It "has been the main talk of the town," wrote Adams, "ever since the news came, in Parliament, in the clubs, in the city, among the military and naval people.

The impression is that it dates the commencement of a new era in warfare, and that Great Britain must consent to begin over again[587]." The victory of the _Monitor_ was relatively unimportant in British eyes, but a fight between two completely armoured ships, and especially the ease with which the _Merrimac_ had vanquished wooden ships on the day previous, were cause of anxious consideration for the future.
Russell was more concerned over the immediate lessons of the battle.
"Only think," he wrote, "of our position if in case of the Yankees turning upon us they should by means of iron ships renew the triumphs they achieved in 1812-13 by means of superior size and weight of metal[588]." This, however, was but early and hasty speculation, and while American ingenuity and experiment in naval warfare had, indeed, sounded the death-knell of wooden ships of war, no great change in the character of navies was immediately possible.

Moreover British shipbuilders could surely keep pace in iron-clad construction with America or any other nation.

The success of the _Monitor_ was soon regarded by the British Government as important mainly as indicative of a new energy in the North promising further and more important successes on land.

The Government hoped for such Northern success not because of any belief that these would go to the extent of forcing the South into submission, for they were still, and for a long time to come, obsessed with the conviction that Southern independence must ultimately be achieved.