World’s first ocean-going self-propelled ironclad warship.
During the Crimean War (1853-1856), the French and British placed wrought iron cladding on some of their floating gun batteries to improve protection from shore fire. Soon thereafter, the French Navy decided to test a similar approach with its major warships. A standard design for a screw-driven battleship of the era was altered. One deck was deleted to save on weight. Wrought iron plates, averaging 4.5 inches in thickness, were bolted to the 17-inch thick wooden hull. Testing showed that this arrangement could withstand shell from the most powerful naval guns of the time. La Gloire was launched in 1859 and commissioned in 1860. It immediately made all wooden-hulled warships obsolete. At 5,600 tons displacement, it was 255 feet in length, with a beam of almost 56 feet and a draft of over 27 feet. The steam engines were rated at 2,500 horsepower. The official top speed was 13 knots, but La Gloire probably never exceeded 11 knots underway. It was equipped with auxiliary sails, which were later expanded to a full three-masted square rig. The complement was 570 men, who were crowded into confined spaces below. As protection against enemy fire, the hull had no openings for ventilation or light. This made conditions below decks miserable, particularly since oil lamps were used for lighting throughout. The ship was armed with 36 rifled muzzle-loading guns with a diameter of 163 mm (6.4 inches) arranged in the traditional broadside fashion of 18 guns each on the port and starboard sides. The Royal Navy, which was well aware of the French developments, rapidly moved forward with its own construction. A year later, the Warrior was launched as the first iron-hulled warship, built without a wooden inner hull. This rendered La Gloire obsolete in its infancy. It still went on to serve until 1879, when it was decommissioned. Both the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (nee USS Merrimack) were modeled more on the La Gloire than on the HMS Warrior in that they featured iron plating over wooden hulls. Unlike the two European warships, the American ones experienced combat and proved beyond doubt the dawning of a new era of naval warfare.