Monarch, the first of the British iron-clad turret-ships, was launched in 1868, and the Captain shortly after the Monarch. By some naval experts the Captain was thought to be top-heavy, and this opinion was verified by her capsizing and foundering off Finisterre on the 7th September, 1870. Four hundred and seventy-two lives were lost, including that of Captain Coles, her designer. She was overturned in a heavy squall and went down in three minutes; her overturning was caused by her very low freeboard and the great weight of her masts, hurricane, deck, and turret. In 1866 the Monadnock, one of the American monitors, made the voyage from New York to San Francisco, by way of the Straits of Magellan, and in the same year another of these vessels, the Miantonomoh, crossed the Atlantic and went to Cronstadt, returning safely to the United States. It was thus demonstrated that turret ships were capable of making long sea voyages; since that time many sea-going iron-clads have been constructed by most of the European nations, and their success is fully established.
Probably no naval conflict in the history of the world ever attracted as much attention as did the battle in Hampton Roads, between the Monitor and the Merrimac. It revolutionized the navies of the world, and showed that the wooden ships, which had long held control of the ocean, were of no further use for fighting purposes. Commenting upon the news of that event, the London Times said: "Whereas we had available for immediate purposes one hundred and forty-nine first-class war ships, we have now two, these two being the Warrior and her sister Ironside. There is not now a ship in the English navy, apart from these two, that it would not be madness to trust to an engagement with that little Monitor." England and all other maritime powers immediately proceeded to reconstruct their navies, and the old-fashiond three and four-decker line-of-battle ships were condemned as useless. Not only in ships, but in their armament, there was rapid
