kissell@flairvax.UUCP (Kevin Kissell) (11/07/83)
jmg@houxk presents an interesting set of little-known "facts" regarding anglo-american relations over the last 200 years or so. I cannot make informed comments about much of what was asserted, but I can challenge the assetion that the Confederacy's first ironclad warship was of British manufacture. It was neither of british manufacture, nor was it called the "Merrimack". The Merrimack was a Union vessel scuttled and burned in port by Union sailors before the shipyard it was in fell (I dont recall the shipyard. Hampton Roads?). The Confederates raised the hull and outfitted it with armor plate and cannon and rechristened it the Virginia. The Confederacy had very few plate iron works of any consequence, and some of their later ironclads (there were a dozen or so) may well have been built from british plate, but if memory serves, the Virginia was armored with railroad rail stock, with vertical and horizontal layers. Now, if you want to defame the brits, let's talk about the Opium Wars...