This was the Royal Sovereign completed in 1864, an old three decker turned into a turret ship. Being a comparatively small and experimental vessel she only carried guns of 12½ tons, but none the less one general idea embodied in her was not touched again till the Dreadnought was designed in 1904-05.
The Royal Sovereign had no less than four turrets, all in the centre line. The foremost turret carried two
The old Turret Ship Royal Sovereign. (From a contemporary print in 'L'Art Naval.')
guns, the others only carried a single gun; so she was a long way behind Captain Coles's ideal of 1860; but still the 'ideal' remained an ideal, whereas here was a ship actually built able to use all her guns on either broadside, in other words representing the ideal maximum of broadside power for the power available. It was always obvious that all her guns could be paired. About the same time the four-turreted Prince Albert was built. From the 1860–64 Royal Sovereign design to the 1904–05 Dreadnought design is not a very great
