On the cover of D.K. Brown's "Before the Ironclad", there is a reproduction of a painting of the Allied fleet at the Crimea. Most of the ships are wooden-walled with sail, but prominent in the foreground are three small, iron-hulled paddleboats with a gun (still a muzzle-loader in those days) at each end. Any of these three would be easy meat for the puniest destroyer or corvette in any modern navy, but back in 1857 that was the future - and everything else in the painting was already as good as obsolete.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-11 12:52 am (UTC)On the cover of D.K. Brown's "Before the Ironclad", there is a reproduction of a painting of the Allied fleet at the Crimea. Most of the ships are wooden-walled with sail, but prominent in the foreground are three small, iron-hulled paddleboats with a gun (still a muzzle-loader in those days) at each end. Any of these three would be easy meat for the puniest destroyer or corvette in any modern navy, but back in 1857 that was the future - and everything else in the painting was already as good as obsolete.