TURRETT VERSUS BROADSIDE: An Anatomy of British Naval Prestige, Revolution and Disaster 1860-1870

1-226380

Analysis of the great 'turret vs. broadside' debate sheds new light on how the most well-funded and professional navy in the world, at the height of its power, could nevertheless build an 'inherently unstable' capital ship -- the low-freeboard yet fully-masted ironclad HMS Captain that capsized in 1870. Includes 46 color and b/w illustrations.

Uses an impressive array of government reports, contemporary periodicals, and unpublished personal papers. Provides a long-term and international context to this debate amidst a growing emphasis upon new technologies of ever-heavier guns and ever-thicker armor.

As the geopolitical debate over rival ironclad proposals intensified, aggressively-minded Prime Minister Lord Palmerston gradually adopted a non-interventionist foreign policy which surprised his contemporaries. Turret vs. Broadside traces the previously unexplored connection between an increasingly schizophrenic Admiralty for and against the Captain, for example, and saber-rattling mid-Victorians sinking into an era of 'Splendid Isolation.'