Sub-aquatic warfare

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Sub-aquatic warfare is a term invented by John Ericsson to refer to the principle of placing as much of a ship as possible under the surface of the water, so as render the ship relatively immune to surface fire. The first example of this was the USS Monitor which he designed and built during the American Civil War. The ship's success led to the building of more ships built on the same principle and called monitors after their progenitor. However, the low freeboard of monitors made them not particularly sea-worthy. This fact, coupled with the development of the submarine, has caused the use of monitors to be generally avoided by navies since the early 20th century. However, monitors have been built for the specialized tasks of riverine warfare and shore bombardment, where submersibility provides no tactical advantage and the poor sea-worthiness of such designs is not a concern.

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