HMS ''Captain'' was a major warship built for the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
as a semi-private venture, following a dispute between the designer and the Admiralty. With wrought-iron armour, steam propulsion, and
the main battery mounted in rotating armoured turrets, the ship was, at first appearance, quite innovative and formidable. However, poor design and design changes resulted in a vessel that was overweight and ultimately
unstable
In numerous fields of study, the component of instability within a system is generally characterized by some of the outputs or internal states growing without bounds. Not all systems that are not stable are unstable; systems can also be mar ...
. In terms of seaworthiness she was reported as closely comparable to the higher freeboard turret-ship HMS ''
Monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
'', but her reduced freeboard added a sense of "sluggishness". The ''Captain'' capsized in heavy seas, only five months after being commissioned, with the loss of nearly 500 lives.
Background
![Lady nancy taganrog](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Lady_nancy_taganrog.jpg)
The history of the ''Captain'' can be traced back to the
Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
and the experiences of British captain
Cowper Phipps Coles
Captain Cowper Phipps Coles, C.B., R.N. (1819 – 7 September 1870), was an English naval captain with the Royal Navy. Coles was also an inventor; in 1859, he was the first to patent a design for a revolving gun turret. Upon appealing for publi ...
in 1855. Coles and a group of British sailors constructed a
raft
A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrel ...
with guns protected by a "cupola" and used the raft, named the ''Lady Nancy'', to
shell the Russian town of Taganrog on the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
. The ''Lady Nancy'' "proved a great success",
[Preston 2002, p. 21.] and Coles patented his rotating turret after the war. Following Coles' patenting, the British Admiralty ordered a
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
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
In the rating system of the British Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a first rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era
The Jacobean era was the period in English and Scot ...
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
armour plate
Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fight ...
on the hull. The ''Royal Sovereign'' had five 10.5-inch, 12.5-ton guns in one twin and three single turrets.
[Brown 2003, pp. 42–44.]
Both ships were
flush deck
Flush deck is a term in naval architecture. It can refer to any deck of a ship which is continuous from stem to stern.
History
The flush deck design originated with rice ships built in Bengal Subah, Mughal India (modern Bangladesh), resulting i ...
with only a
jury rig
In maritime transport terms, and most commonly in sailing, jury-rigged is an adjective, a noun, and a verb. It can describe the actions of temporary makeshift running repairs made with only the tools and materials on board; and the subsequent r ...
, 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.
In early 1863 the Admiralty gave Coles permission to work with
Nathaniel Barnaby
Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, (25 February 1829 – 16 June 1915) was Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1872 to 1885.
Biography
Born on 25 February 1829 in Chatham, Barnaby began his career as a naval apprentice at Sheerness in 1843. He won a ...
, head of staff of the Department of Naval Construction, on the design of a rigged vessel with two turrets and three tripod masts. In June 1863 the Admiralty suspended progress on the vessel until the
''Royal Sovereign'' finished her trials.
In 1864, Coles was allowed to start a second project: a rigged vessel with only one turret and based on the design of
HMS ''Pallas''. He was lent the services of Joseph Scullard, Chief
Draughtsman A draughtsman (British spelling) or draftsman (American spelling) may refer to:
* An architectural drafter, who produced architectural drawings until the late 20th century
* An artist who produces drawings that rival or surpass their other types ...
of
Portsmouth Dockyard
His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is l ...
.
[Brown 2003, p. 44.]
The next year, 1865, a committee established by the Admiralty to study the new design concluded that while the turret should be adopted, Coles' one-turret warship design had inadequate fire arcs.
[Preston 2002, p. 22.] The committee proposed a two-turret fully rigged vessel with either two 9-inch ''(12 ton)'' guns per turret, or one 12-inch ''(22 ton)'' gun per turret. The committee's proposal was accepted by the Admiralty, and construction was started on ''
Monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
''. ''Monarch's'' two turrets were each equipped with two 12-inch ''(25-ton)'' guns.
![Grey Minute](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Grey_Minute.jpg)
Stunned by the committee's decision to cancel his single-turret ship and his proposal for a two-turret vessel, and objecting to the ''Monarch's'' design, Coles launched a strong campaign against the project, attacking Vice Admiral
Robert Spencer Robinson
Admiral Sir Robert Spencer Robinson, (6 January 1809 – 27 July 1889) was a British naval officer, who served as two five-year terms as Controller of the Navy from February 1861 to February 1871, and was therefore responsible for the procuremen ...
