.
04:17The American Civil War is not famous as a naval conflict.
04:21The decisive battles were fought on land.
04:24But, in the first year of the war,
04:27an engagement took place,
04:29which many analysts believe to be
04:31one of the most important naval battles of all time.
04:35The battle between the confederate vessel Merrimack
04:39and the Union ship, the Monitor.
04:42The battle itself was indecisive,
04:45but the technology deployed
04:47would influence ship design from that time onwards.
04:52The battle between the Merrimack and the Monitor is considered significant as it was the first engagement between two ironclad
05:01warships.
05:01No action like this had ever taken place before, and indeed in 1862, when the action occurred, there were really
05:09only four ironclad vessels in the world at the time.
05:13The French Laguerre, which had actually begun the ironclad race in Europe, the British HMS Warrior, and the Merrimack and
05:22the Monitor.
05:24While a lot of people had thought and written and even built ironclad ships before,
05:30the concept had not really been validated in battle.
05:35Everybody knew that an ironclad ship was supposed to be more durable.
05:40Everybody knew that a ship with a low profile and no sails should be much harder to hit.
05:45But nobody had actually gone out on the water and experimented.
05:50It had not been validated.
05:51And when these two ships came together, they were both proving their technology
05:58and proving the concept of the armoured ship in combat.
06:03Just after the outbreak of the American Civil War,
06:07the Union forces of the North abandoned the naval base of Norfolk in Virginia.
06:13Before they left, they sank many of the ships anchored there,
06:17including the Merrimack, a wooden, steam-powered frigate.
06:22The base was quickly occupied by Confederate forces.
06:26However, the value of the base to them was limited.
06:31At the outbreak of the war, Union leader Abraham Lincoln decided to blockade all southern ports.
06:39By doing this, he hoped to restrict the movements of personnel and supplies in the south.
06:46Soon, the effectiveness of this blockade became clear and the value of bases such as Norfolk was sharply curtailed.
06:56Existing Confederate ships had little chance of breaking the blockade.
07:05The problem is that although the south had provided naval officers to the U.S. for years,
07:13they didn't have their own shipyards, but a couple, and they didn't have their own sailors, but a very few.
07:22So they had to, in the absence of quantity, they had to make up with quality.
07:29And in order to have enough durable firepower to protect their own ports and attack the Union fleet,
07:38the much larger, much better equipped, much more replaceable Union fleet,
07:43the Confederate states had to have something with a lot of punch and something very survivable.
07:50So they had to have an ironclad.
07:53The ironclad armor being pioneered in Europe was well known on the other side of the Atlantic.
08:01In the summer of 1861, the Confederates decided to use it
08:06in an attempt to break the Union blockade.
08:10The frigate Merrimack was raised from the bottom of the Norfolk harbor.
08:15Over the next months, under the supervision of Commander John M. Brooke,
08:20it was transformed into a vessel unlike anything ever seen before.
08:26Although the Merrimack was renamed Virginia by the Confederates,
08:30it is by her original name that history now remembers her.
08:35The original Merrimack was a 3,500-ton frigate with an armament of 40 guns.
08:42The new ship would be radically different.
08:46They stripped the hull down to the waterline and then rebuilt on top an iron casemate.
08:53The iron casemate on the Virginia was constructed of two feet of pitch pine and oak
08:59and covered with a two-inch-thick sheeting of iron plate.
09:03There were also ten gun ports for the armament of the Virginia,
09:08but obviously this was very much an ad-hoc design built from a salvaged vessel.
09:14One of the best examples of this was the extremely poor turning circle of the Virginia
09:20and it was reckoned it actually took 30 minutes for the vessel to turn a full 180 degrees.
09:27At the same time, the engines had been underwater and again, although they were salvaged,
09:32it meant the vessel could only make six to eight knots maximum.
09:36When the USS Merrimack was converted into the CSS Virginia,
09:42a ram was fitted to her that weighed 1,500 pounds.
09:47It was a 1,500-pound chunk of iron and it was two feet long ahead of the stem of
09:56the Virginia.
09:57So it was quite a significant chunk of iron and that's important in the Confederate states
10:03because the Confederate states were very weak in industrial might.
10:06They did not produce a lot of iron.
10:08And in order to provide enough iron just to armor this ship,
10:12they had to tear up railways and capture Union territory,
10:16bring the rails down to Richmond and process them into deck plates and into this iron ram.
10:23So it was an allocation of really precious resources on the Virginia.
10:27On its first day of battle, this would prove to be a vital innovation.
10:34At midday, on the 8th of March, 1862,
10:38the Merrimack steamed out of Norfolk Harbour, ready for battle.
10:43In the waterway known as Hampton Roads to the north
10:47were situated several Union vessels enforcing the blockade.
10:52Amongst them, anchored at the Federal Garrison of Newport News,
10:57were the 50-gun Frigate Congress and the 30-gun Sloop Cumberland.
