Were ironclad ships invented in the Civil War? Were they submarines?
It quite hard to establish exactly when ironclad (or fully iron) ships were first invented and exactly when submarines were first invented. It is certain that these ideas were around before the Civil War. What is certain is the following: The Merrimac/Virginia was an ironclad, employing iron plates bolted on to a wooden hull. The Monitor was an entirely iron vessel designed from the ground-up (with 49 patentable inventions within her, by the way). Their battle at Hampton Roads was the first time two vessels of this type had faced each other. The Merrimac/Virginia proved that conventional wooden warships were no match for her, but the battle with the Monitor proved only that war at sea would be very different in future. The Hunley, which was a true submarine, was built of iron. She put to sea only three times, she sank each time and killed her crew each time. For her third sailing she had been forbidden to submerge, so her attck on the Housatonic was made on the surface. Nevertheless sh
