 The additional length and the Board's acceptance of the hull lines from increased the size of the ship by .Barnaby was severely criticised, particularly by Sir Edward Reed, himself a former Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy, because "Collingwood"s waterline armour belt was concentrated amidships and did not extend to the ends of the ship.Reed believed that this weakness meant that the ship could be sunk from the consequent uninhibited flooding if her unarmoured ends were riddled by shellfire and open to the sea.