HMS Captain 1870         

During his years on half-pay, Captain Coles used all means possible to attack the reluctance of the Board of the Admiralty and its Chief Constructor, E.J. Reed, to wholeheartedly take on board his proposals for full sea-going large vessels. He had many useful contacts, including MPs and the First Lord of the Admiralty, Hugh Childers. He wrote many letters to the London Times, describing his plans, and the frustrating attitude of the Board of the Admiralty and Reed.

He was severely critical of Reed’s “half-hearted” design for a turret ship (HMS Monarch), and in particular what he saw as an unnecessarily high freeboard of 14 feet.

Finally, perhaps hoping for some respite, in 1866 The Board of the Admiralty asked him to submit his own design, in conjunction with a shipbuilder. He chose to work with Lairds of Birkenhead, and produced a design for a ship with just 8 feet freeboard, to be called     HMS Captain.

The design was criticized by Reed, not for the last time, who thought the weights allowed for in the design were on the low side, and was concerned about the ship “proving to be too deeply immersed”. Reed was also concerned about the centre of gravity of the vessel being higher than expected, which would cause problems “especially as it is proposed to spread a large surface of canvas upon the Captain”.

Nevertheless, the contract for the construction was signed on 4th March 1867.When  HMS Captain was floated out two years later on the 27th March 1869, however, Reed was immediately shown to be right.

F.K.Barnes, Assistant Constructor, reported to Reed that HMS Captain exceeded the design weight by 427 tons, and would be 13” deeper in the water than planned. Reed passed the report on to the Board of the Admiralty, adding that if the Admiralty required a crew of 500 (not Coles’s estimate of 400), the additional weight would sink the ship further to just 6’ 9½” freeboard. Reed branded the Captain as "utterly unsafe". 

In February 1870, Lairds suggested that the Captain be inclined to locate her centre of gravity; Reed recommended postponement until the weather improved and her steam trials completed.

After initial trials in March 1870, Barnes reported again saying the ship was at least 22” lower than designed, giving a freeboard of 6’ 2”, and asked the question “whether the ship should be accepted in that condition”. He was also concerned that the masts were unusually high. (D K Brown, in his book `Warrior to Dreadnought' (Chatham Publishing, 1997) states that when completed, she was 735 tons heavy, with an eventual freeboard of just 6ft 7in.)

But HMS Captain was commissioned in Portsmouth on 30th April 1870, and immediately brought on thoughts of bad omens when the ensign was hoisted upside down.

After initial steam trials, in which her speed over a measured mile gave a very satisfactory result, in May 1870, HMS Captain sailed to join the fleet, and sailed satisfactorily through a strong gale with long heavy seas. However, problems with the propeller made another trial desirable. (Seaman F Robinson’s letters imply that all was not well with the rigging - see elsewhere)

(An optimistic "eyewitness" report of the May 1870 trials was published in the weekly newspaper The Graphic a month after the disaster, and a transcription is attached)

In July, she sailed to Vigo, Spain and back, again satisfactorily. 

On the 23rd July the inclining experiment was carried out. The subsequent report dated 23rd August calculated that the Captain was unstable when light, but this could be corrected by taking water into the double bottom.

However, the calculations were based on the forecastle and poop having been destroyed, and Vice Admiral Sir Spencer Robinson asked that the calculations be re-done. No problems were anticipated, however, provided that the warning on the risk of carrying sail on a ship of her lowness that had already been given by her designers were born in mind.

But Barnes also reported on the likelihood that the ship already well heeled over could be perilously close to her limit of safety if also hit by a gust of wind.