The Coconino weekly sun., 1894-05-17
THE FIRST IRONCLAD.
Disastrous End to the Career of the "Flni:
 Belli."

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 This ironclad was built in the year 1885 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 a margraviate, suffered greatly. It was pillaged by tbe 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 flat 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. It contained great number of men, some of whom were placed like sharpshoot- CTS 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 it's means they wonld 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. It was launched upon the Scheldt, and taken across the flooded country by means of canal cut from the river; but it proved very unhandy, and after a short career got stuck upon a bank.
 This untimely end of the great ves- sel from which so much was hoped was d source of much delight and derision to the Spaniards, which nicknamed the monster Caranjamaula which signifies a bogey, while the men of Antwerp al- tered its name from Finis Belli to Per dite 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- jan 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 It 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 sign that the war was fHished. And, in- deed, it proved to be the last effort of the gallant people of Antwerp, for the city was taken on August r, 1885, and so the first ironclad on record came to an unfortunate end. London Times