3-008-506 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Captain Cowper Phipps Coles, R.N., 1862. 'Captain Coles, of whose merits as an inventor the Admiralty has been forced into a sudden acknowledgement...witnessed the operations in the Black Sea, the bombardment of Odessa, assisted in reducing the town of Redout-Kaleh, and the forts on the Circassian coast, &c., and took part in October, 1854, in the attack on the sea defences of Sebastopol. Here Lieutenant Coles displayed conspicuous gallantry, and his gallantry was noticed in glowing terms by Sir Edmund Lyons...a board was appointed by the Commander-in-Chief to report upon Captain Coles's method and plans for the construction of shotproof rafts, guns, and mortars. So favourable was this report, for which Captain Coles had prepared drawings and models, that, in expectation of the [Crimean] war continuing, he was ordered home, and put into communication with the dockyard authorities at Portsmouth and the Surveyor of the Navy. The cessation of hostilities prevented further proceedings...His last pamphlet on shot- proof gun-shields, being the report of a lecture delivered in June, 1860, at the United Service Institution, is that which has plainly been consulted by the authorities of the New York Navy-yard in the construction of the Monitor'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.