An Experimental Ironclad Design
In 1841, Robert L. Stevens and Edwin Augustus Stevens — the sons of Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey — proposed to the Navy Department the construction of an ironclad vessel of high speed, with screw propellers and all machinery below the waterline. This proposal was accepted and an Act of Congress — approved on 14 April 1842 — authorized the Secretary of the Navy to contract for the construction of a shot and shell-proof steamer, to be built principally of iron, on the Stevens plan. The armor was to be 4.5 in (11 cm) thick, a thickness believed by the Stevenses to be sufficient to resist any gun then known. But experiments made by John Ericsson with his big wrought-iron gun proved that 4.5 inches of armor was insufficient, and the construction of the vessel was thus delayed. In 1854, the builders constructed a larger battery, to be plated with 6.75 in (17.1 cm) of iron, but this in turn was never finished. This vessel was referred to as the Stevens Battery.
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