3-008-507 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Section of a three-decker, showing Captain Coles's mode of altering the same into a shield-ship, 1862. 'The dotted lines show the old decks of the ships, with their cannon mounted one above the other, but now proved to be perfectly useless against a steam-ram like the Merrimac, and harmless when antagonising an iron-clad raft like the Monitor...it will be further seen that no horizontal fire can strike a vessel altered on Captain Coles's plan above the water-line, except at an angle of 40 deg.; it is thus completely protected against vertical fire by its arched roof...The superiority which such vessels as these would have over any seagoing craft...must be evident to all. No ships or transports which could cross the water to attack us could have a moment's chance against them...we must conclude with Captain Coles, and with the Admiralty, who have ordered more than one ship of his construction, "that in future fleets must fight in armour, and supremacy afloat must depend on superior ability to produce the ships required. The first outlay will be enormous, but it will be inevitable...The most economical ship will be that which is the most invulnerable and the most durable." This was said by Captain Coles in 1860'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.