, Controller of the Navy, and various other members of the committee and the Admiralty. So vociferously did Coles complain that in January 1866 his contract as a consultant to the Admiralty was terminated. At the end of January, his protestations that he had been misunderstood led to his being re-employed from 1 March 1866.
[Brown 2003, p. 47.] Further, Coles lobbied the press and Parliament, who were increasingly convinced that foreign powers--namely the United States--were pressing ahead with turret ships and thereby leaving Britain at a disadvantage at sea. On 17 April 1866, Coles submitted to the Admiralty his critique of the proposed ''Monarch'' (designed by the Controller's department and the Chief Constructor), stating that he could not publicly endorse a vessel which did not represent "my views of a sea going Turret-ship, nor can she give my principle a satisfactory and conclusive trial." Sensing that such an increasingly acrimonious and high-profile debate would only continue, the First Naval Lord,
Admiral Sir Frederick Grey, minuted four days later (21 April) that Coles should at last be allowed to build what he felt would be a 'perfect' seagoing turret-ship.
Design and construction
On 8 May 1866, Coles informed the Admiralty of his selection of
Laird Brothers
Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...
'
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
yard, for the builder of the warship. The Cheshire yard had already built several successful iron warships. In mid-July, Lairds submitted two possible designs for Coles' proposed turret-ship.
[Preston 2002, p. 23.] To prevent the rigging from being damaged when the guns fired through it, it was attached to a platform mounted above the gun turrets known as the
hurricane deck instead of brought down to the main deck.
Tripod mast
The tripod mast is a type of mast used on warships from the Edwardian era onwards, replacing the pole mast. Tripod masts are distinctive using two large (usually cylindrical) support columns spread out at angles to brace another (usually vertica ...
s were also used to minimise
standing rigging
Standing rigging comprises the fixed lines, wires, or rods, which support each mast or bowsprit on a sailing vessel and reinforce those spars against wind loads transferred from the sails. This term is used in contrast to running rigging, whic ...
.
[Chesneau and Kolesnik 1979, p. 21.]
![HMS Captain at Chatham 1869](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/HMS_Captain_at_Chatham_1869.jpg)
The design called for the ship to have a low freeboard, and Coles' figures estimated it at . Both the Controller and the Chief Constructor
Edward James Reed
Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (20 September 1830 – 30 November 1906) was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. He was a Liberal politician ...
raised serious concerns. Robinson noted that the low freeboard could cause flooding issues on the
gun deck
The term gun deck used to refer to a deck aboard a ship that was primarily used for the mounting of cannon to be fired in broadsides. The term is generally applied to decks enclosed under a roof; smaller and unrated vessels carried their guns o ...
, and Reed criticised the design in 1866 both for being too heavy and for having too high a
centre of gravity
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...
. On the latter, Reed noted that it would cause issues "especially as it is proposed to spread a large surface of canvas upon the ''Captain''". As the design neared completion, the First Lord of the Admiralty,
Sir John Pakington, wrote on 23 July 1866 to Coles approving the building of the ship, but noting that responsibility for failure would lie on Coles' and the builders' lap.
[Brown 2003, pp. 47–48.]
In November 1866, the contract for HMS ''Captain'' was approved,
and the design was finished. She was laid down 30 January 1867 at Laird's yard at
Birkenhead
Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...
, England, launched 27 March 1869
and completed in March 1870.
[Preston 2002, p. 24.]
Insufficient supervision during the building, owing partly to Coles' protracted illness, meant that she was heavier than planned.
[HMS ''Captain'']
/ref> The designed freeboard was just , and the additional weight forced her to float deeper than expected, bringing the freeboard down to just . This compares with for the two-turret ''Monarch''.[
] The centre of gravity of the vessel also rose by about ten inches during construction. Reed raised havoc over the problems with the freeboard and the centre of gravity, but his objections were over-ruled during the ''Captain's'' trials.[
She was commissioned on 30 April 1870 under Captain ]Hugh Talbot Burgoyne
Captain Hugh Talbot Burgoyne VC (17 July 1833 – 7 September 1870) was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross. Born in Dublin, he was the son of John Fox Burgoyne and the grandson of John Burgoyne.
Burgoyne was a 21-year-old Royal Navy ...
, VC. During trials in the following months, the ''Captain'' seemed to be everything that Coles promised and won over many followers. In trials versus the ''Monarch'', she performed well and returned to sea in July and August, travelling to Vigo
Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...
, Spain, and Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
in separate runs.
Gunnery trials
A trial was undertaken in 1870 to compare the accuracy and rate of fire of turret-mounted heavy guns with those in a centre-battery ship. The target was a long, high rock off Vigo
Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...
