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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. ==Background== 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",〔Preston 2002, p. 21.〕 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 armour plate 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 with only a jury rig, and could only operate as coastal service vessels.〔This kind of vessel is often referred to as a ''coast defence ship'', some argue there was nothing defensive about the role intended for ''Royal Sovereign'' – she was intended for attack for enemy ports such as Cherbourg But there is little evidence to support this claim. Coles himself envisaged a fleet of such vessels replacing three-decker ships-of-the-line (of which Royal Sovereign was the prototype) and 'blockships' for coast defence first and possibly as alternatives to sea-going ironclads like HMS Warrior second. Few at the Admiralty seriously considered the idea of trusting turret-ships against the multi-layered, modern coastal defences networks of 1st-class naval arsenals such as Cherbourg or Cronstadt or even New York Harbor. Royal Sovereign drew too much water, had a slow rate of fire and relatively high-profile compared with American turret varieties (the monitors) which themselves failed to blast their way into Charleston harbor in 1863.〕 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, 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 of Portsmouth Dockyard.〔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''. ''Monarch's'' two turrets were each equipped with two 12-inch ''(25-ton)'' guns. 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 Robert Spencer Robinson, 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 and was eventually able to force the Admiralty to allow him to build his own two-turret design. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Captain (1869)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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