Jump to content

Pre-industrial armoured ships

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 199.91.34.33 (talk) at 01:41, 11 April 2010 (1413 vs 1578 puttin in chronological order). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the 19th century warships, see Ironclad warship.

Armoured warships were wooden ships or ships of composite construction (wooden planking on iron frames) armoured with thick metal plates. The Europeans made ships with metal ribs as rams and there are also documents about armoured ships, some of them equipped with naval artillery. In East Asia there are records about metal armoured warships combined with naval artillery from the 16th century.

However, it should be pointed out that in every single case of both European and Far Eastern vessels the evidence of ship armour is either unclear, ambiguous or disputed.

Evidence in Europe

The lead-sheathed war carrack Santa Anna (1522-40), which operated successfully against the Ottoman Turks

Ship armour is to be distinguished from the practice of hull sheathing for preservational reasons, namely the protection against marine wood-boring worms. Greek merchantmen were fitted with lead sheets for that purpose by the 5th century BC.[1][2] A notable Roman example were the excavated Nemi Ships with an underwater hull covered by a thin layer of lead.[2] The practice was resumed by the Spanish and Portuguese in the Age of Exploration,[3] while the British Royal Navy began to copper their war ships in the 1760s.[4]

The huge Syracusia, built by the Greek tyrant Hiero II of Syracuse around 240 BC, featured bronze-clad mast-tops for marines and an iron palisade on its fighting deck against enemy boarding attempts.[5] Its hull was sheathed with lead plates fixed with bronze nails.[6]

Early examples of armoured ships served in the Roman and Byzantine fleets, known as cataphracts,[7] though their armour was not proof against heavy missile weapons, such as ballistae.[8]

A few Norse longships were reinforced with iron armour along the waterline as early as the 11th Century, such as the Iron Beard of Eric Hakonsson of Norway.[9][10]

Peter IV of Aragon (1336–87) protected his ships with screens of hides against missile fire,[10] as the Roman navy had done earlier.[11]

Dutch Finis Bellis of 1585 on which the Dutch rebels put great expectations

A ship with iron plating on the ribs was commissioned in 1505 by Juan Lope de Lazcano, a Basque admiral of the Spanish Fleet.[12]

The Santa Anna, a lead-sheathed carrack of the Knights Hospitaller, is viewed by some authors as an early form of armoured ship.[10][13][14][15] From 1522 to 1540, the warship successfully operated in the Mediterranean Sea against the Turks.

The Galleon of Venice, the Venetian flagship which did serious damage to the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Preveza (1538), was sheathed with plate.[16]

During the siege of Antwerp in 1585, the Dutch defenders partially protected their man-of-war Finis Bellis with iron plates.[17]

In 1782, Chevalier d'Arçon attacked Gibraltar with floating batteries featuring a 1.80 thick armour out of wooden planks, iron bars and leather, but met little success.[10]

Evidence in the Far East

Early ship armour probably had its origins in applying thin sheets of metal to ship undersides for preservative reasons. In the Battle of Red Cliff in 207, warships were covered with wetted hides as defense against incendiary weapons.[18] By 1130, in the battle of "Huang Tian Dang", Jin sailors built protective bulwarks of an unknown material with oar ports in them, presumbly as an adoptive responce against its enemies.[19] The introduction of paddle-boats allowed the Song dynasty general Qin Shifu to build two new prototype warships. These warships were described to have its sides protected with iron plates.[20]

Reconstruction attempt of a Geobukseon. The historical existence of the ironclad roof is disputed.[21][22][23]

Korean turtle ships (Hangul:거북선, Geobukseon or Kobukson) of Korea are first mentioned in records from 1413 and 1415 in the Annals of Joseon Dynasty, although the usage of protective iron plates is not mentioned and remaining designs indicate the roof was left open. The usage of iron plates with Turtle ships is only documented at the end of the following century, during the 1592-1598 Imjin War with Japan.[24] Admiral Yi Sun-Sin himself only writes in his memoirs about "iron spikes on its back to pierce the enemies feet when they tried to board" but failed to mention any iron plating. However, Japanese sources mention the ships were "covered in iron". [25] The Japanese responded by having iron ships of their own, as can be seen in 1593, in which Hideyoshi ordered supplies of iron plates for the building of warships, so that the turtle ship can be "countered in its own terms".[26] Because there is only circumstantial evidence of iron-plating on Turtle Ships, scholars vary over whether the roofs of these ships actually had iron plating. [21][19][22]


