Quote Originally Posted by Myth View Post
And even though the Royal Navy was working on an armoured frigate of some sort, it was the French who actually introduced the first ironclad warship.
Or possibly the Koreans did, though the "Turtle ship" bears little resemblance to a Western style ironclad, so I don't know if you want to count it or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_ship