THE IRONCLAD SHIP AND ITS DEVELOPMENT

From Ships-of-the-Line to Battleships

By: Capt. Mark Parsons, Cyril Field, Frederick Leslie Robertson, Sir Edward Reed

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Using just a few of the chapters of The Evolution of Naval Gunnery and the Evolution of the Ironclad Battleship of The British Navy Book, by Cyril Field in 1915, and combined with additional material from The Evolution of Naval Armament by Frederick Leslie Robertson from 1921, which were published without illustrations, Captain Mark Parsons and illustrator Thaddeus Black have updated these classic ironclad chapters into modern print, formatting, and color for the digital age. Also included is additional information about America’s Ironclad ship era. These additions make those old Public Domain works come to life for modern readers.
To document the era of the ironclad ship we need to start further back in history then the first wooden ship covered in iron plates. For if artillery improvements had not passed from cannon balls to exploding shells, we might still be in the age of wooden ships-of-the-line instead of the battleships and aircraft carriers we have today. Also will be included the development of steam power, paddlewheel, propeller, and screw powered ships.