HMS Captain (1869)
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| History | |
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| Ordered: | November 1866 |
| Builder: | Laird Brothers, Birkenhead |
| Laid down: | 30 January 1867 |
| Launched: | 27 March 1869 |
| Commissioned: | April 1870 |
| Fate: | Sunk; 6 September 1870 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 320 ft (97.54 m) pp |
| Beam: | 53 ft 3 in (16.23 m) |
| Draught: | 24 ft 10 in (7.57 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Sail plan: | Ship rig: 37,990 sq ft (3,529 m2) of sail (max) |
| Speed: | 15.25 kn (28.24 km/h; 17.55 mph) (steam power) |
| Complement: | 500 crewmen and officers |
| Armament: |
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| Armour: |
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HMS Captain was an unsuccessful warship built for the Royal Navy due to public pressure. She was a masted turret ship, designed and built by a private contractor against the wishes of the Controller's department. The Captain was completed in April 1870 and capsized in September 1870 with the loss of nearly 500 lives because of design and construction errors that led to inadequate stability.
The history of the Captain can be traced back to the Crimean War and the experiences of British captain Cowper Phipps Coles in 1855. Coles and a group of British sailors constructed a raft with guns protected by a 'cupola' and used the raft, named the Lady Nancy, to shell the Russian town of Taganrog in the Black Sea. The Lady Nancy "proved a great success", and Coles patented his rotating turret after the war. Following Coles' patenting, the British Admiralty ordered a prototype of Coles' design in 1859, which was installed in the floating battery vessel, HMS Trusty, for trials in 1861.
The trials with the Trusty impressed the Admiralty, and it ordered a coastal defence vessel, HMS Prince Albert, to be built with four of Coles' turrets and a wooden 121-gun first rate ship-of-the-line under construction, HMS Royal Sovereign, to be converted to a turret ship. The Prince Albert was completed with four turrets mounting single 12-ton 9-inch guns and 4.5-inch-thick (110 mm) armour plate on the hull. The Royal Sovereign had five 10.5-inch, 12.5-ton guns in one twin and three single turrets.
Both ships were flush deck with only a jury rig, and could only operate as coastal service vessels. The Admiralty, although impressed with Coles' rotating turret, required oceangoing vessels to protect its worldwide empire. Unfortunately for Coles, engine technology had not yet caught up with his designs and consequently oceangoing ships required sails. Combining rigging, masts, and turrets proved complicated if rigging was not to impede the turrets' arcs of fire.
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Wikipedia