page_title: HMS Captain (1869)
section_title: Sinking
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Captain (1869) / Sinking
caption_attribution_description: English: The sinking of HMS Captain Español: Hundimiento del HMS Captiain
context_page_description: HMS Captain was an unsuccessful warship built for the Royal Navy due to public pressure. She was a masted turret ship, designed and built by a private contractor against the wishes of the Controller's department. The Captain was completed in April 1870 and capsized on 07 September 1870 with the loss of nearly 500 lives because of design and construction errors that led to inadequate stability.
context_section_description: On the afternoon of 6 September 1870 Captain was cruising with the combined Mediterranean and Channel Squadrons comprising 11 ships off Cape Finisterre. The ship made 9.5 knots under sail in a force six wind, which was increasing through the day. The commander in chief, Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, was on board to see her performance, and speed had risen to 11–13 knots before he departed. Not being accustomed to ships with such low freeboard, he was disturbed to note that at this speed with the strengthening sea, waves washed over the weather deck. The weather worsened with rain as the night progressed, and the number of sails was reduced. The wind was blowing from the port bow so that sails had to be angled to the wind, speed was much reduced, and there was considerable force pushing the ship sideways. As the wind rose to a gale, sail was reduced to only the fore staysail and fore and main topsails.
  Shortly after midnight when a new watch came on duty, the ship was heeling over eighteen degrees and was felt to lurch to starboard twice. Orders were given to drop the fore topsail and release sheets (ropes) holding both topsails angled into the wind. Before the captain's order could be carried out, the roll increased, and she capsized and sank with the loss of around 480 lives, including Coles. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Hugh Childers, and Under-Secretary of State for War, Thomas Baring, both lost sons in the disaster. Only 27 of the crew survived, many by making it to a boat which had broken free.
caption: The sinking of the Captain, by William Frederick Mitchell
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.10.22", "Image DateTime": "2021:02:07 20:52:49", "Image Artist": "Stephen Luscombe", "Image Copyright": "http://www.britishempire.co.uk/", "Image ExifOffset": "222", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "256", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "200", "Thumbnail BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail PhotometricInterpretation": "6", "Thumbnail SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "372", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11774", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "612", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "480"}