The list of ironclads includes all steam-propelledwarship (supplemented with sails in various cases) and protected by ironorsteelarmor plates that were built in the early part of the second half of the 19th century, between 1859 and the early 1890s. The list is arranged alphabetically by country. The initial dates of the boats correspond to the launch time, followed by a separation that indicates their retirement or final date.
The list includes ironclads of two different categories or roles, oceanic and coastal (the latter may be floating batteries, monitors and coastal defence ships). The various ironclads design such as the ram, broadside, central battery (orcasemate), turret and barbette will be mentioned.[A] Some of these ocean ironclads can be classified as armored frigates, armored corvettes, or others based on their displacement. Wooden hull ships that have been subsequently armored will also be considered in this list.
Although the introduction of the ironclad is clear-cut, the boundary between 'ironclad' and the later 'pre-dreadnought battleship' is less obvious, as the characteristics of the pre-dreadnought evolved from 1875 to 1895. For the sake of this article, a line is drawn around 1890, differing from country to country.
The Swedish John Ericsson (1865), part of a class of five monitors, was designed under the supervision of the Swedish-born inventor, John Ericsson, and built in Sweden.
^These designs are for oceanic ironclads, although there were also coastal ironclads that used ram, casemate, turret and barbette.
^Built in 1854 as a wooden steamship and converted to a casemate ironclad in 1865.[3]
^Originally it was a 70-gun ship that became an armored frigate between 1862 and 1864.[4]
^It was converted into a casemate ironclad between 1961 and 1863.
^It was a steam frigate called Resolución that in 1870 ended up being converted into an armored frigate of the central battery, adopting the new name of Méndez Núñez.
^Rodríguez, Horacio (1995). Las fuerzas navales argentinas: historia de la flota de mar (in Spanish). Instituto Browniano. p. 140.
^Scheina, Robert L. (1987). Latin America: A Naval History, 1810–1987. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 64. ISBN0-87021-295-8.
^López Martínez, Héctor (1972). Historia maritima del Peru: La república, 1876-1879 (in Spanish). Comisión para Escribir la Historia Marítima del Perú, Editorial Ausonis. p. 262.
^Silverstone, Paul H. (1984). Directory of the World's Capital Ships. New York: Hippocrene Books. p. 55. ISBN0-88254-979-0.
^Sondhaus, Lawrence (1958). Navies in Modern World History. London: Reaktions book ltd. p. 142.
