Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/67



The same reasons which operated on the minds of the naval officers in respect to the application of steam propulsion retarded the use of iron for the construction of war vessels. That material was first employed for canal boats about the year 1812, and afterwards for steamers of the mercantile marine. About 1834 the Admiralty were urged to institute experiments to ascertain whether iron might not be utilised for ships of war, but they moved so slowly that the first iron war steamer built in this country was the 'Birkenhead,' by Messrs Laird, in 1845. For reasons to be mentioned presently she was turned into a troopship. She was lost in 1852 at the Cape, under the circumstances well known from the heroic conduct of the soldiers and seamen on the occasion. To test the behaviour of iron under the effects of shot, and to compare it with wood, some experiments were carried out at Portsmouth from 1849 to 1851. Iron plates, ⅝ in. thick, placed 35 ft. apart, to represent a section of the 'Simoom,' a vessel