“It is well known that both in the _Captain_ and in the _Monarch_ the turrets have been deprived of their primary and supreme advantage, that of providing an all-round fire for the guns, and more especially a head fire. This deprivation is consequent upon the adoption of forecastles, which are intended to keep the ships dry in steaming against a head sea, and to enable the head-sails to be worked. When it first became known that the _Monarch_ was designed with a forecastle (by order of the then Board of Admiralty) there were not wanting persons who considered the plan extremely objectionable, and who took it for granted that as a turret-ship the new vessel would be fatally defective. The design of the _Captain_ shortly afterwards, under the direction of Captain Coles, with a similar but much larger forecastle, was an admission, however, that the Board of Admiralty did not stand alone in the belief that this feature was a necessity, however objectionable. Both these ships, therefore, are without a right-ahead fire from the turrets, the _Monarch_ having this deficiency partly compensated by two forecastle (6½-ton) guns protected with armour, while the _Captain_ has no protected head-fire at all, but merely one gun (6½-ton) standing exposed on the top of the forecastle.” Time has shown that he was quite correct in his views; but in 1866 and the years that followed he was regarded as unduly conservative and non-progressive. [Illustration: ROYAL SOVEREIGN. TYPICAL U.S. MONITOR. SCORPION. CAPTAIN. MONARCH. REED IDEAL OF A MASTED TURRET SHIP. TURRET-SHIPS OF THE REED ERA.]