The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-05-18
THE FIRST IRONCLAR
Disastrous End to the Career of the "Fkni
Bell"

Disastrous End to the Career of the "Ftnis
Bell"
This ironclad was built in the year
1856 by shipwright of Antwerp dur
ing the wars with the Spaniards. The
greater part of the Netherlands had
come into the possession of the house
of Hapsburg by the marriage of Maxi
milan of Austria to Mary, daughter of
Duke Charles the Bold, in 1477, but
under Charles V. the sovereignty was
extended until it embraced all the
seventeen Belgian and Batavian prov
inces. When the Lowlands passed to
the Spanish crown, the principles of
the reformation had spread among the
Lowlands, and on the establishment of
the inquisition there in the middle of
the sixteenth century disturbances
broke out in the provinces, and great
cruelties were committed by the
Spaniards-
Antwerp, which in those days was
margraviate, suffered greatly. 1t was
pillaged by the Spanish soldiery in
1874, and was again besieged in the
regency of Alexander of Parma, being
taken in 1885. In the summer of that
year it was closely invest ed by land
and water, and the people of Antwerp
made many gallant efforts to break
through the line of the besiegers,
especially on the river. For this pur~
pose they built a craft of unusual size,
with fat bottom, and armed its sides
with iron plates fastened into great
beams of wood The idea was to make
not so much a ship as a floating
castle, impregnable to the artil-
lery and missiles of those days
which should crush all opposition. 1t
contained great number of men, some
of whom were placed like sharpshoot-
ers in the tops of the masts, and the
rest protected by the bulwarks. The
men of Antwerp were SO confident of
the success of their new invention that
they called it Finis Belli, feeling sure
that by its means they would be able
to raise the siege and put an end to the
war. Unfortunately for the brave
burghers of Antwerp. this early iron
clad proved a disastrous failure. 1t
was launched upon the Scheldt, and
taken across the flooded country by
means of a canal cut from the river;
but it proved very unhandy, and after
short career got stuck upon bank.
This untimely end of the great ves-
sci from which so much was hoped was
source of much delight and derision
to the Spaniards, which nicknamed the
monster Caranjamaula which signifies
DOGGY, while the men of Antwerp al
tered its name from Finis Belli to Per-
ditB Expense, or Money Thrown
Away" The crew then deserted the
ship, and the Spaniards after naval
battle, which took place in the flooded
country, and resulted in the defeat of
the Netherlander. took possession of
the naval monster, as they called it,
though they feared that, like the Tro-
ian horse, it had been left in their
hands for some evil purpose. However,
finding that it really was deserted,
they seized it, and then lowed it off
and got it back into the river Scheldt
1t was then taken in triumph to the
camp of Alexander of Parma, where it
became one of the sights of the time;
and the Spaniards, accepting the omen
of its original name, took it as a sign
that the war was finished. And, in
deed, it proved to be the last effort of
the gallant people of Antwerp. for the
city was taken on August IL, 1885, and
so the first ironclad on record came to
an unfortunate end.-London Times