11:02Despite their firepower, these two ships would become the first to fall victim to an ironclad warship.
11:13Following an initial exchange of fire with the two Union vessels,
11:17the Merrimack's commander, Commodore Buchanan, made the decision to ram the Cumberland.
11:24The idea of a ram is you use the kinetic energy of a moving ship as a weapon.
11:31You turn the ship into a missile and you transfer that kinetic energy to a target.
11:36And against the USS Cumberland, the Virginia managed to take all the kinetic energy
11:44of this heavy iron-plated steam frigate and drive it right into the side of the USS Cumberland.
11:53And it blew a big hole in the Cumberland,
11:56a hole big enough to drive a horse through, according to some who saw it,
12:00and it absolutely sent the USS Cumberland straight to the bottom.
12:06The ironclad Merrimack then turned its attention to the Congress
12:10with equally devastating results.
12:13The Union frigate's guns made little impression upon its armoured opponent.
12:19Surrender soon became inevitable.
12:23The wounded were evacuated before the ship was set ablaze.
12:27At the end of the day's engagement, the Merrimack was triumphant.
12:35The iron armour proved remarkably successful.
12:39It had endured fire from over 100 cannon, including those situated on the shore.
12:47This combined firepower barely dented the impenetrable new shield.
12:52The sinking of the Cumberland had also proved the effectiveness of the heavy ram.
12:59The Confederates were ecstatic.
13:03That night, anchored at Sewell's Point,
13:06the victorious seamen looked forward to the next day.
13:10Then, surely, the Merrimack would engage and destroy the remaining Union vessels
13:17and break Lincoln's blockade.
13:22Their day's work would begin with the destruction of the Minnesota,
13:26which had grounded off Newport News.
13:29However, when they woke the following morning,
13:33they were met by a remarkable sight.
13:35A tiny, bizarre-looking vessel awaited them in Hampton Road's channel to the north,
13:42protecting the Minnesota.
13:44It was the Monitor, the first of the Union ironclads.
13:49The Confederate forces immediately realised that their day was not going to be so easy after all.
13:57Lincoln and the other leaders of the Union had also appreciated the potential of the ironclad vessel
14:04and were aware of the construction of the Merrimack.
14:08In August 1861, Washington commissioned a steam-powered battery
14:14suitable for fighting in the shallow waters of the southern coasts.
14:18To design it, they chose the man who had earlier been so influential
14:23in the development of the screw propeller, John Erickson.
14:27Over the next months in New York, Erickson constructed from scratch
14:33an entirely new kind of vessel, the ironclad Monitor.
14:38The Monitor, designed by the eccentric Swedish designer Erickson,
14:44really was a unique vessel.
14:48It indeed had over 47 patented devices within it,
14:53making it completely unlike any other naval vessel before that time.
14:59The Monitor can be described as a harbour defence vessel.
15:03It certainly wasn't designed to be a completely seaworthy vessel.
15:07And it composed of a very shallow draft vessel
15:11with an armour-plated raft over the top.
15:15A Confederate veteran who saw it in action
15:18said that it looked like nothing more than a shingle with a cheese box on top.
15:23This refers to the fact that it was extremely low in the water
15:27with this armoured hull.
15:29On top, then, there was a cast-iron pilot's house, again armoured.
15:34There was then a gun tower, or what we would now call a turret,
15:39with two 11-inch Dahlgren guns.
15:42And behind that, there was actually a very innovative ventilation system for the crew.
15:47And behind that, a smokestack for the engines.
15:51So a very strange vessel, quite unlike any other.
15:56It was a small, light fighting ship.
16:00172 feet long, 41 feet wide, and weighing just 1,000 tonnes.
16:06Her complement of crew was just 58.
16:10The lightness of the Monitor resulted in a draft of just over 10 feet,
16:16ideal for engagements in shallow water.
16:19Her armament consisted of two massive 11-inch, 168-pound guns.
16:27The sheer size of the guns is, however, less important than how they were fixed to the vessel.
16:35Ericsson decided to place them on a revolving platform in a turret,
16:40protected by eight layers of inch-thick iron plate.
16:44Though not an entirely new concept,
16:47the revolving gun turret employed on the Monitor
16:50represented a further significant advance in warship design.
16:56The Monitor, again, was unusual in having a revolving gun turret or gun tower.
17:02Now, in fact, this wasn't entirely a new idea.
17:04It had been experimented with, particularly by the French and British navies before the 1860s.
17:10But nonetheless, the Monitor was the first vessel to use such a tower in action.
17:16With only a two-gun armament of two 11-inch Dalgren guns,
17:21the standard equipment of the US Navy at the time,
17:24the Monitor, obviously, with its very low freeboard
17:27and a revolving turret powered by steam,
17:31could actually fire in any direction.
17:34This was obviously very much in contrast
17:36to the old idea of the broadside on battleships of the time.
