Talk:Naval ram

message: The assertion that Taureau was the first ram built in the modern era is ambiguous. I presume that you mean 'built from the keel up,' as several modern rams preceded her in the American Civil War. The first of these was CSS ManassasOfficial records of the Union and Confederate Navies, ser. I, v. 16, pp. 703--730. Better known was the noted CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack (sic, not Merrimac)).---v. 7, pp. 3--73 The latter made a successful ramming attack on USS Cumberland during the Battle of Hampton Roads, 8 March 1862.
PKKloeppelPkkphysicist (talk) 09:42, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  First modern ram 

message: In the section The Athlit Ram, the wording "to prevent that the ram twisted off and damage the attacking ship" isn't very good English.
I suggest "to prevent the ram twisting off and damaging the attacking ship" is better.
R L Lacchin (Gloucester, UK) (talk) 14:49, 21 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: The four symbols on the ram are integral to the casting. They are: Poseidon's trident, a helmet surmounted with a star - the sign of the Dioscuri, an eagle's head, and a caduceus - the wand of Hermes. They symbolize the deities who safeguard ships and protect seamen, and are also those of the ruling powers. They appear on coins minted in Cyprus between 204 and 164 BCE, allowing us to estimate that the ram was made in one of the Cypriot ports, and was intended for a vessel in the fleet of Ptolemy V Epiphanes, or of his successor Ptolemy VI Philometor.
DancesWithGrues (talk) 08:42, 4 June 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clumsy wording? 

message: Since 2005 several ancient rams possibly related to the Battle of the Aegates Islands of 241 BC have been found north of Sicily. Two were attributed to Punic, seven or eight to Roman ships: http://archeologiaedintorni.blogspot.de/2012/07/ritrovato-un-nuovo-rostro-nord-ovest-di.html<BR>
Another ram was found 2008 at Acqualadroni near Messina, possibly related to the Battle of Naulochus between Sextus Pompeius and Agrippa in 36 BC: http://svagheggio.forumfree.it/?t=32376003<BR>
--176.6.110.63 (talk) 15:24, 18 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  the only known surviving ancient naval ram 

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thread_title:  External links modified (February 2018) 

message: Excellent article all round.
I note the following, however: " The fixation on ramming may also have inhibited the development of gunnery". This may not be especially valid an assessment, since there were numerous attempts to improve the accuracy of gunfire from ironclads, as early as the 1870s.
For example, HMS Monarch was completed with an early form of what would later be termed centralised fire control, being completed with a spotting top equipped with voice tubes to communicate corrections to ranging back to the gun turrets. Notably unsuccessful when first employed at Alexandria, due to noise in the turrets drowning out the voice commands, it was however used with success by HMS Carysfort and HMS Orion a short time later.
Methods of accurately controlling warships' main batteries continued apace during the last two decades of the century, as innovators like Fiske came up with systems which appeared workable on paper but were somewhat ahead of the technology to provide effective equipment, until the Barr & Stroud rangefinder entered service.
In the meantime, gun technology proceeded in line with advances in both metallurgy and propellants, allowing significantly longer battle ranges as early as 1894 at the Yalu, where fighting took place at greater ranges than at Angamos a decade and a half earlier.
So really there is little evidence that the supposed 'ram mania' retarded the development of longer-ranged naval gunnery - if anything, it was technological lag which held back these developments for a couple of decades. The effort was certainly there.
Otherwise, a pretty exceptional article. 2A00:23C7:3119:AD01:1976:2278:946D:2C45 (talk) 19:24, 13 March 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  19th Century gunnery developments