I found in the Army and Navy Chronicle of February 1836 an interesting item dealing with the invention of steam armoured battery. Dealing with the description it's possible to compare this so-called battery with the ironclads of the American Civil War. It likes to be a combination of a torpedo boat annex gunboat.
"An Invention-The New York Times says:-"We understand that Mr. Clinton Roosevelt, of that city, has invented an invulnerable Steam Battery, calculated to do great service. It is rendered invulnerable, as we are told, by making the bows and stern of the vessel alike sharp, and plating them with polished iron armour, with high bulwarks and a sharp roof, also plated in like manner, with the design of glacing the balls, which can be done if the angle of incidence be sufficiently acute. The means of offence are a torpedo, which is made to lower on nearing the enemy, and be driven by a mortar into the enemy's side under water, where by a fusee it will exploded. There is also a very large canon at each end of the battery, to use in case circumstances should render an attack by the torpedo impracticable. There are also mortars to throw all kinds of combustibles upon the sails and decks of opponents. This mode of approach is always to keep one of the ends of the battery opposed the enemy. There are means to prevent balls from reaching any part of the machinery."
Source
Army and Navy Chronicle. Vol. II, no. 5, 4 February 1836, p. 70. Digitized by Google.
