page_title: Naval ram
section_title: Steam rams
hierarchical_section_title: Naval ram / Steam rams
caption_attribution_description: USS General Price (1863-1865). Off Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 18 January 1864. The original print is mounted on a Carte de Visite. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.
context_page_description: A ram was a weapon fitted to varied types of ships, dating back to antiquity. The weapon comprised an underwater prolongation of the bow of the ship to form an armoured beak, usually between six and 12 feet in length. This would be driven into the hull of an enemy ship to puncture it, sinking or disabling the ship.
context_section_description: With the development of steam propulsion, the speed, power and maneuverability it allowed again enabled the use of the ship's hull, which could be clad in iron, as an offensive weapon.  As early as 1840, the French admiral Nicolas Hippolyte Labrousse proposed building a ram steamship, and by 1860, Dupuy de Lôme had designed an ironclad with a ram. The quick success of CSS Virginia's ramming attack on USS Cumberland at the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862 attracted much attention and caused many navies to re-think the ram.  The first coastal battleship, France's Taureau, was built in 1863, for the purpose of attacking warships at anchor or in narrow straits, and was armed with a ram. Many ironclad ships were designed specifically to ram opponents; in ships of this type, the armour belt was extended forward to brace both sides of the ram to increase structural integrity.  Several wooden steamships were purpose-built as rams, or converted from existing commercial vessels, such as General Price.
  The theory behind the revival of the weapon derived from the fact that, in the period around 1860, armour held superiority over the ship-mounted cannon. It was believed that an armoured warship could not be seriously damaged by the naval artillery in existence at the time, even at close range. To achieve a decisive result in a naval engagement, therefore, alternative methods of action were believed to be necessary. As it followed, from the same belief, that a ship armed with a ram could not be seriously damaged by the gunfire of its intended victim, the ram became, for a brief period, the main armament of many battleships.  It was observed that the guns placed on the Taureau were there "with the sole function of preparing the way for the ram."
  During the American Civil War, both Union and Confederate forces employed ram ships.  In 1862, Charles Ellet, Jr. was deployed directly by the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, to build a fleet of ram ships to counter the Confederate rams controlling the Mississippi River.  Ellet purchased nine steam powered paddle boats and retrofit them for service as ram ships.  The ram ships played an important part in the Union victory during the First Battle of Memphis and helped the Union forces wrest control of the Mississippi River from the Confederate forces.
  The frequent use of ramming as a tactic in the Battle of Lissa and, to a lesser extent, at the Battle of Iquique also led to many late 19th-century naval designers equipping their warships with ram bows. This only really aggravated a number of incidents of ships being sunk by their squadron-mates in accidental collisions as ramming never featured as a viable battle tactic again. The fixation on ramming may also have inhibited the development of gunnery.
  Toward the end of the 19th century, the breech-loading cannon could effectively hit enemy ships at several thousand yards range, and the ineffectiveness in battle of the ram became clear;  ships were no longer fitted with them. Battleships and cruisers instead had inverted bows which superficially resembled rams. These were not, however, reinforced, and were fitted in order to improve ship speed by increasing the waterline length. They also served to decrease the length of forecastle that was exposed to muzzle flash when the guns were fired directly ahead.
  No other ironclad was ever sunk by wartime ramming by an enemy ship, although the ram was regarded by all major navies for some 30 years as primary battleship armament. A number of ships were, however, rammed in peacetime by ships of their own navy. The most serious of these same-navy collisions in terms of loss of life was the collision between HMS Victoria and HMS Camperdown, which took place in the Mediterranean in 1893. However, that death toll was dwarfed by the 562 deaths (plus two rescuers) ensuing from the sinking of the passenger liner SS Utopia, which accidentally collided with the ram bow of the anchored HMS Anson in 1891.
caption: USS General Price, a Union ram and gunboat, near Baton Rouge, LA, January 18, 1864
exif: {}