17:42This did give the Monitor an advantage,
17:44but given the black powder weapons of the day,
17:47which, when fired, produced great clouds of smoke,
17:50it did mean that, given the problems of visibility,
17:53that, in fact, the gun tower was not quite as valuable
17:56as it might otherwise have been.
18:00The Monitor's turret was an early working model of a moving gun turret,
18:07and the technology had not really worked out a way of making a turret watertight.
18:13So while the Monitor's turret was expected to be watertight
18:17from the pressure of its enormous weight on the deck below
18:21and on its mounting ring,
18:23it was actually not nearly watertight.
18:26And when they tried to make it a bit more watertight
18:29by putting a cable between the turret and the deck,
18:32trying to provide a water seal,
18:34the sort of thing that a modern ship might do with a rubber O-ring
18:37or something like that,
18:39the turret allowed water to flow right in.
18:42And water just poured in, like Niagara Falls,
18:46making the Monitor very uncomfortable.
18:49The Monitor was launched on the 30th of January, 1862.
18:54Five weeks later, on the 6th of March, she left New York for Virginia.
19:01Nothing like her had ever been seen before.
19:05One description of her likened her to a cheesebox on a raft.
19:10The question was whether her radical design would prove effective in battle.
19:16She did not have long to wait.
19:19On the evening of March the 8th,
19:22the Monitor arrived at Hampton Roads.
19:25The crew could see for themselves the results of the day's fighting.
19:30The Congress was still burning,
19:33and the flag of the sunken Cumberland could still be seen above the water.
19:38The predicament of the beached Minnesota was also established.
19:42It was obvious that the day belonged to the Confederates.
19:48Early on Sunday morning,
19:50the ship that had caused such devastation was sighted by the Monitor.
19:55The commander, Captain John Worden,
19:58ordered that his ship should be positioned
20:00between the stricken Minnesota and the anchored Merrimack.
20:05There, it would wait for morning,
20:08and the first ever engagement between two ironclad warships.
20:13Shortly after half-past seven,
20:16on Sunday, March the 9th,
20:18the Merrimack raised anchor
20:20and steamed towards the Monitor
20:23for the inevitable confrontation.
20:36Despite their difference in size,
20:38the two new vessels were quickly joined in even combat.
20:43Broadsides from the Merrimack
20:45were answered with fire from the Monitor's massive, turret-mounted guns.
20:51All attempts by the Merrimack to reach the Minnesota
20:54were thwarted by the Union ship.
20:57Her light weight allowed her to maneuver
21:00far more easily than her opponent.
21:02With a draft twice that of the Monitor,
21:06the Merrimack was confined to the deeper areas of the water.
21:09The flexibility offered by the revolving gun
21:13also gave the Monitor an advantage
21:16over the fixed guns of the Merrimack.
21:20But the ironclad Monitor
21:22was firing at an ironclad target.
21:26Despite repeated hits,
21:28the armor plating on both ships held firm.
21:32In addition,
21:34the Monitor's turret gun
21:35could not fire directly ahead
21:37for fear of hitting the pilot house
21:39to the front of the vessel.
21:41With the battle evenly poised,
21:44the Commander of the Merrimack
21:46decided to repeat the ramming maneuver
21:48that had already proved so devastating.
21:51His ship steamed full speed ahead
21:55towards the Monitor.
21:58Alert to the danger,
21:59the Monitor turned,
22:01and the Merrimack struck only a glancing blow.
22:05The maneuver failed,
22:07although it may have had no chance to begin with.
22:10The Merrimack no longer possessed
22:14its massive ramming wedge.
22:16It had been poorly fitted
22:18and had fallen off
22:19when the Cumberland was rammed the afternoon before.
22:25By midday,
22:27the two remarkable ships were still fighting,
22:30their armor proving totally effective.
22:32Then,
22:34at just after twelve o'clock,
22:36the Merrimack gunners
22:38struck a vulnerable area of the Monitor.
22:41Engaging at a distance of just ten yards,
22:45a shell from the Merrimack
22:46penetrated the viewing slit
22:48of the Monitor's pilot house.
22:51The structure was damaged,
22:53and Captain Worden
22:54was badly injured in the blast.
22:57Though blinded,
22:58he interpreted the flood of light
23:00now entering the pilot house
23:02as a sign of serious damage.
23:05Before handing over command
23:07to the ship's executive officer,
23:10he ordered that the Monitor withdraw
23:12so that the damage could be assessed.
23:17Although the shell's impact
23:18had not been as devastating
23:20as Worden had believed,
23:22the withdrawal marked the end of the battle.
23:25The Monitor moved towards the Minnesota,
23:28over the shallow waters
23:30where the Merrimack could not follow.
23:32An hour later,
23:34Commander Buchanan
23:35ordered the Merrimack back to Norfolk Harbor,
23:38his crew exhausted
23:40after two days of fighting.
