work which was prevented by the conclusion of the war in May 1856. But from that time he devoted himself to the study of the question of defensive armour for ships; and at his own cost and, for most of the time, on half-pay, carried out an elaborate series of experiments on the methods of applying armour and mounting guns. The early idea of a raft and shield gradually transformed itself into that of a ship with a low freeboard and one or more turrets carrying very heavy guns. Similar ideas had been developed in the United States by Ericsson, and the claims of the two men to the original conception were for some time angrily discussed. There seems little doubt that the crude idea occurred independently to each, but it is impossible to suppose that their further progress did not react on each other. The several steps of Coles's work were described by himself at the Royal United Service Institution in 1861, 1864, and 1868, and even in an early stage it was so far accepted by the admiralty that the Royal Sovereign, cut down from a 3-decker in accordance with his designs, was actually in commission in 1864-5; and the building of a new ship, according to drawings submitted by Coles and Messrs. Laird, was definitely authorised on 23 July 1866, notwithstanding the submission of the controller of the navy, that it was doubtful whether the proposed height of freeboard, which was eight feet, would be satisfactory for a sea-going cruising ship. The ship was accordingly built, under the name of the Captain. That she should be considered to the fullest extent a sea-going cruising ship was Cole's earnest contention, and he was supported by such a weight of public opinion that the admiralty, laying the responsibility on Coles and the Lairds, sanctioned her being commissioned, with her guns and masts and rigging, although it was found that the freeboard was less, by nearly two feet, than had been designed. It does not, in fact, appear that they realised that this lowering of the freeboard was a source of great danger; and the responsibility of which they spoke referred rather to the cost of any material alterations which might be found necessary. The Captain was accordingly commissioned early in 1870; after an experimental cruise she joined the Channel fleet, accompanied it to Gibraltar, and on the way home, in a fresh gale off Cape Finisterre, turned bottom upwards and sank on 7 Sept. [see Burgoyne, Hugh Talbot]. It was the middle of the night, and, with very few exceptions, everybody on board was drowned. Coles, though in no official capacity, had accompanied Burgoyne as a guest, and went down with the ship. He left a widow and a large family of children.
[Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, iv. 280, vii. 110, xi. 434; Minute by the First Lord of the Admiralty with reference to H.M.S. Captain; information from Sir G. Phipps Hornby, Coles's brother-in-law.]
COLES, ELISHA (1608?–1688), Calvinist, the uncle of Elisha Coles, stenographer [q. v.], was, according to Wood, a native of Northamptonshire. Originally a ' trader ' in London, he had in 1651 taken up his abode at Oxford, for on 23 May of that year we find him acting as deputy-registrar to the parliamentary visitors there, in the absence of Ralph Austen, the registrar. In 1657 Coles became steward of Magdalen College, through the favour of Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the Commonwealth president, and was also manciple of Magdalen Hall (Register of the Visitors of the University of Oxford, Camd. Soc., pp. viii, 337, 516, where, however, Coles is confounded with his nephew). He was obliged to quit his situations at the Restoration, on which he obtained the place of clerk to the East India Company. According to Wood, Coles 'died in his house in Scalding Alley, near the Stocks Market in London, about 28 Oct. 1688, aged eighty years or more.' He wrote: ' A Practical Discourse of God's Sovereignty: with other Material Points deriving thence,' 4to, London, printed by Ben Griffin for E. C., 1673, a work which attained great popularity among the dissenters, and went through numerous editions. The third impression (signed E. C.), 8vo, London, 1678, is preceded by recommendatory epistles 'to the Christian reader' from the author's old friend, Thomas Goodwin, and other well-known puritan divines. Dr. Kippis relates (Biog. Brit. ed. Kippis, iv. 3) that the perusal of this book at the age of fourteen convinced him, contrary to its intention, of the illogical character of Calvinism. By his wife, Elizabeth, Coles had a son, Elisha, whom he apprenticed to some trade (Will reg. in P. C. C. 147, Exton).
Elisha Coles the son has sometimes been confused with Elisha Coles the lexicographer [q. v.] Some execrable rhymes, entitled ‘Χριστολογία, or a Metrical Paraphrase on the History of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,’ are signed ‘Elisha Coles, junior.’ It is most probable that they were written by the latter. The former was presumably dead in 1715, as he is not mentioned in his mother's will signed on 27 Aug. in that year, and proved on 21 March 1719-20 (Reg. in P. C. C. 57, Shaller).
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1276; Lowndes's Bibl. Manual (Bohn).]
