 While ironclads spread rapidly in navies worldwide , there were few pitched naval battles involving ironclads . Most European nations settled differences on land , and the Royal Navy struggled to maintain a deterrent parity with at least France , while providing suitable protection to Britain 's commerce and colonial outposts worldwide . Ironclads remained , for the British Royal Navy , a matter of defending the British Isles first and projecting power abroad second . Those naval engagements of the latter half of the 19th @-@ century which involved ironclads normally involved colonial actions or clashes between second @-@ rate naval powers . But these encounters were often enough to convince British policy @-@ makers of the increasing hazards of strictly naval foreign intervention , from Hampton Roads in the American Civil War to the hardening combined defences of naval arsenals such as Kronstadt and Cherbourg . 
 While ironclads spread rapidly in navies worldwide , <a href='dey_it' title='1'><mark>there</mark></a> <a href='uninflect' title='2'><mark>were</mark></a> few pitched naval battles involving ironclads . Most European nations settled differences on land , and the Royal Navy struggled to maintain a deterrent parity with at least France , while providing suitable protection to Britain <a href='null_genetive' title='3'><mark>'s</mark></a>commerce and colonial outposts worldwide . Ironclads remained , for the British Royal Navy , a matter of defending the British Isles first and projecting power abroad second . Those naval engagements of the latter half of the 19th @-@ century which involved ironclads normally involved colonial actions or clashes between second @-@ rate naval powers . But these encounters <a href='uninflect' title='4'><mark>were</mark></a> often enough to convince British policy @-@ makers of the increasing hazards of strictly naval foreign intervention , from Hampton Roads in the American Civil War to the hardening combined defences of naval arsenals such as Kronstadt and Cherbourg . 
While ironclads spread rapidly in navies worldwide , it was few pitched naval battles involving ironclads . Most European nations settled differences on land , and da Royal Navy struggled to maintain a deterrent parity with at least France , while providing suitable protection to Britain  commerce and colonial outposts worldwide . Ironclads remained , fa the British Royal Navy , a matter of defending the British Isles first and projecting power abroad second . Those naval engagements of the latter half of tda19th @-@ century which involved ironclads normally involved colonial actions or clashes between second @-@ rate naval powers . But these encounters was often enough to convince British policy @-@ makers of the increasing hazards of strictly naval foreign intervention , from Hampton Roads in the American Civil War to the hardening combined defences of naval arsenals such as Kronstadt and Cherbourg .