23:43Later that day,
23:45the Minnesota was evacuated.
23:47On both sides,
23:49the perception was
23:50that the remarkable battle
23:52had ended in a draw.
23:57The two vessels would not meet in battle again.
24:01For the next two months,
24:03the Merrimack remained in Norfolk
24:05and the Monitor in Hampton Roads
24:07in a standoff
24:09that would not be broken.
24:11In May 1862,
24:14the Confederates evacuated Norfolk
24:17and destroyed the remarkable Merrimack.
24:20Its great adversary
24:22also failed to survive the year.
24:25On December the 29th,
24:27it sunk in a storm off North Carolina
24:30with the loss of 16 men.
24:32The influence of both vessels
24:35would far outlive their active service.
24:43The advantages of ironclad vessels
24:45were now proven without doubt.
24:49Over the course of a six-hour battle,
24:51the Merrimack and Monitor
24:53had both withstood firepower
24:55that would have completely destroyed
24:58any non-armored ship of the time,
25:01all of which were now also vulnerable
25:03to the ramming technique.
25:06The brilliant design of the Monitor
25:09clearly demonstrated the advantages
25:11of a light, manoeuvrable vessel.
25:14The revolving turret gun
25:17had also arrived for good.
25:19In the space of just 24 hours,
25:22the face of naval warfare
25:24had changed forever.
25:28In some respects,
25:30we can actually see both the Monitor
25:32and Virginia
25:34as unusual attempts
25:36to deal with an unusual situation.
25:40Particularly from the Confederate side,
25:42they were desperate
25:43to produce any kind of ironclad warship
25:46which would stand up
25:47to the Union's wooden hull fleet.
25:51And thus the idea
25:52of a very high casemate
25:54on top of a wooden hull
25:55was really the only solution
25:57they could adopt,
25:57given their materials.
25:59not surprisingly,
26:01that was not a solution
26:03adopted by other navies
26:04who could construct ships
26:06from the keel upwards.
26:08At the same time,
26:09the design of the Monitor,
26:11while unusual,
26:12and carried through
26:14by the United States Navy
26:15for the next 20 years or so,
26:17was not a design really
26:19adopted by any other fleet.
26:20In fact,
26:22the future of ocean-going warships
26:25lay far more with the warrior
26:27with its very good
26:29ocean-going capabilities.
26:31And in time,
26:32the Royal Navy
26:33was able to evolve
26:34that type of design
26:35into one using gun turrets
26:37and much more like
26:39the warships
26:40that we know
26:40of the 20th century.
26:45For the world's naval powers,
26:48industrialization
26:49heralded the dawn
26:50of a new age
26:52in warship design.
26:57Industrialization
26:58led directly
26:59to the introduction
27:00of the steamship
27:01and the demise
27:02of the sailing ship.
27:04In the first half
27:06of the 19th century,
27:08steam power
27:09began to take over.
27:12Commercial shipping
27:13led the way.
27:14In the early 1800s,
27:16the paddle steamer
27:18became a common sight
27:19around the coasts
27:20and inland waterways,
27:21such as the River Mississippi.
27:24The crossing of the Atlantic
27:26by the savannah
27:27in 1819
27:28announced the arrival
27:30of the ocean-going steamship.
27:32By 1840,
27:34the Cunard Company
27:35had introduced
27:36the first regular
27:38transatlantic steamer.
27:42The great naval powers
27:44of the time
27:44soon began
27:46to take an interest
27:47in steam-powered vessels.
27:49Frigates,
27:50driven by paddles,
27:52were commissioned
27:52by both the French
27:53and British navies.
27:55But these early steam warships
27:58suffered from major drawbacks.
28:01The propulsion mechanism
28:03was bulky,
28:04taking up valuable space
28:06on the vessel,
28:07which would be required
28:08for guns.
28:10Paddle steamers
28:11were also especially
28:13vulnerable to enemy attack.
28:16It would only take
28:17a single cannon shot
28:18to destroy the paddle
28:20and render the vessel useless.
28:23A new innovation
28:25was required
28:26before the age of steam power
28:27at sea could begin.
28:29This was the introduction
28:31of the screw propeller.
28:34The advantages
28:35of the screw propeller
28:37were obvious.
28:39Soon,
28:39the world's navies
28:40were dominated
28:41by ships fitted with them.
28:44Despite this,
28:45the early boilers
28:46used to generate
28:47the steam
28:48were often inefficient
28:49and prone
28:50to break down.
28:52Many vessels
28:53were therefore provided
28:54with both steam
28:55and sail power.
28:57In the mid-19th century,
28:59the age of sail
29:01was still far from over.
29:10By the 1850s,
29:12the ships that fought
29:13at Trafalgar
29:14would have been vulnerable
29:16in any contemporary battle.
29:18The 19th century
29:20saw radical developments
29:22in cannon design.
