Captain Coles objected to the _Monarch_ altogether. He insisted with vehemence that she did not in the least express his ideas. She had a high forecastle, also a poop; these features depriving her of end-on fire, except in so far as a couple of 6½-ton guns in an armoured forecastle supplied the deficiency. The Admiralty replied that a forecastle was essential for sea-worthiness; but Coles was so insistent that eventually he was allowed to design a sea-going turret-ship on his own ideas, in conjunction with Messrs. Laird, of Birkenhead, who had already had considerable experience in producing masted turret-ships.[98] Coles was given a free hand. As a naval officer his form of turret displays the practical mind; as a ship designer he was simply the raw amateur. The _Captain_, which he produced, accentuated every fault of the _Monarch_, except in the purely technical matter of rigging being in the way of the guns. Coles got over this by fitting tripod masts (which Laird’s had evolved before him[99]); but for the light flying bridges of the _Monarch_ he substituted a very considerable superstructure erection. For the _Monarch’s_ armoured two-gun forecastle, which he had so violently condemned, he substituted a much larger unarmoured, one-gun structure. Owing to an error in design, his intended 8-ft. freeboard was actually only 6ft., and his ideal ship resulted in nothing but a _Monarch_ of less gun power, and of 8ft. less freeboard. Her fate is dealt with later. Details of the two ships are:-- ================+===========================+========================= | _Captain._ | _Monarch._ ----------------+---------------------------+------------------------- Displacement | 6900 tons. | 8320 tons. Length (_p.p._) | 320 feet. | 330 feet. Beam | 53 feet. | 57½ feet. Draught | 25ft. 9½in. (_mean_). | 26ft. 7in. (_max._) Guns | Four 25 ton M.L.R., | Four 25 ton M.L.R., | two 6½ ton, do. | three 6½ ton, do.[100] Coal | 500 tons.[101] | 630 tons. Speed | 14.25 kts. (twin screws). | 14.94 (single screw). Waterline Belt | 8.6 inches. | 7.6 inches. Turrets | 13.8 inches. | 10.8 inches. Completed | 1869. | 1869. ================+===========================+========================= It has been said that Captain Coles was tied down by Admiralty ideas that a sea-going ship must have auxiliary sail power. All the evidence is, however, to the effect that not only did he recognise this limitation from the first, but that he concurred with it and believed his design to fill the conditions best. It failed to do so, the _Monarch_ under all conditions doing far better than the _Captain_ on trial (except occasionally under sail).