The following is a contemporary description of the Captain, as published in The Graphic, on March 19th, 1870.

THE " CAPTAIN"   TURRET SHIP

The Captain, commanded by H.T.Burgoyne, V.C., twin-screw ironclad, designed and built by Messrs. Laird Brothers, of Birkenhead, on Captain Cowper Coles' turret principle, is named after the old Captain, 74 guns, which was commanded by Nelson, at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, on the 14th of February, 1797, from which he boarded and took the San Joseph, 112 guns, and the Nicholas, 84 guns.

The old Captain was what was called a 74 gun 24 pounder ship of 1880 tons burden, carrying four 32-pounder carronades on the upper deck, the rest of her guns being 24, 18, and 9 pounders ; whilst the Captain of to-day carries only 6 guns, four of which are 6oo-pounders, weighing 25 tons each, from which it may be gathered that one of her 6oo-lbs. shot weighs as much as one broad­side thrown by the old Captain; in number of men, however, the old ship had the advan­tage, her complement being 674 against the new Captain’s 500 men.

In April, 1866, the Admiralty having sub­mitted the names of seven ship-building firms to Captain Coles, that gentleman selected Messrs. Laird Brothers, and in conjunction with them prepared the drawings, which were approved by the Admiralty, for a sea­going turret cruiser, showing the application of his invention to this class of vessel, and after these designs the new Captain has been constructed, the contract having been signed in February, 1867.

The vessel is built in five water-tight com­partments, each turret, of which there are two, having a compartment to itself, con­taining its engine, magazine, and shot and shell complete. The hull itself is plated with 7 inches of armour, on .a 12-inch back­ing of East Indian teak, and an inner skin of 1½ inch iron ; for about 40 ft. abreast of each turret the armour plating is 8 inches thick. The main deck is also protected, having a plating of 1 inch and 1½ -inch iron, covered with 6-inch oak planking.

The turrets, the most important part of the vessel, measure 27 ft. in diameter externally, 22 ft. 6 in. internally, and are plated with thicknesses of 9 and 10 inches of iron. These turrets will each carry two 6oo-pounder 25-ton guns, and the armament will be completed  by two 7-inch  6½-ton chase guns, mounted respectively in the poop   and   forecastle. The turret guns are mounted on iron carriages and slides made on Captain Coles' plan, with the addition of Col. Clerk's Hydraulic Compressor. The slides, which are also of iron, on  the lowering and raising system  invented by Captain Coles for giving extreme elevation, with a mini­mum   porthole, were con­structed by Messrs. Laird Brothers, and are worked by a neat arrangement of two hydraulic rams.

The turrets are supported by a strong girder on the lower deck, and revolve on a series of rollers, being kept  in position by a solid wrought iron central spindle, securely fixed in the lower deck, and passing down to the orlop-deck ; both steam and hand gear are fitted to the turrets, the former can be worked either by the captain of the turret when taking aim, or by a lever on the orlop-deck, the turret making a complete revolution in half a minute, thus enabling the guns to be brought to bear with great rapidity, or the port turned away from the enemy's fire when loading.

A spar or upper deck 24 feet broad connects the poop and forecastle, so that the whole of the ropes are worked, boats stowed, anchors catted and fished, and all work con­nected with navigating and sailing the ship carried on upon this deck without in any way interfering with the working and fighting of the turrets.

She is fully rigged with Captain Cole's tripod masts, spreading a large area of can­vas, 33,000 square feet under all plain sail, being as much as any first-rate three-decker.

The ship's company and gene­ral accommodation is on the lower deck, very similar to that of an old frigate, with the exception of the captain’s cabin and those of the superior officers, which are under the poop. The forecastle is utilised for working the cables, sick-bay,' seamen's berths, wash-places, &c., and all has the appearance of good ventilation and great comfort. She has a roomy pilot­house coming above the spar deck, from which a good view is obtained, so that the ship can be conned from it and taken into very close action, the fighting-wheel being underneath it, and there being a complete system for communicating orders to all parts of the ship both from the pilot-house and bridge by means of Messrs. Weir and Co.'s Patent Atmospheric Telegraph tubes.

In addition to her heavy gun armament the Captain is armed with a formidable wrought-iron stem, which does not, however, attain the proportions of a " beak," although it is prolonged quite far enough to do effec­tive service. In place of the hinged bulwarks that were fitted to previously built turret ships, the Captain has simple iron stanchions with ridge ropes which are allowed to fall into a gutter on the main-deck on going into action. On the upper deck, however, there are standing bulwarks where the hammocks are stowed, making a rampart for riflemen; and on this deck also are rocket tubes fitted with Commander Fisher's stands.

The following are the dimensions of the vessel:—Length over all, 335 ft.; between perpendiculars, 320 ft; breadth extreme, 53 ft. 3 in.; tonnage, 4,272 tons. The en­gines are two separate pairs of 900 collective horse power, driving twin screws, and will work up to 5,400 indicated horse power. They are double trunk engines, each pair driving a separate two-bladed screw pro­peller 17 ft. in diameter.

It has been stated that the Captain has been built in competition with the Monarch, but this is an error. The vessel with which she is really intended to compete is the BelIerophon, of the same tonnage, 4,272 tons, while the Monarch has a tonnage of 5,102 tons, and could not therefore be fairly com­pared with this new ship, the representative of Captain Coles's principle.