29:23The introduction
29:25of breech-loading artillery,
29:27the development
29:28of the rifled barrel,
29:29and a general increase
29:31in the sheer size
29:32of guns
29:33resulted in a far
29:34more powerful weapon
29:35than ever before.
29:38The Armstrong
29:40110-pounder
29:41from 1860
29:42is, perhaps,
29:44the most remarkable
29:45and best known
29:46of the new breed
29:47of 19th century cannon.
29:50It did not fire
29:51the traditional
29:52iron ball,
29:53but a new kind
29:55sound of projectile.
29:57Pioneered in France
29:58in the 1820s,
30:00this new projectile
30:01would profoundly influence
30:03the design of warships.
30:05It was the high-explosive shell.
30:09The only form of explosive
30:11in the 19th century
30:12was gunpowder,
30:14not a particularly effective explosive,
30:16a good propellant.
30:17But when you move
30:19to the high-explosive,
30:21the chemical explosives,
30:23such as liddite
30:25and later the well-known ones
30:27like TNT and so on,
30:28those provided
30:30much greater power,
30:32and that led
30:33to the use
30:34of them in shells,
30:35which then fragmented
30:37the body of the shell,
30:38providing the splinters
30:40and the blasts
30:41would do damage.
30:42The introduction of the shell
30:44changed the nature
30:45of naval warfare forever.
30:48Before its introduction,
30:50a typical wooden-hulled warship
30:52could withstand
30:53a huge range
30:54of direct hits
30:55from cannonballs.
30:57Against shellfire,
30:59the story was very different.
31:02The shell's effectiveness
31:03against a timber hull
31:05was devastating.
31:07Designers urgently needed
31:09to consider ways
31:10of strengthening warships
31:11to cope with the new dangers.
31:15More than any other reason,
31:17this was the motivation
31:18behind the development
31:19of the ironclats.
31:22The wooden ship
31:23had come to the end
31:24of being able
31:26to put large weapons in it.
31:28It had reached
31:28the limit of strength.
31:30In other words,
31:30you couldn't have put
31:31guns of this size
31:32in a wooden ship.
31:33It just wouldn't have been
31:34strong enough to do that.
31:36So the concept was,
31:37it was basically
31:38for strength and protection,
31:40was to use
31:40an iron-hulled ship.
31:44Experiments with iron-hulled warships
31:46began in the 1840s.
31:48In Britain,
31:50France,
31:50and elsewhere,
31:52designers sought
31:53to use the undoubted strength
31:55of iron
31:56as defense
31:57against the new innovation.
31:59Many of the early experiments
32:01were discouraging.
32:02In 1840,
32:05the British carried out
32:06an experiment
32:07involving the Ruby,
32:09a ship modified
32:10with a light iron armor.
32:13The results
32:14were disappointing.
32:16The iron fragmented
32:18when exposed
32:18to test fire.
32:20But the need
32:22for improved ship protection
32:23meant that experiments
32:25with iron continued.
32:28A number of small vessels,
32:30armored with metal,
32:32were deployed by the French
32:33during the Crimean War.
32:35The armor succeeded
32:37in deflecting
32:38Russian shell fire.
32:40The implication
32:41was obvious.
32:42Iron armor
32:43could be effective.
32:45At the time
32:46of the Crimean War,
32:47however,
32:48the production
32:49of large quantities
32:50of iron
32:51was still a difficult
32:52and expensive procedure.
32:55Of all the innovations
32:56of the Industrial Revolution,
32:58the mass production
33:00of high-quality iron
33:01is amongst
33:02the most important
33:03of all.
33:04The name of
33:05Sir Henry Bessemer
33:06is forever associated
33:08with this process.
33:10By developing
33:11the modern blast furnace
33:13in 1855,
33:15Bessemer changed
33:16the world forever.
33:18His invention
33:19enabled iron
33:20to be produced
33:21at a fraction
33:22of the previous cost.
33:24The metal
33:25produced by
33:26the Bessemer process
33:27was also tough.
33:29It lacked
33:30the brittleness
33:30that had caused
33:31the experiment
33:32with the ruby
33:33to fail.
33:34The modern blast furnace
33:36meant that
33:37the iron warship
33:38was now within
33:40the grasp
33:40of the world's
33:41naval powers.
33:43In 1858,
33:45the French navy
33:47stunned the world
33:48with the launch
33:49of La Groire,
33:50a warship.
33:52two hundred and fifty-six feet
33:54in length,
33:55La Groire was
33:57originally
33:58an unremarkable
33:59wooden frigate.
34:01By removing
34:02one of its decks
34:03and then casing
34:04its wooden hull
34:05within iron plates,
34:07the French naval designers
34:09created the world's
34:10first iron plan
34:11and started
34:12an arms race
34:13in the process.
34:17There was no way
34:18that Britain
34:19could ignore
34:20the arrival
34:20of La Groire.
