 The <unk> damage inflicted by the guns of <unk> and Virginia at Battle of Hampton Roads and the spectacular but lucky success of the Austrian flagship SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max sinking the Italian Re d 'Italia at <unk> gave strength to the <unk> craze . From the early 1870s to early 1880s most British naval officers thought that guns were about to be replaced as the main naval armament by the ram . Those who noted the tiny number of ships that had actually been sunk by <unk> struggled to be heard . 
