The jump between these two types of watercraft seems really big, and countries were building wooden ships for centuries. What did they do with large wooden warships during this time? Were they used in less important roles? Scuttled?
The funny thing about it is that the United States developed the first ironclad steamships used in battle, the Monitor and the Merrimack. When the two ships battled during the civil war the eyes of the world were upon them and everyone realized that their navies were out of date and rapidly started upgrading their own navies... everyone that is except the United States. The lumber interests in the United States prevented the change over and even though the US led the world into the ironclad age it actually was quite a while before they actually joined it.