“The most cursory consideration of the subject will, I think, result in the feeling that the middle of the upper deck of a full-rigged ship is not a very eligible position for fighting large guns. Anyone who has stood upon the deck of a frigate, amid the maze of ropes of all kinds and sizes that surrounds him, must feel that to bring even guns of moderate size away from the port holes, to place them in the midst of these ropes, and discharge them there, is utterly out of the question; and the impracticability of that mode of proceeding must increase in proportion as the size and power of the guns are increased. But as a central position, or a nearly central position, is requisite for the turret, this difficulty has had to be met by many devices, some of them tending to reduce the number of the ropes, and others to get them stopped short above the guns. In the former category come tripod masts; in the latter, flying-decks over the turrets; the former have proved successful in getting rid of shrouds, but they interfere seriously with the fire of the turret guns, and are exposed to the danger of being shot away by them in the smoke of action; the latter are under trial, but however successful they may prove in some respects, they will be very inferior in point of comfort and convenience to the upper decks of broadside frigates. In the case of the _Monarch_, which has a lofty upper deck, neither a tripod system nor a flying deck for working the ropes upon has been adopted. A light flying deck to receive a portion of the boats, and to afford a passage for the officers above the turrets, has been fitted; but the ropes will be worked upon the upper deck over which the turrets have to fire, and consequently a thousand contrivances have had to be made for keeping both the standing and running rigging tolerably clear of the guns. It seems to me out of the question to suppose that such an arrangement can ever become general in the British Navy, especially when one contrasts the _Monarch_ with the _Hercules_ as a rigged man-of-war. Nor is the matter at all improved, in my opinion, in the case of the _Captain_ and other rigged turret-ships in which the ropes have to be worked upon bridges or flying-decks poised in the air above the turrets. Such bridges or decks, even if they withstand for long the repeated fire of the ship’s own guns, must of necessity be mounted upon a few supports only; and I am apprehensive that in action an enemy’s fire would bring down parts, at least, of these cumbrous structures, with their bitts, blocks, ropes, and the thousand and one other fittings with which a rigged ship’s deck is encumbered, with what result I need not predict.