can be employed in the attack on commerce, this may be dismissed. These craft cannot remain at sea for any time, and their nests will be as well known as the resorts of Jean Bart and Duguay Trouin were in the old corsair days.
The Crimean War found Russia but little advanced in the substitution of steam for sailing ships in her navy, and she was not prepared to meet at sea either the Baltic or Black Sea Squadrons of the allies. At the close of that war efforts were made to recover her old position among the maritime states, and several screw vessels were built. Then when France and England began to produce seagoing ironclads, two Russian wooden ships then building, the 'Sebastopol' and 'Petropaulowski,' were converted into armoured frigates, with 4½-in. iron plates. About this time, however, the naval events of the Civil War in America brought the 'Monitor' type prominently into favour in Russia. Ten monitors, on Ericsson’s plans, were ordered in 1863, when Europe seemed inclined to intervene on behalf of Poland. These monitors were built in the Baltic. Then came the Franco-German War and the declaration of Russia in reference to shipbuilding in the Black Sea, but it was some years before Russia was in a position to carry out the construction of battle ships in the southern ports. Moreover, the influence of the monitor was still paramount, and the fleet consisted chiefly of coast defence vessels. Under this influence the circular ironclads, which I have already alluded to,