. The speed of the ships was ("some accounts say stationary").[ Each ship fired for five minutes, with the guns starting "loaded and very carefully trained".][ The guns fired Palliser shells with battering charges at a range of about .][ Three out of the ''Captain's'' four hits were achieved with the first salvo; firing this salvo caused the ship to roll heavily (±20°); smoke from firing made aiming difficult.][ Note that the ''Captain'' could be expected to capsize if inclined 21°.][An ]inclining test
An inclining test is a test performed on a ship to determine its stability, lightship weight and the coordinates of its center of gravity. The test is applied to newly constructed ships greater than 24m in length, and to ships altered in ways that ...
at Portsmouth conducted on 29 July 1870 suggested that the ''Captain's'' extreme heel with safety in smooth water was 15°-16°; calculations completed by 23 August 1870 showed that her danger angle was 21°, as had been predicted by Lairds in January or February 1870.
The ''Monarch'' and the ''Hercules'' also did better with their first salvo, were inconvenienced by the smoke of firing, and to a lesser extent were caused to roll by firing.[ On the ''Hercules'' the gunsights were on the guns, and this worked better than the turret roof gunsights used by the other ships.][
]
Sinking
On the afternoon of 6 September 1870 ''Captain'' was cruising with the combined Mediterranean and Channel Squadrons comprising 11 ships off Cape Finisterre
Cape Finisterre (, also ; gl, Cabo Fisterra, italic=no ; es, Cabo Finisterre, italic=no ) is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain.
In Roman times it was believed to be an end of the known world. The name Finisterre, like ...
. The ship made 9.5 knots under sail in a force six wind, which was increasing through the day. The commander in chief, Admiral Sir Alexander Milne,
was on board to see her performance, and speed had risen to 11–13 knots before he departed. Not being accustomed to ships with such low freeboard, he was disturbed to note that at this speed with the strengthening sea, waves washed over the weather deck. The weather worsened with rain as the night progressed, and the number of sails was reduced. The wind was blowing from the port bow so that sails had to be angled to the wind, speed was much reduced, and there was considerable force pushing the ship sideways. As the wind rose to a gale, sail was reduced to only the fore staysail and fore and main topsails.
Shortly after midnight when a new watch came on duty, the ship was heeling over 18 degrees and was felt to lurch to starboard twice. By then other ships in the combined squadron reported winds of Force 9 to 11 (on the Beaufort scale
The Beaufort scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land. Its full name is the Beaufort wind force scale.
History
The scale was devised in 1805 by the Irish hydrographer Francis Beaufort ...
, 60 knots) with fifty-foot waves. Orders were given to drop the fore topsail and release sheets (ropes) holding both topsails angled into the wind. Before the captain's order could be carried out, the roll increased, and she capsized and sank with the loss of around 472 lives, including Coles'. The First Lord of the Admiralty
The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...
, Hugh Childers
Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (25 June 1827 – 29 January 1896) was a British Liberal statesman of the nineteenth century. He is perhaps best known for his reform efforts at the Admiralty and the War Office. Later in his career, as Chancellor ...
, and Under-Secretary of State for War
The position of Under-Secretary of State for War was a British government position, first applied to Evan Nepean (appointed in 1794). In 1801 the offices for War and the Colonies were merged and the post became that of Under-Secretary of State for ...
, Thomas Baring, both lost sons in the disaster. Only 18 of the crew survived, many by making it to a boat which had broken free.
Court-martial
The subsequent investigation on the loss of ''Captain'', in the form of a court-martial
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
,[Brown 2003, p. 51.] under Sir James Hope, took place on board HMS ''Duke of Wellington'', in Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
Harbour. It was somewhat of a departure for the Admiralty to seek scientific advice, but eminent engineers William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and William John Macquorn Rankine
William John Macquorn Rankine (; 5 July 1820 – 24 December 1872) was a Scottish mechanical engineer who also contributed to civil engineering, physics and mathematics. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson ( ...
were appointed to the enquiry. It concluded that the ship was insufficiently stable: at 14 degrees heel (when the edge of the deck touched the sea) the righting moment
The metacentric height (GM) is a measurement of the initial static stability of a floating body. It is calculated as the distance between the centre of gravity of a ship and its metacentre. A larger metacentric height implies greater initial stab ...
