Editing Armour (section)

==== Ships ====
{{further|Warship|Naval armour}}
[[File:HMS Warrior (1860).jpg|left|thumb|{{HMS|Warrior|1860|6}} during her third commission between 1867 and 1871|alt=A ship with an iron hull]]

The first [[ironclad]] battleship, with [[iron armour]] over a wooden hull, {{ship|French ironclad|Gloire||2}}, was launched by the [[French Navy]] in 1859<ref>Sondhaus, pp. 73–74</ref> prompting the British [[Royal Navy]] to build a counter. The following year they launched {{HMS|Warrior|1860|6}}, which was twice the size and had iron armour over an iron hull. After the [[Battle of Hampton Roads|first battle between two ironclads]] took place in 1862 during the [[American Civil War]], it became clear that the ironclad had replaced the [[Ship of the line|unarmoured line-of-battle ship]] as the most powerful warship afloat.<ref>Sondhaus, p. 86.</ref>

Ironclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, [[coastal defence ship]]s, and long-range [[cruiser]]s. The rapid evolution of warship design in the late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel which carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns (the ironclads of the 1880s carried some of the heaviest guns ever mounted at sea),{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy which made steel [[shipbuilding]] possible.

The rapid pace of change in the ironclad period meant that many ships were obsolete as soon as they were complete, and that naval tactics were in a state of flux. Many ironclads were built to make use of the [[naval ram|ram]] or the [[torpedo]], which a number of naval designers considered the crucial weapons of naval combat. There is no clear end to the ironclad period, but towards the end of the 1890s the term ''ironclad'' dropped out of use. New ships were increasingly constructed to a standard pattern and designated battleships or [[armoured cruiser]]s.