War at Sea in the Ironclad Age

Product Description

This most dramatic artefact of the military-industrial revolution was the steam-powered warship. In the mid nineteenth century the major naval powers began to revolutionize their navies, dispensing with wood, sail and cannonballs and embracing steel, steam and shells. At the height of the Victorian era, it was the ironclad warship that made it possible for colonial powers to acquire and control their overseas empires. This narrative history charts the development of these warships from the first French floating batteries to the famous Dreadnoughts.