Pre-industrial armoured ships

There are recorded incidents of armour having been employed in naval warfare prior to the introduction of the ironclad warship in both Europe and in East Asia, in the form of wooden ships or ships of composite construction (wooden planking on iron frames) armoured with thick metal plates. The Europeans made ships with metal ribs as rams, and there are also documents about armoured ships, some of them equipped with naval artillery. In East Asia there are records about metal armoured warships combined with naval artillery from the 16th century. However, in every single case of both European and Far Eastern vessels evidence of iron armour is either unclear, ambiguous or disputed.