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→Ironclads
With the advent of the screw propeller came the idea of cladding warships in iron as a means of protection from enemy gun fire. Metallurgy at the time developed to the point that iron was mass-produced, inexpensive, and readily available. The first actual iron-cladded vessels were floating barges which served as gun platforms, and towed into place in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. The first warship actually armored was the French ''La Gloire'' (1859), a three-masted vessel with a heavy timber frame overlaid with iron plating four inches thick. Not to be outdone, Great Britain launched the steam frigate HMS ''Warrior'' (1860), the first warship built entirely of iron.
With the advent of the screw propeller came the idea of cladding warships in iron as a means of protection from enemy gun fire. Metallurgy at the time developed to the point that iron was mass-produced, inexpensive, and readily available. The first actual iron-cladded vessels were floating barges which served as gun platforms, and towed into place in the Black Sea during the Crimean War. The first warship actually armored was the French ''La Gloire'' (1859), a three-masted vessel with a heavy timber frame overlaid with iron plating four inches thick. Not to be outdone, Great Britain launched the steam frigate HMS ''Warrior'' (1860), the first warship built entirely of iron.
While the European powers were finding themselves in a new arms race, across the Atlantic the [[American Civil War]] was raging in the [[United States]], and calls for an ironclad warship were made by both contestants: the Confederacy to break the Union blockade; and the Union to counter. The occupation of the former U.S. Navy base at Norfolk resulted in the Confederates raising of the steam frigate ''Merrimack'' and converting her into a casemated ironclad renamed CSS [[CSS Virginia|''Virginia'']], which played havoc for one day in March, 1862. The next day of the [[Battle of Hampton Roads]] would ring the death knell for the wooden warship, as ''Virginia'' slugged it out with USS [[USS Monitor|''Monitor'']], a low-lying vessel with a single amoured turret of two guns.
''Monitor'' would be the first major step in the development of the battleship from its sailing origins: fast for its size; well-armored; and most importantly a main battery encased in a revolving turret, which meant that the guns alone can be brought to bear on a target without turning the entire ship. Similar vessels would be built during the Civil War by the United States, and be quickly adopted by many of the world's navies, with the turret gaining size to mount larger and larger caliber guns as the ships themselves also increased in size.
==Dreadnought==
==Dreadnought==