HMS Captain 1870         

 

Other Publications (cont)
 

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The Loss of the Captain - a letter to the Times by Admiral HJ Rous, reprinted in The Mariner's Mirror (date unknown)

Admiral Rous, in what was described as a refreshing vigorous expression of opinion, says the Court Martial’s verdict should have been `Lost by the officer of the watch not knowing how to shorten sail or to keep his men on deck”. The letter, quite technical in places, is summarised –


 She was notoriously overmasted – twenty two inches deeper in the water than the estimated calculation; consequently she required delicate handling and fine seamanship. But on a dirty night, the Admiral did not generally order his squadron to reduce sail, but allowed the ships’ officers to carry whatever sail they wished.

The Captain was over-sailed and badly rigged (described in detail in technical naval language), and the watch on deck bolted below without being relieved; because of the varying wind behaviour the ship had very little way (i.e. forward motion) and was therefore at the sea’s mercy, and nobody did anything about it.

The Court Martial was summoned to decide – not how the ship was built, but how the ship was lost. Only three questions were necessary:-

1 – Why were no preparations made to shorten sail to meet the threatening squall?

2 – Why were men not stationed by the lee topsail sheets and halyards, according to the custom of every ship of war in respectable discipline, which is, to station men by the sheets and halyards of the first sail to be reduced, even in the finest weather?

3 – Why were the watch on deck allowed to go below before they were relieved, and the deck deserted in the face of the enemy?

So the verdict should have been `Lost by the officer of the watch not knowing how to shorten sail or to keep his men on deck”.

The advent of the steamship is eliminating the skill of seamanship; you cannot train a seaman on a steamship any more than you could on the Bridgewater Canal, and in ten years time the British seamen will be a rare bird among the sailors in the Royal Navy.”

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