34:22If the French
34:23built a fleet
34:23of similar vessels,
34:25British dominance
34:26of the seas
34:27could not be maintained
34:28with their existing
34:29wooden ships.
34:31National security,
34:33as well as
34:33national pride,
34:34demanded a response.
34:37The year after
34:38the French
34:38launched their
34:39new vessel,
34:40the Admiralty
34:41ordered the first
34:42British ironclad.
34:45To build it,
34:46they called on
34:47the Navy's
34:47chief constructor
34:48of ships,
34:49Isaac Watts.
34:51The vessel
34:52that he would design
34:53would make
34:54La Groire
34:55pale into insignificance.
34:57It would be
34:58far and away
34:59the greatest
35:00warship on the planet.
35:02On the 29th
35:04of December,
35:041860,
35:05at Blackwall
35:07near London,
35:08a new age
35:09in sea power
35:10began.
35:12That day
35:12saw the launch
35:13of HMS Warrior.
35:25To this day,
35:27the Warrior
35:28is an inspiring
35:29feat of design
35:30and engineering.
35:32At the time,
35:33it was astonishing.
35:35It was half
35:36as big a gain
35:37as its French rival.
35:39380 feet
35:40in length,
35:41it was the longest
35:42warship ever built.
35:45Unlike La Groire,
35:47the Warrior's hull
35:48was made
35:48entirely of iron,
35:50resulting in
35:51an overall weight
35:52of 9,210 tons.
35:56Like many warships
35:58of its day,
35:59it could be powered
36:00either by steam
36:01or sail.
36:03The engine capacity
36:04was 5,000 horsepower,
36:07generating a speed
36:08of 14 knots.
36:10Under sail,
36:11its speed
36:12was scarcely less impressive.
36:15Over 48,000 square feet
36:17of sail
36:17resulted in a maximum
36:19of 13 knots.
36:21its dimensions
36:23and the cost of
36:24was almost overwhelming.
36:26It matched the cost
36:27of commissioning the vessel.
36:29The Warrior's total cost
36:31was 377,000 pounds,
36:35almost four times
36:36the cost
36:37of a contemporary frigate.
36:39In the arms race,
36:42the British considered
36:43this a sound investment.
36:48The Warrior,
36:49she engaged in
36:50no battles at all.
36:51She was Queen Victoria's
36:53ultimate deterrent,
36:54if you like,
36:55the most successful
36:56warship ever built.
36:57This was devised
36:59and built
36:59in about two years.
37:01And as opposed
37:03to an ironclad
37:04wooden ship,
37:04this one
37:05is the first
37:07all-iron
37:08steam-driven
37:09warship.
37:09It's an iron hole
37:10with 18 inches
37:12of teak
37:12around the outside
37:13of that
37:14and then 4 1⁄2 inches
37:16of armour plate
37:16around the outside
37:17of that.
37:18The actual hole's
37:195 1⁄8 of an inch
37:20thick
37:22of wrought iron.
37:24Wrought iron
37:24to start with
37:25doesn't rust.
37:26One of the reasons
37:27why it's still afloat
37:27today.
37:28And of course
37:29it's much,
37:30much stronger.
37:31But she finished
37:32up to be
37:33the largest warship
37:34in the world,
37:35the fastest warship
37:36in the world,
37:37most heavily armed
37:38and the most
37:39heavily armoured.
37:40She was built
37:41to frighten
37:42the life
37:42out of Napoleon
37:43and she certainly
37:44did that.
37:45There was no fighting
37:46for 60 years
37:47prior to World War I,
37:49mainly because
37:50of Warrior
37:51and her sister ship
37:52the Black Prince
37:54putting Napoleon off.
37:56Napoleon called it
37:57the Black Snake.
37:58The Warrior's impact
38:00stemmed not only
38:02from its dimensions.
38:04It was also
38:05an awesome vessel
38:06of war.
38:08Its massive
38:09single gun deck
38:10boasted 26,
38:1268-pound guns,
38:14all with the
38:15traditional smoothbore
38:16and loaded
38:17via the muzzle.
38:19This represented
38:20a powerful armament
38:22in itself.
38:22but the Warrior
38:24was equipped
38:25with even
38:26greater firepower.
38:28Ten Armstrong
38:30110-pounders
38:31were also fitted.
38:33This was the first
38:35time that these
38:36rifled,
38:37breech-loading guns
38:39had been fitted
38:39to any vessel,
38:41having been developed
38:42whilst Warrior
38:43was under construction.
38:46There are great
38:47advantages to
38:48breech-loading
38:49for long,
38:50narrow guns.
38:51If you think
38:52in terms of
38:53the early guns,
38:55which tended
38:56to be long,
38:57with serpentine powder,
39:00then that kind
39:01of gun,
39:02if it was being
39:03fired on a ship,
39:05would have to take
39:06a lot of effort
39:07to bring inboard,
39:08swing around,
39:09so that you could
39:09then pass the powder
39:11and shot down
39:12to the breech-end
39:14of the gun.
