The Emergence of the Modern Capital Ship.

Abstract

When Edward James Reed, Admiralty chief constructor, initialed final plans for a mastless, seagoing, turret ironclad in 1869, he was making a break more profound with the traditions of the Royal Navy than at any time before, or since. For this new warship, later given the name Devastation, not only rendered obsolete all previous warships, but remained the pattern of future armored capital ships until, some seventy years later, they ceased to be built. While the navy had experienced a gradual improvement in administration, manning, tactics, strategy, and naval architecture between the times of Drake and Nelson, somewhat similar to the settling and sorting of English society between Tudor and Hanoverian reigns, the truly radical transformation of the materiel of the fleet did not even com-

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