n the traditional war machine of western culture, and the invention of the ironclad single handedly #changed the tradition. Two days after the first battle of ironclads, England declared the use of the wooden ship obsolete. (Arthur,247) The secretary of the Confederacy, Stephen R. Mallory declared, I regard the possession of an iron armored ship as a matter of first necessity. (Sharf,43) A British admiral also said, The possession of an Iron clad navy would advance Europe. Such ships at this time would traverse our entire navy and if to cope with other navies on the open seas we must have no more wooden ships built because our inequality will build up our vulnerability. (Mahan, 102) Most of these innovations came about by pure chance and genius. All these ...machinations of chance often served only to heighten drama, to punctuate the inescapability of an event that would not be denied its place in time. (Davis,1) Some say the ironclad came about through a series of chances and elusive destiny, yet only after this invention did the world get a glimpse at the new era of 4naval warfare that was emerging. (Phinney,3)Truly the use of iron to clad ships and the battle between the Merrimac and the Monitor is the most decisive factor to date to serve as a point of revolutionary change for modern navies. The Merrimac and the Monitor fought like tigers for four hours in one of the greatest naval engagements that had ever occurred since the beginning of the world. (Mahan,7) This successful and terrible work caused a revolution in naval warfare, henceforth iron would be King of the Seas! ...
