Quote:
Wooden warships had attained their optimum length, their multiple gun decks making them unstable. Warrior's ingenious deign incorporated just one long, very stable gun deck - 100 feet longer than any previous warship. Her firepower could blow any other vessel out of the water. While wooden ships carried 32-pounder guns, Warrior had 68-pounders and 110-pounders. She was the ultimate deterrent.
Of the two types of heavy gun carried by Warrior the 68 pounder was most numerous, with twenty six on board. This gun was designed in 1846 by Colonel Dundas, weighing 6 tons on its elm carriage. 18 men were required to man the position and could achieve a rate of fire of one round every 55 seconds. Although equipped with fitted sights, the trajectory was erratic. Due to the smooth bore nature of the gun effective range was limited to 2,000 yards. Complementing the 68 lb muzzle loading guns were ten 110 pound guns.
The Admiralty opted for these relatively untried breech loading guns, designed in 1859 by Tyneside engineer, William Armstrong and weighing 4.1 tons. Again a gun crew of 18 men were required to discharge one round every 50 seconds.
One innovation was the barrel's rifling. This made the shot fly true and spin so that the tapered point hit the target first. This heralded the introduction of the percussion fuse, which detonated the shell on impact.
Another new feature was the loading method. The guns did not have to be drawn back into the ship; both projectile and charge were loaded through the breech screw and the chamber sealed with a block.
Quote:
USS MONITOR: Armament: two 11" Dahlgren smoothbore cannons. Armor: turret was made of eight 1" iron plates.
CSS VIRGINIA: Armament: two 7" Brooke rifles, two 6.4" Brooke rifles, six 9" Dahlgren smoothbore cannons and two 12 pounder howitzers. Armor: deck 1" iron, casemate had 4" iron backed with 24" wood.
Quote:
Warrior's armour consisted of 4.5 inches (114 mm) of wrought iron backed by 18 inches (457 mm) of teak. The iron armour was made up of 3-by-12-foot (0.91 by 3.7 m) plates that interlocked via the tongue and groove method. It was bolted through the teak to the iron hull. The teak consisted of two 9-inch-thick (229 mm) layers laid at right angles to each other; they strengthened the armour by damping the shock waves caused by the impact of shells that would otherwise break the bolts connecting the armour to the hull. Based on tests at Shoeburyness in October 1861 when the Warrior was launched, it "was practically invulnerable to the ordnance at the time in use"
The 110lb 7" Armstrong had to use reduced charges (110/16lb) - it couldn't penetrate the Warrior's own armour. No better than the 7" rifles on the Virginia, only slightly better than the 11" smoothbore (166/20lb) on the Monitor. Better than the 9" Dahlgrens though (90/13lb). The 68lb could use a higher charge (24lb, 16lb usual), enough to go through 5" iron plus 24" wood, or 10" Iron. Not as accurate at long range though, and a smaller effect when it hit. Against the 4" of mild steel railroad rails of the Virginia, or the multiple plates on the Monitor... would go straight through.