A ship can be dangerous to older warships without being competitive against its own generation. One assessment gives the French barbette ironclad discussed here little chance against a peer opponent but expects it to win about 80 percent of fights against ships a generation or more behind it. That assessment treats the ship as usable in the battle line without calling it a good design. Another participant rejects the conclusion, so the exchange remains a disputed, informal comparison.
Notable Point · 1:09:56-1:10:34
Judging an ironclad against peers and older ships
Performance against an older generation does not establish parity with contemporary warships.