Captain Cowper Phipps Coles - the designer of HMS Captain
Captain Coles was a naval man through and through. Born in 1819, he
was commissioned in 1838, and had a fairly straightforward career.
Serving in the war against Russia in the 1850s, Coles became convinced of the usefulness of low-lying, shallow draught fighting ships. He produced one very successful raft from available materials on his ship, floated inland and attacked Russian shore establishments.
Much interest in this feat was shown by the Naval establishment, and he produced a model for a much larger raft. He was thwarted, however by the onset of peace in 1855, when he was laid off on half pay. His ideas for shallow draught, close inshore ships were then, for many years, ignored by the navy.
In 1856 Coles married Emily Pearson, the marriage
producing three girls and six boys.
By 1859 he was also interested in developing shielded turntable guns for larger ships, on the basis that they would be far more flexible in use than the centuries-old system of fixed lines of cannon down the sides of ships, firing broadsides. Whilst he was getting nowhere with the Admiralty with his ideas (amongst other things, it was thought that the rigging would get in the way), he did manage to convince Prince Albert whilst at Osborne on the Isle of Wight.
Prince Albert encouraged the construction of a Coles turret gun, which was installed in a floating battery. The turret was subject to a bombardment, and despite being hit 33 times, was virtually undamaged.
Now the Admiralty did agree to a ship being built with Coles’ turrets, but to Coles’ chagrin, not the large sea going cruiser he wanted, but a small coastal defence ship. The
Prince Albert was commenced in 1862, completed in 1866, and served the navy for 33 years.
Meanwhile, Coles continued to harass the Admiralty with his ideas for larger ships.
(Picture
thanks to Carole Hollow)
HMS Captain
1870
