nd
discipline, and also upon the progressive spirit of constructors
and naval experts, faced with the most difficult problems, the
wrong solution of which would mean the waste of millions of dollars
and possible defeat in war. Every change had to overcome the spirit
of conservatism inherent in military organizations, where seniority
rules, errors are sanctified by age, and every innovation upsets
cherished routine. Thus in the contract for Ericsson's _Monitor_
it was stipulated that she should have masts, spars, and sails!

The first successful steamboat for commerce was, as is well known,
Robert Fulton's flat-bottomed side-wheeler _Clermont_, which in
August, 1807, made the 150 miles from New York to Albany in 32
hours. During the war of 1812 Fulton designed for coast defense
a heavily timbered, double-ender floating battery, with a single
paddle-wheel located inside amidships. On her trial trip in 1815
this first steam man-of-war, the U. S. S. _Fulton_, carried 26 guns
and made over 6 knots, but she was then laid up and was destroyed
a few years later by fire. Ericsson's successful application of
the screw propeller in 1837 made steam propulsion more feasible
for battleships by clearing the decks and eliminating the clumsy
and exposed side-wheels. The first American screw warship was the
U. S. S. _Princeton_, of 1843, but every ship in the American Navy
at the outbreak of the Civil War had at least auxiliary sail rig.
Though by 1850 England had 30 vessels with auxiliary steam, the
_Devastation_ of 1869 was the first in the British service to use
steam exclusively. Long after this time old "floating museums"
with sail rig and smoothbores were retained in most navies for
motives of economy, and even the first ships of the American "White
Squadron" were encumbered with sails and spars.

[Illustration: EARLY IRONCLADS]

Progress in ordnance began about 1822, when explosive shells, hitherto
used only in mortars, were first adopted for ordinary cannon with
horizontal fire. At the time of the Crimean War shells were the
usual ammunition for lower tier guns, and at Sinope in 1853 their
smashing effect against wooden hulls was demonstrated when a Russian
squadron destroyed some Turkish vessels which fired only solid
shot. The great professional cry of the time, we are told, became
"For God's sake, keep out the shell."[1]

[Footnote 1: Custance, THE SHIP OF THE LINE IN BATTLE, p. 9.]

In 1851 Minie rifles supplanted in t