Ships Cover for the masted turret ship HMS Inflexible (1876). The documentation is extensive and covers the early design proposals for the ship, layout of armour in the citadel and turrets, weights of machinery, hull and plating, specifics relating to the structure and framing of the ship, turret loading mechanisms and passage of ammunition, allocated armament, general ship fittings [including boats] and masting/yard and sail arrangements. The majority of the documents are concerned with issues of stability, in particular the acceptability of having unarmoured ends. The disagreement between Edward Reed and Nathaniel Barnaby on this particular point is reflected in the large number of pages devoted to it, including letters relating to the need for additional buoyancy aids, data from calculations and model test trials, and a copy of the published findings of the 1877 Inflexible Committee which was formed to investigate the stability question. The papers commence in January 1873, when Inflexible was first envisioned as an improved Fury/Dreadnought and comes to an end in March 1879 when the much altered final design had been launched and was undergoing completion work.