Matt's Model Boats

Silvado was a monitor of the Imperial Brazilian Navy, serving during the reign of Pedro II, that played an important role in the Paraguayan War. Pedro II, the last reigning monarch of Brazil, modernized his navy by replacing its wooden sailing vessels with steamships that were propelled by paddle-wheels or screws. It would be necessary, also, to arm these modern fighting vessels with the latest weapons while the emergence of the ironclad raised the prospect of warships that were impervious to the blows of enemy artillery. Ironclads, which received their baptism of fire during the Crimean War, represented the pinnacle of naval technology in the middle of the nineteenth-century and were named after the thick plates of wrought iron that protected their hulls from explosive shells and solid shot. Rising tensions in South America persuaded the Brazilian government to equip the navy with protected fighting vessels, whether constructed at the naval arsenal at Rio de Janeiro or purchased from