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THE TURRET-SHIPS MONARCH AND CAPTAIN 
By S. J. MACKIE, C.E. 
[PLATE LX.] 
TTJ ITHIN the last few months considerable attention has been 
T? attracted to the subject of sea-going rigged turret-ships, 
and the performances of the first two vessels worthy this title — 
the Monarch and the Captain — have been viewed with the 
greatest interest. There were, it is true, previously in our 
navy several turret-ships, but of these the Royal Sovereign and 
the Prince Albert had scarcely any pretensions to sail power, 
being really coast-defence vessels : while the Scorpion and 
Wyvern , the famous Birkenhead rams, although masted and 
rigged, could not be trusted at sea without a convoy. The latter 
vessels, it will be remembered, were purchased in 1865 from 
their builders, Messrs. Laird : and soon afterwards, in the early 
part of January 1866, the Admiralty ordered the Monarch. The 
Captain was commenced about a year later. Both the vessels 
are now completed, the Monarch having been in active service 
for some months ; the Captain is almost ready for sea, and has 
been tried at the measured mile, besides making the passage 
from Birkenhead to Portsmouth. It will be interesting, there- 
fore, to compare the principal features of these two fine vessels, 
as they have little in common beyond the turret armament, and 
as so much has been said at various times respecting the advan- 
tages and disadvantages of the two types they represent. 
The Monarch represents the high freeboard type of turret- 
ship, and was designed at the Admiralty by Mr. E. J. Reed, 
the chief constructor of the navy ; the Captain represents the 
low freeboard type, and, as is well known, was designed by the 
Messrs. Laird, under the direction of Captain Coles, the Ad- 
miralty having thus put into the hands of that gentleman the 
power of giving the fullest expression to his ideas — a power for 
which he had often asked. Under these circumstances, the 
Monarch must be regarded as the Admiralty model for a rigged 
turret-ship ; and the Captain as Captain Coles’ model vessel, he 
