Designs for a rotating gun turret date back to the late 18th century. In the mid 19th century, during the Crimean War, Captain Cowper Phipps Coles constructed a raft with guns protected by a 'cupola' and used the raft, named the "Lady Nancy", to shell the Russian town of Taganrog in the Black Sea during the Siege of Taganrog. The "Lady Nancy" "proved a great success" and Coles patenting his rotating turret design after the war.