Commerce Raiding - Steel Navies

Steel Navies

By the 1880s, the navies of Europe began to deploy warships made of iron and steel. The natural evolution that followed was the installation of more powerful guns to penetrate the new steel warships. No longer would navies fight for "prizes", in which capture of the enemy warship meant financial gain for captain and crew as well as government when the prize and her cargo went under the hammer. The advent of steel armor and high explosive and armor-piercing shells meant the destruction and sinking of enemy "men o' war" was the priority. First seen at Sinope in 1853, the change was little appreciated until 1905, when at Tsushima seven pre-dreadnoughts were sent to the bottom, and the only prizes were those that had voluntarily surrendered upon the high seas.