A 16th century Japanese "Atakebune" coastal warship

In 1578, the Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga had made six Atakebune (大安宅船) which were called, according to one source, "Tekkōsen" (鉄甲船), literally meaning "iron ships".[27] implying that their superstructure may have been reinforced with iron plates against cannon and fire arrows.[27] These vessels, more floating batteries than ships, were armed with multiple cannons and large caliber arquebuses, and were described by the Italian Jesuit Organtino as being protected by iron plates two to three inches thick.[28] No iron-covering at all, however, was mentioned in the account of the Jesuit missionary Luis Frois, who had also seen and described the ships.[29] Nobunaga defeated the navy of his enemy Mori Terumoto with these ships at the mouth of the Kizu River, Osaka in 1578 with a successful naval blockade.

References

  1. ^ D.J. Blackman: “Further Early Evidence of Hull Sheathing”, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1972), pp.117-119
  2. ^ a b Lionel Casson: Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, The Johns Hopkins University Press 1995, ISBN 0-8018-5130-0, p.210, 214-216, 460
  3. ^ Rudolph Rittmeyer: "Seekriege und Seekriegswesen in ihrer weltgeschichtlichen Entwicklung", E. S. Mittler, Berlin 1907
  4. ^ Brian Lavery: The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815, Conway Maritime Press Ltd 1999, ISBN 978-0851774510, p.62-65
  5. ^ Jean MacIntosh Turfa, Alwin Steinmayer Jr: "The Syracusia as a Giant Cargo Vessel", The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1999), pp. 105-125 (107-109)
  6. ^ D.J. Blackman: "Further Early Evidence of Hull Sheathing", The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1972), pp.117-119 (118)
  7. ^ "Ancient Catapults". Retrieved 2007-02-23.
  8. ^ "The Roman Navy". Retrieved 2007-02-23.
  9. ^ "Norseman News". Spring 2000. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
  10. ^ a b c d Meyers Konversationslexikon, 4th edition, 1888–1890, entry: Panzerschiff
  11. ^ R. H. Dolley: “The Warships of the Later Roman Empire”, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 38, Parts 1 and 2 (1948), pp. 47-53 (50)
  12. ^ Mark Kurlansky: The Basque History of the World, Walker & Company, New York 1999, ISBN 0-8027-1349-1, p. 56
  13. ^ Jochen Brennecke: Geschichte der Schiffahrt, Künzelsau 1986 (2nd. ed.), p.138
  14. ^ Brockhaus online: Malta
  15. ^ H.J.A. Sire: "The Knights of Malta", Yale University Press 1996, ISBN 9780300068856, p.88
  16. ^ Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford: "The Sultan's Admiral: The Life of Barbarossa", Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968, p.177
  17. ^ J. Rudlov: "Die Einführung der Panzerung im Kriegschiffbau und die Entwicklung der ersten Panzerflotten", Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1910)
  18. ^ "Fighting ships of the Far-East (1)", Stephen Turnbull, p22
  19. ^ a b Turnbull, Stephen: Fighting Ships of the Far East (1): China and Southeast Asia 202 BC-AD 1419 p.244 Cite error: The named reference "Turnbull 2002, 244" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  20. ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 688.
  21. ^ a b Hawley, Samuel: The Imjin War. Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China, The Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, Seoul 2005, ISBN 89-954424-2-5, p.195f.
  22. ^ a b Roh, Young-koo: "Yi Sun-shin, an Admiral Who Became a Myth", The Review of Korean Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2004), p.13
  23. ^ Stephen Turnbull, “Samurai Invasion. Japan’s Korean War 1592-98” (London, 2002), Cassell & Co, p. 244 ISBN 0-304-35948-3
  24. ^ "Fighting ships of the Far-East (2)", Stephen Turnbull, pp16-18
  25. ^ "Fighting ships of the Far-East (2)", Stephen Turnbull, p18
  26. ^ "Fighting ships of the Far-East (2)", Stephen Turnbull, p20
  27. ^ a b Stephen Turnbull, “Samurai Warfare” (London, 1996), Cassell & Co, p.102 ISBN 1-85409-280-4
  28. ^ Boxer, C.R. (1993). The Christian Century in Japan 1549-1650. Carcanet Press. p. 122. ISBN 1-85754-035-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  29. ^ Stephen Turnbull, “Samurai Warfare” (London, 1996), Cassell & Co ISBN 1-85409-280-4, p.102f.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pre-industrial_armoured_ships&oldid=355252620"