due to the buoyancy pushing the ship upright again was just 410-foot-tons (1.2 MN·m). HMS ''Monarch'', the masted turret ship proposed by the 1865 committee and designed by Reed, and which was in the area at the time of the sinking, had a righting moment of 6,500-foot-tons (20 MN·m) at the same angle. Maximum righting moment occurred at a heel of 21 degrees, and thereafter declined to zero at 54.5 degrees. ''Monarch's'' righting moment increased to a maximum at 40 degrees. Survivors testified that the ''Captain'' floated upside down for between three and ten minutes, which proved that the ship had capsized.[ An ]inclining test
An inclining test is a test performed on a ship to determine its stability, lightship weight and the coordinates of its center of gravity. The test is applied to newly constructed ships greater than 24m in length, and to ships altered in ways that ...
had been carried out at Portsmouth on 29 July 1870 to allow the ship's stability characteristics to be calculated. ''Captain'' set sail on the ship's final voyage before the results of the trial were published.[Brown 2003, p. 50.]
The inquiry concluded that "the ''Captain'' was built in deference to public opinion expressed in Parliament and through other channels, and in opposition to views and opinions of the Controller and his Department".
This was a stunning (and unprecedented) rebuke of the mid-Victorian British public. For years they had demanded that Coles be allowed to produce a super-ironclad--armed with turrets--which could restore confidence in the primacy of the Royal Navy in a way which neither broadside ironclads like the partially-armoured HMS ''Warrior'' nor Reed's central-battery versions seemed able to. Coles fatally added the requirement that a fully-rigged, seagoing turret-ship like HMS ''Monarch'' also be as low in the water as possible, like the low-freeboard (though mastless) American monitor USS ''Miantonomoh''; which had crossed the Atlantic under escort in June 1866, and which both Coles and the Board of Admiralty toured when she was anchored at Spithead.
Memorials
There are memorials to the crew in St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
, Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
, London, and St Anne's church in Portsmouth.
The conclusion of the 1870 Court Martial is engraved on the Memorial to HMS ''Captain'', in the north aisle of St Paul’s Cathedral:
:''Before the'' Captain ''was received from her contractors a grave departure from her original design had been committed whereby her draught of water was increased about two feet and her freeboard was diminished to a corresponding extent, and that her stability proved to be dangerously small, combined with an area of sail, under those circumstances, excessive. The Court deeply regret that if these facts were duly known and appreciated, they were not communicated to the officer in command of the ship, or that, if otherwise, the ship was allowed to be employed in the ordinary service of the Fleet before they had been ascertained by calculation and experience.''
Hunt for the wreck of HMS ''Captain''
In 202
Dr. Howard Fuller
a Reader in War Studies at the University of Wolverhampton
The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mech ...
, initiated
Find the ''Captain''
project. This aims to raise funds in an effort to discover the wreck of the ''Captain'', whose sinking was the worst disaster suffered by the Royal Navy in the ' ''Pax Britannica''' era. In company with a Galician-based documentary company, four wrecks were discovered by multibeam echosounder-scan off Cape Finisterre, Spain on 30 August 2022. The fourth wreck has a general configuration and dimensions closely corresponding with HMS ''Captain'''s. A follow-up expedition to deploy a ROV for positive visual identification is planned for 2023.
See also
* HMS ''Serpent'': another Royal Navy ship sunk off the Galician coast in 1890
Notes
References
* Archibald, E.H.H.; Ray Woodward (ill.) (1971). ''The Metal Fighting Ship in the Royal Navy 1860–1970''. New York: Arco Publishing Co.. .
* Ballard, Admiral G.A. ''The Black Battlefleet'', published Nautical Publications Co. and Society for Nautical Research, 1980.
* Brown, D.K. ''Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Development 1860–1905''. London: Caxton Editions, 2003. .
* Chesneau, Roger and Eugene M Kolesnik. ''Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1860–1905''. London: Conway Maritime Press, 1979. .
* Fuller, Howard J. ''Turret versus Broadside: An Anatomy of British Naval Prestige, Revolution and Disaster, 1860-1870''. Warwick: Helion & Company, 2020. .
* Padfield, Peter, ''The Battleship Era''. London: The military book society, 1972.
* Preston, Antony. ''The World's Worst Warships''. London: Conway Maritime Press, 2002. .
* Sandler, Stanley "The Emergence of the Modern Capital Ship" London, Newark, Del., 1979. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Captain (1869)
Battleships of the Royal Navy
Ships built on the River Mersey
1869 ships
Victorian-era battleships of the United Kingdom
Engineering failures
Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Maritime incidents in September 1870
Maritime incidents in Spain
Maritime disasters