Can you name it?
"It seems as wisely and certainly adapted to its end as any plan of its kind." The report complimented the ... vessel's many attributes: simplicity, mobility, comparative invulnerability, safety and small size of her crew, "certainty of operation," and low cost- .... A fleet of (the ships) could protect the coastline and inland waters for far less than (present methods).Ah, the joy of history - it gives you such warnings, if you want to hear them.
... the ship "is so simple, so easily understood, and so capable of reduction to mathematical certainty, that it can hardly be denominated an appropriation for 'an experiment.'" However if it did fail, then "much valuable and needed information" would be obtained. "Experiments, for purposes like these in view, no private individuals or corporations are interested or able to make; this government is interested, able, and competent to make them." The crew size would be unlike any other: ....
Sound like LCS? No, 18th Century Ram Ships. Good spin, sellable ideas, some actual utility in certain respects - but perhaps over sold as a desire to find an alternative to the reality of requirements for naval warfare. Everyone wants a quick fix - but it doesn't exist.
