The loss of the new, technically advanced ironclad HMS Captain remains one of the peacetime disasters in history. To understship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news the chain of events leading up to the tragedy we must retrace our steps to the earlier Russian of 1854-56 (popularly btlG incorrectly known as the Crimean ). In 1855 a talented British gunnery officer, Captain Cowper Phipps Coles, had designed ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news built a'cupola' un a raft improvised from casks ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news planking. Named the Lady Nancy, the gun raft could be rotated to give all-round fire, She proved a great success in the bombardment ofTaganrog in the Sea of Azov, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news Coles patented his invention four years later.
Within six months the Admiralty ordered a prototype turret, which was installed in the floating battery Trusty in September 18fi1.Thc trials were so successful that the Admiralty ordered an iron-hulled coast defence ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering armed with four turrets, the Prince Albert, in February 1 862. Two months later a conversion from a wooden ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering of the line, the Royal Sor'creiXn, was ordered to provide a comparison.
The Admiralty was impressd by the performance of the two coast-defence turret ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineerings ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news by the capabilities of the USS Monitor, but recognised that an oceangoing ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering was needed to meet the Royal Navy's worldwide commitments- But the technology available created a number of major problems. Fuel consumption was still too heavy to pert}vt a battleship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering to cross the Atlantic under steam alone, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news this dictated the retention of masts ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news rigging.The Chief Constructor of the Navy, Sir Edd Reed, insisted that the upper deck of a fully rigged ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering was not a suitable site for a turret. Coles chose to ignore such objections, proposing in 1859 a rigged ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering with ten turrets, a project which impressed credulous commentators but merely evoked scorn from the Chief Constructor's staff.
Both Reed ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news Coles were opinionated mcn, but Reed enjoyed the prestige of being the country's most distinguished naval architect, whereas Coles was so obsessed with his `big idea' that he refused to be deflected by such side issues as physics ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news hydrodynamics. In this he was one of a long line of promoters who believed they knew more about ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering-desigtt than the professionals. What is worse, they lobby the media ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news politicians, two groups not known for their insights into high technology. Naval officers are particularly fond of drawing up'paper designs' ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news then accusing qualified designers of being reactionaries for raising practical 6bjections.
Coles was given permission to prepare a rigged two-turret ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering, with the help of a constructor, but work was stopped to allow the Royal Sovrrei;Yn to be evaluated. He tried again in 1864 with a single turret design, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news once again the Admiralty provided technical help in the form of the Chief Draughtsman at Portsmouth Dockyard. Early the following year the Admiralty set Lip a committee to 'obtain the unbiased opinion of practical naval officers'. Coles demship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines newsed thetative, but he declined both offers ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news refused even to submit questions to the committee.
The committee concluded that the turret must be adopted, but did not favour Coles's single turret ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering because of its poor arcs of Eire.What was recommended was a two-turret design with two 12-ton (9in) guns iii each, or a single 22-ton (12in) gun, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news the Admiralty decided to build a ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering which broadly met the committee's recommendations. This was HMS Mviiarch. armed with two turrets containing a pair of 25-ton (12in) rifled muzzlcloadrrs each, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news fully rigged. Reed did not like the idea of combining turrets with a full ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering-rig, although he added some features intended to alleviate the problems.
Coles was not at all happy with the design of the Ilamrck, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news lobbied for a design incorporating his own ideas of low tcrrboard. ills views were expressed vociferously in public, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news amounted to venomous personal attacks on the Controller, Sir Spencer Robinson, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news his department. Coles' consultancy was cancelled in January 1866 because of these attacks, but when he climbed down, saying he had been misunderstood, he was reinstated. The Board was by now fed up with Coles ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news told him on 24 April that the features of the Monarch to which he took exception were there at the request of the Board, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news there was no point in further discussions. E he aggrieved inventor now turned to his friends in the press ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news Parliament, demship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines newsing the right to build a turret ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering to his own design.As a result of intensive lobbying the Admiralty was forced to agree to fund a second turret ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering, its building supervised by Coles. On 8 May 1866 he told the Admiralty that he had selected Laird Brothers' Merseyside yard, successful builders of iron ship headlinesping maritime marine engineerings. By nud July Lairds submitted two designs, one with twin shafts ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news one with a single shaft. Six days later Reed commented that the design seemed 'well considered ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news well contrived', provided 'we take (or granted that the deck is high enough'. He accepted a freeboard of 8ft, but Spencer Robinson thought it was too low.Thc First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir John Pakington, however, told Coles that he approved the building of the ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering, on the understship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines newsing that responsibility was shared entirely between him ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news Lairds.
The formal contract prepared in November 1866 took account of Coles's illness by substituting the words'Controller of the Navy' for Coles's name throughout. Reed, on the other hship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news, regarded Lairds as having full responsibility, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news told his stiff to mark all drawings as'No objection is seen', rather than the normal 'Approved'. But the design of a ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering does not lend itself to such split responsibility, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news Spencer Robinson should have seen the danger. (Reed should also have admitted the risks inherent in building a low-freeboard, fully rigged turret ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering.)
Lairds seem to have assumed an adequate margin of stability, but in fact the height of the centre of gravity of the Captain in load condition rose from an estimated 21 ft 6in in 1866 to a calculated 22ft 3in in 1870, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news an inclining experiment verified this latter figure. The builders chose to ignore Reed's misgivings, for which they must be blamed. Reed's assistant Barnaby also reported that excessive weights, up to 8601bs, were being taken on board. Modern experience suggests that this discrepancy may have been caused by an error in the original calculations, but either way, it reflects on the design abilities of the builders.
After launch the ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering's condition ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news draught of water were checked, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news she was found to be 735 tons overweight ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news floating 22in deeper than predicted. Her freeboard turned out to be only 6ft 7in, not the 8ft planned, but still no alarm bells rang. She was a novel ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news her characteristics were not yet fully understood.
HMS Captain was completed in March 1870 ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news immediately won high praise from Coles's supporters for her performance during competitive trials against her rival HMS Monarch, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news on her first commission in the Channel Fleet. When she returned to Portsmouth in July that year, at the end of her second commission she seemed to justify all her admirers' hopes, but one of Reed's staff then conducted an inclining experiment. This showed that the righting moment-the point beyond which the ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering was bound to capsize-was 20 degrees.The righting moment fell away as soon as the deck-edge became immersed.
The fleet was exercising in heavy weather off Cape Finisterre on the night of 6 September 1870. Admiral Sir Archibald Milne, the Commship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines newser-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, had
- visited the Captain that afternoon, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news saw that the sea was washing over the lee of the upper deck, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news that the deck-edge was under water at 14 degrees. When the wind speed rose during the evening, orders were given to take in sail, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news at midnight, when a fierce squall blew up, Captain Burgoyne ordered the topsail halyards to be cut. Before this could be done the Captain heeled over ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news sank, taking with her all but 18 of her crew, out of a total of 490, including Captain Cowper Coles ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news Captain Burgoyne.
Burgoyne had come on deck ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news took charge of the frantic efforts to reduce the effect of the wind, having reached the bridge'scantily dressed' in spite of the rain. He gave a rapid succession of orders, one of which was to tell the officer of the watch to check the angle of heel on the ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering's clinometec'This was showing 18 degrees, not an alarming heel in other big ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineerings, ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime live ship headlines news it suggests that Burgoyne had begun to doubt in the stability of his ship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineering. The senior midship headlines ship headlinesping maritime marine engineeringman had mustered the relieving watch on the forecastle, when the squall struck the fleet. The
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