The French Navy launched the world's first ocean-going ironclad warship, named La Gloire, at Toulon in southern France. Weighing 5,630 tons, the wooden hull structure was sheathed in iron plates. La Gloire carried 38 guns and a crew of 570 and was powered with both steam and sail. Two sister ships were built in 1860 and 1861. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
James Phinney Baxter, The Introduction of the Ironclad Warship (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1933), 112.