Ironclads (1904) was a Royal Academy exhibit in the summer exhibition of 1906 (no. 871). This historic work was selected as one of the Royal Academy's Pictures of the Year and described as having ‘…the purposefulness without the pomp of war in the quiet leviathon…’

Ironclads depicts an Edgar-class cruiser in the foreground with a Canopus-class battleship astern. The Edgar-class consisted of nine large protected cruisers built 1890-1892 under The Naval defence Act of 1889. The Canopus-class was a group of six pre-dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy, designed by William White in the late 1890s. Whilst not a Royal Naval base, with its deep harbour, Falmouth functioned as a strategic coaling station and safe anchorage for naval ships, especially those operating in the Western Approaches. It is also conceivable that Hemy travelled to nearby Plymouth to paint Ironclads; Devonport in Plymouth was the main base for the Channel Fleet.

Construction of the 'Ironclads' announced the start of a British-German naval arms race (1898–1914), an intense strategic rivalry driven by Germany's desire for global empire and Britain's need to protect its shores and trade routes. As technology and production improved "Dreadnought" battleships overtook the older, Ironclad warships pictured in Hemy's painting of 1904. Ultimately Britain's shipyards out-built their German rivals. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Britain possessed 29 Dreadnought battleships and Battlecruisers compared to Germany's 17.

Ironclads is therefore not just an accomplished Royal Academy work by the leading maritime artist of the era, but an important early historic record of the pre-WW1 naval arms race between Britain and Germany.