Show GROWTH OF MODERN NAVIES ironclad and submarines submarine may so said to be the result of evolution ironclad Is the name given to a naval vessel wholly or partly cased with iron plates it was given before the days ot of modern stool battleships I 1 the experience of the british and i french fleet before sebastopol sevastopol Seba during tho the crimean war demonstrated the need of armor for battleships the french at once began to build five armor plated vessels and the british followed soon after in 1859 a belt of armor was fitted to a wooden vessel renamed la giofre and sho she was tho the first armor clad warship in june 1859 the british government began the construction of the armor plated all tron iron frigate warrior she was the first iron warship and was completed in 1861 converted into a floating workshop she was still in use in 1910 under the name of vernon III the nemesis Nem esig an iron vessel not a battleship had been engaged in 1842 in the chinese war but great objection was I 1 felt to iron as a material for battleships before the crimean war on account ol of the supposed danger from tho the shot the introduction of iron as a recognized material for ships in general Is often dated 1818 when the lighter vulcan was built near glasgow the very first iron boat built was launched on the river foss in yorkshire in 1777 the earliest attempts at a submarine craft began early in the seventeenth century the earliest success which has been chronicled was that of 1620 when a dutch natural philosopher lo cornelis Cor nells van doebbel Dr ebbel built a boat which could be submerged the first undoubted success was secured by the american engineer bushnell in 1776 1775 with a turtle like ilke craft worked by one man during the war of independence a boat of this kind was submerged below the british warship eagle and the operator tried to attach a magazine containing fifteen pounds of gunpowder to her bottom planking he tailed failed in his object but the magazine later exploded some distance from the ship one of 0 the first submarines of mechanical ch power was the french plon beur built in 1863 from designs by brun during the civil war the confederates built a number of cigar shaped boats some worked by hand and some by steam which were armed with torpedoes they were known as aa da davids V d S on the account ot of their size as aa compared with battleships in 1864 a hand worked one attacked the federal ship housatonic and sank her by means of a spar torpedo though the suba submarine irine herself was waa sunk in the tha operation many other inventors ot of course besides those mentioned have succeeded in the construction of sub bles |