Editing Cruiser (section)

==Steam cruisers==
During the 19th century, navies began to use steam power for their fleets. The 1840s saw the construction of experimental steam-powered frigates and sloops. By the middle of the 1850s, the British and U.S. Navies were both building steam frigates with very long hulls and a heavy gun armament, for instance {{USS|Merrimack|1855|6}} or {{HMS|Mersey|1858|2}}.<ref>Parkes, p.8</ref>

The 1860s saw the introduction of the [[ironclad]]. The first ironclads were frigates, in the sense of having one gun deck; however, they were also clearly the most powerful ships in the navy, and were principally to serve in the line of battle. In spite of their great speed, they would have been wasted in a cruising role.<ref>Parkes, p.17</ref>

The French constructed a number of smaller ironclads for overseas cruising duties, starting with the {{ship|French ironclad|Belliqueuse||2}}, commissioned 1865. These "station ironclads" were the beginning of the development of the armored cruisers, a type of ironclad specifically for the traditional cruiser missions of fast, independent raiding and patrol.
[[File:PostcardMarco Polo.jpg|thumb|''[[Italian cruiser Marco Polo|Marco Polo]]'', the Royal Italian Navy's first armored cruiser]]
The first true armored cruiser was the Russian {{ship|Russian cruiser|General-Admiral||2}}, completed in 1874, and followed by the British {{HMS|Shannon|1875|2}} a few years later.

Until the 1890s armored cruisers were still built with masts for a full sailing rig, to enable them to operate far from friendly coaling stations.<ref>Hill, Richard: ''War at Sea in the Ironclad Age''. Cassell, London, 2000. {{ISBN|0-304-35273-X}}.</ref>

Unarmored cruising warships, built out of wood, iron, steel or a combination of those materials, remained popular until towards the end of the 19th century. The ironclad's armor often meant that they were limited to short range under steam, and many ironclads were unsuited to long-range missions or for work in distant colonies. The unarmored cruiser—often a [[screw sloop]] or [[screw frigate]]—could continue in this role. Even though mid- to late-19th century cruisers typically carried up-to-date guns firing explosive [[Shell (projectile)|shell]]s, they were unable to face ironclads in combat. This was evidenced by the clash between {{HMS|Shah|1873|6}}, a modern British cruiser, and the Peruvian [[Monitor (warship)|monitor]] [[Huáscar (ironclad)|''Huáscar'']]. Even though the Peruvian vessel was obsolete by the time of the encounter, it stood up well to roughly 50 hits from British shells.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}