thought of had their sides protected with leather, cordage, wooden beams, heavy planking, or with plates of iron, brass, or other metals. Floating batteries with armored sides were used in the siege of Gibraltar in 1782, and other batteries were constructed at different epochs. The first steam vessel of war was built by Robert Fulton for the United States government; she was launched in October 1814 and completed in the following year. Her sides are said to have been protected by thin plates of iron, but they were doubtless not sufificiently thick to entitle her to be classed as an armored ship.
In 1826 an anonymous French writer proposed the construction of iron or iron-clad war-ships, their walls being sufficiently thick to resist the cannon-shot of those days. Some experiments were made in France in 1834 to ascertain the resisting power of iron against shot and shell, and for several years the proposals for building armored ships were much discussed both in France and England. In 1842 Robert L. Stevens of New Jersey proposed to the United States government to construct iron-clad steam batteries which should be capable of going to sea and able to resist artillery projectiles. It was decided to construct one battery upon Stevens' plan, but work was not commenced upon it until 1854. The battery was never completed, and in 1874 it was sold at auction.
The English government made several experiments with armor plating, but the conclusions were unfavorable to its adoption. To France belongs the credit of the first iron-plated steam frigate of the first class. In the Crimean war she constructed and used four small gun-boats with armor plating; in March, 1858, work was begun on La Gloire, a sea-going frigate carrying thirty-six guns, and protected amidships with plates of iron four and a half inches thick, with a backing of two feet of solid timber. La Gloire was the precursor of the iron-clad fleet of France, and virtually of the iron-clad fleets of all nations