39:14If you could
39:15actually load it
39:16at the breech-end,
39:16you then didn't
39:17have to bring
39:17the gun inboard.
39:19So there are
39:20big advantages
39:20to breech-loading.
39:21The problem
39:22was always
39:23the sealing
39:23of the gases
39:24at the joint
39:25between the
39:26chamber piece
39:27and the barrel,
39:28because as
39:29pressure builds up,
39:31if the gases
39:32try and get out
39:33through that joint,
39:35then it can
39:36produce gas wash,
39:37wear,
39:37and the result
39:38is loss of pressure
39:39in the gun,
39:39and danger,
39:40in fact,
39:40for the gunner.
39:42And solving
39:43that problem
39:44of sealing
39:44the gases
39:45was not really
39:47sold until
39:48the 19th century.
39:49The Armstrong
39:50was still
39:51a new invention,
39:52and technical
39:53difficulties
39:54with the weapon
39:55eventually led
39:56the Navy
39:56to return
39:57briefly
39:57to traditional
39:58muzzle loaders.
40:00By the end
40:01of the century,
40:02however,
40:03the rifled
40:04breech-loader
40:05was the canon
40:06of choice
40:06for the world's
40:07naval powers.
40:14Despite its
40:15impressive proportions,
40:16performance,
40:17and firepower,
40:18it is not
40:19for these factors
40:20that the warrior
40:21remains an important
40:22warship of history.
40:24As we have seen,
40:26the warrior's hull
40:28was constructed
40:28from iron.
40:30However,
40:31this is not
40:32why she is known
40:33as an ironclad.
40:35This term
40:36refers to
40:37the additional
40:38armor incorporated
40:39into the warrior's
40:40design.
40:42It was this armor
40:43that made the warrior
40:44such a revolutionary
40:45vessel of its time.
40:48In the middle
40:48of the vessel,
40:50Isaac Watts
40:51constructed
40:51what he called
40:52a citadel.
40:54This was,
40:55simply,
40:56an armored box
40:57which contained
40:58much of the gun deck,
41:00including
41:0018 of the 68-pounders
41:03and 8 of the 110-pound
41:06Armstrongs.
41:08The purpose
41:09of the citadel
41:10was to protect
41:11these weapons
41:12from enemy attack.
41:14This hull
41:15that we're standing
41:16in now
41:16is in fact
41:17an armored box.
41:18With the outside
41:19of the box
41:20is 4 1⁄2 inches
41:21of armored plate
41:22backed up
41:23with 18 inches
41:24of wood.
41:25And the two ends
41:26of the box
41:27are 4 1⁄2 inches
41:28of armored plate
41:29and 9 inches
41:30of wood.
41:30And that was
41:31what was revolutionary
41:32inasmuch
41:33that all the
41:34main armors
41:35actually contained
41:36inside this box
41:37unlike the
41:38wooden wall ship
41:39where they were
41:39distributed all
41:40around the ship.
41:41This particular ship
41:43at the time
41:43it was around
41:44there were no
41:45weapons available
41:46that could have
41:46penetrated the
41:47armor box
41:48we're standing in
41:48now.
41:49So it could have
41:50taken almost
41:51indefinite firepower
41:53in because
41:53without any damage
41:54except of course
41:56you would have
41:56had damage
41:57to the masts
41:57and the rigging
41:58above but the
41:59actual main box
42:00would have been
42:01very well protected.
42:02Firing tests
42:04demonstrated the
42:05impregnability
42:06of the iron cladding.
42:08No matter
42:09what the range
42:10no matter
42:11what the gun
42:12the warrior's
42:13citadel
42:14remained entirely
42:15intact against
42:17shell fire.
42:18The armor did
42:20not protect
42:20the areas
42:21of the ship
42:21towards the bow
42:22and stern
42:23but here too
42:25Watts and his
42:26engineers
42:26incorporated a
42:28further innovation.
42:30The iron hull
42:32of the ship
42:32enabled the
42:33construction of
42:34watertight
42:35compartments
42:36separated by
42:37bulkheads.
42:39With a timber
42:39hull this would
42:41not have been
42:41an option.
42:43The recently
42:44restored warrior
42:45remains a
42:46glorious vessel
42:47to this day
42:48The impression
42:50it must have
42:51made upon
42:51the Britain
42:52of the 1860s
42:53can only be
42:54guessed at.
42:55In its size
42:56and its speed
42:58it was unsurpassed.
43:00Its firepower
43:01was massive
43:02and innovatory.
43:03Its armor
43:04made it
43:05virtually invincible
43:07and this
43:08was the view
43:09of many
43:10within the
43:10British naval
43:11community.
43:12Elated
43:13the Admiralty
43:14ordered further
43:15vessels along
43:16along the lines
43:17of the warrior.
