question: The Ironclad Board was an advisory board, established by the Union, in which year, in response to the construction of the "CSS Virginia" by the Confederacy during the US Civil War,primary goal of the Ironclad Board was to develop more battle-worthy ("ironclad") ships, including the USS Monitor, an iron-hulled steamship?
answer: 1861
context: Title: Ironclad warship
  Passage: An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates used in the early part of the second half of the 19th century.  The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells.  The first ironclad battleship, "Gloire" , was launched by the French Navy in November 1859.  The British Admiralty had been considering armored warships since 1856 and prepared a draft design for an armored corvette in 1857; in early 1859 the Royal Navy started building two iron-hulled armored frigates, and by 1861 had made the decision to move to an all-armored battle fleet.  After the first clashes of ironclads (both with wooden ships and with one another) took place in 1862 during the American Civil War, it became clear that the ironclad had replaced the unarmored ship of the line as the most powerful warship afloat.  This type of ship would come to be very successful in the American Civil War.
  Title: CSS Neuse
  Passage: CSS "Neuse" was a steam-powered ironclad ram of the Confederate States Navy that served in the latter part the American Civil War and was eventually scuttled to avoid capture by rapidly advancing Union Army forces.  In the early 1960s, she produced approximately 15,000 artifacts from her raised lower hull, the largest number ever found on a recovered Confederate vessel.  The remains of her lower hull and a selection of her artifacts are on exhibit in Kinston, North Carolina at the CSS Neuse Interpretive Center State Historic Site, which belongs to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.  The ironclad is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  Title: John H. Burroughs
  Passage: John Henry Burroughs was a naval engineer and shipwright who played an important role in the construction of the Confederate ironclad warships "CSS Virginia" (Merrimack) and "CSS Richmond", and who later served as Superintendent of the Gosport Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, while it was under occupation by Union forces during the American Civil War.
  Title: Mary Louvestre
  Passage: Mary Louvestre (or Touvestre) was a seamstress and Union spy in Norfolk, Virginia during the US Civil War.  Mary delivered details of plans for the conversion of the Merrimac to an ironclad that would be named the CSS Virginia and which represented a great advance in Confederate Naval capabilities.  There are multiple accounts about her story.  One account stems in part from documentation by then Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles.  This account states that Louvestre worked with another Union Spy, William H. Lyons, who was one of the few workers at Norfolk's Gosport Navy Yard who did not flee when Norfolk was captured by the Confederate Army early in the war, but who was still providing information about the Confederacy through contacts at Fort Monroe.  Welles states that Louvestre came to him in great secrecy in February 1862 with documents about the CSS Virginia from Lyons.
  Title: Charles Carroll Simms
  Passage: Charles Carroll Simms (1824–1884) a native of Virginia, became a United States Navy midshipman in 1839.  He served in the U.S. Navy for more than two decades, achieving the rank of Lieutenant in 1854.  He was dismissed from the service in April 1861, after his state left the United States, and briefly was an officer in Virginia's Navy.  Commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Confederate States Navy in June 1861, during that year he commanded the steamer CSS "George Page" and was assigned to the steamer CSS "Rappahannock".  Also commanded CSS Appomattox in coastal North Carolina until it was scuttled in February 1862.  As an officer of the ironclad CSS "Virginia", he took part in her March–May 1862 actions in the vicinity of Hampton Roads.  Subsequently, he served in the gunboats CSS "Nansemond" on the James River, and CSS "Selma" in Mobile Bay.  During the American Civil War's final year, while assigned to the Mobile Squadron, he commanded the ironclads CSS "Baltic" and CSS "Nashville".  First Lieutenant Simms surrendered to Federal forces in early May 1865 and was paroled soon afterwards.
  Title: USS Merrimack (1855)
  Passage: USS "Merrimack, also improperly Merrimac", was a frigate, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship CSS "Virginia" was constructed during the American Civil War.  The CSS "Virginia" then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads (also known as "the Battle of the "Monitor" and the "Merrimack"") in the first engagement between ironclad warships.
  Title: Central battery ship
  Passage: The central battery ship, also known as a centre battery ship in the United Kingdom and as a casemate ship in European continental navies, was a development of the (high-freeboard) broadside ironclad of the 1860s, given a substantial boost due to the inspiration gained from the Battle of Hampton Roads, the very first battle between ironclads fought in 1862 during the American Civil War.  One of the participants was the Confederate casemate ironclad CSS "Virginia" , essentially a central battery ship herself, albeit a low-freeboard one.  The central battery ships had their main guns concentrated in the middle of the ship in an armoured citadel.  The concentration of armament amidships meant the ship could be shorter and handier than a broadside type like previous warships.  In this manner the design could maximize the thickness of armour in a limited area while still carrying a significant broadside.  These ships meant the end of the armoured frigates with their full-length gun decks.
  Title: USS Monitor
  Passage: USS "Monitor" was an iron-hulled steamship.  Built during the American Civil War, she was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy.  "Monitor" is most famous for her central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862, where, under the command of Lieutenant John Worden, she fought the casemate ironclad  (built on the hull of the former steam frigate USS "Merrimack" ) to a standstill.  The unique design of the ship, distinguished by its revolving turret which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby, was quickly duplicated and established the monitor type of warship.
  Title: Ironclad Board
  Passage: The Ironclad Board was an advisory board established by the Union in 1861 in response to the construction of the "CSS Virginia" by the Confederacy during the US Civil War.  The primary goal of the Ironclad Board was to develop more battle-worthy ("ironclad") ships, leading to the construction a number of innovative designs, including the USS Monitor.  The Board consisted of senior naval officers Commodore Hiram Paulding, Commodore Joseph Smith, Commander Charles Henry Davis and assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Vasa Fox.
  Title: CSS Virginia
  Passage: CSS "Virginia" was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and cut down original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate USS "Merrimack" .  "Virginia" was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's  in March 1862.  The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads.
citations: Ironclad Board USS Monitor