Pre-industrial Armoured Ships - Evidence in Europe

Evidence in Europe

Ship armour is to be distinguished from the practice of hull sheathing for preservational reasons, namely the protection against marine wood-boring worms. Greek merchantmen were fitted with lead sheets for that purpose by the 5th century BC. A notable Roman example were the excavated Nemi Ships with an underwater hull covered by a thin layer of lead. The practice was resumed by the Spanish and Portuguese in the Age of Exploration, while the British Royal Navy began to copper their war ships in the 1760s.

The huge Syracusia, built by the Greek tyrant Hiero II of Syracuse around 240 BC, featured bronze-clad mast-tops for marines and an iron palisade on its fighting deck against enemy boarding attempts. Its hull was sheathed with lead plates fixed with bronze nails. Roman naval cataphract warships were protected on their sides by a layer of tarred and lead sheathing. Although this does not provide much protection from ramming, it does provide protection from damage while at sea for lengthy periods of time.

A few Norse longships were reinforced with iron armour along the waterline as early as the 11th Century, such as the Iron Beard of Eric Hakonsson of Norway.

Peter IV of Aragon (1336–87) protected his ships with screens of hides against missile fire, as the Roman navy had done earlier.

A ship with iron plating on the ribs was commissioned in 1505 by Juan Lope de Lazcano, a Basque admiral of the Spanish Fleet.

The Santa Anna, a lead-sheathed carrack of the Knights Hospitaller, is viewed by some authors as an early form of armoured ship. From 1522 to 1540, the warship successfully operated in the Mediterranean Sea against the Turks.

The Galleon of Venice, the Venetian flagship which did serious damage to the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Preveza (1538), was sheathed with plate.

During the siege of Antwerp in 1585, the Dutch defenders partially protected their man-of-war Finis Bellis with iron plates.

In 1782, Chevalier d'Arçon attacked Gibraltar with floating batteries featuring a 1.80 thick armour out of wooden planks, iron bars and leather, but met little success.