43:18The ironclad
43:19warship
43:20had arrived.
43:23It seems surprising
43:24that such a great
43:25ship of war
43:26never once fired
43:27a shot in anger
43:28during her years
43:29of service.
43:31This is, however,
43:33a tribute to her
43:33power.
43:35In simple terms,
43:36no enemy would
43:38dare take her
43:39on.
43:40Almost overnight,
43:41the strategic
43:43balance of
43:43the seas
43:44had changed.
43:46The business
43:47of warship design
43:48usually develops
43:50in small
43:50successive steps.
43:52The design
43:53of the warrior
43:54represented
43:55a giant leap
43:56forward.
43:58Portsmouth
43:59is famous
44:00for Nelson's
44:01flagship victory
44:02and her victories
44:03in battle.
44:05The warrior
44:06is famous
44:07for her advances
44:08in ship design.
44:12As the great
44:14battle took place
44:15in Virginia
44:15across the Atlantic,
44:17HMS warrior
44:18continued her
44:19first commission
44:20on patrol
44:21in the seas
44:22around Britain.
44:25Remarkably,
44:26the lessons learned
44:27in the shallow
44:28waters of Hampton
44:29Roads
44:29would soon make
44:31this superb
44:31ironclad obsolete.
44:34There was an
44:35enormous difference
44:36between the warrior
44:37and the Virginia.
44:39While the warrior
44:40was a purpose-built,
44:42ocean-going
44:42ironclad vessel
44:44designed specifically
44:45to compete
44:46and indeed
44:47surpass
44:47the French ship,
44:48French ironclad
44:49LaGroire,
44:50the Virginia
44:51was very much
44:52an ad hoc arrangement.
44:54The warrior
44:55was built
44:55from the keel
44:56up as an iron ship
44:57and it was also
44:59not expected
45:00to work
45:02exclusively
45:03under coal power.
45:04So the warrior
45:06expects to proceed
45:07under sail
45:07most of the time
45:09and to go
45:10under steam
45:10only for
45:11tight maneuvering
45:12or in combat.
45:14Well,
45:14the CSS Virginia
45:16was a steam-powered
45:18vessel
45:18that did not expect
45:20to work under sail
45:21and it could
45:23take that
45:24classical idea
45:25of a ram
45:26on the front
45:27of a ship
45:28and revive it.
45:30You couldn't use a ram
45:31on a sailing ship
45:32very well
45:32because most of the time
45:33you couldn't count
45:34on the wind blowing
45:35just the right way
45:36to allow you
45:37to ram the enemy ship.
45:39As well,
45:40the force of ramming
45:42another ship
45:42might very well
45:43unstep your own masts
45:45and cause damage
45:46to your own vessel.
45:47So for years and years
45:49nobody had tried
45:50to put rams
45:51on ships of war.
45:53The CSS Virginia
45:55could take
45:56the entire mass
45:57of a ship
45:58and turn it
45:59into a weapon again.
46:01Across the world,
46:02warship designers
46:04now sought
46:05new abilities
46:06from their fleets.
46:08The ram,
46:09as used by the Merrimack,
46:11was incorporated
46:12into British vessels
46:13like HMS Hotspur
46:14from 1870.
46:17The following year,
46:19HMS Devastation
46:20came into service,
46:21the first
46:22of the true
46:23British armoured
46:24turret ships.
46:26Improvements
46:27in steam power
46:28combined with
46:30the difficulties
46:30of firing
46:31a turret gun
46:32whilst under sail
46:33resulted in the
46:34introduction of ships
46:35like this,
46:37the mastless warship.
46:39The days of sail
46:41were numbered.
46:44The same year,
46:45HMS Warrior
46:46was withdrawn
46:47for refitting.
46:49She would never again
46:51play a front-line role
46:52in the Royal Navy.
46:54Eight years
46:55as a reserve ship
46:56followed before
46:57for her decommissioning
46:58in 1883.
47:01For two decades,
47:03she languished
47:04in Portsmouth Harbour
47:05before being employed
47:07as part of the Navy's
47:08floating torpedo school.
47:10However,
47:11she remained intact
47:13and for most of the
47:1520th century,
47:16she was used
47:17as an oil jetty
47:18in Milford Haven.
47:19Her historical significance
47:22remained, however,
47:23and in 1979,
47:25she was towed
47:26to the port of Hartlepool
47:28for restoration.
47:30Eight years
47:31of painstaking work
47:32later,
47:33she returned
47:34to Portsmouth
47:35in her full,
47:37original glory.
47:39The influence
47:40of the Monitor
47:41and the Merrimack
47:42may have been greater
47:43in the long run.
47:44Only HMS Warrior
47:47survives as a reminder
47:49of the birth
47:50of the Iron Clans.
47:56hiring a limited
48:41CHOIR SINGS
Comments