SS Victoria

“ She is 100 feet in length, and of 152 tons register. She is to be fitted up as a hospital ship, for the treatment of accident and illness among the fishermen of the North Sea. She is named the Queen Victoria, and Her Majesty, who takes much interest in the Mission, subscribed £50 towards the cost of the vessel. The launch was witnessed by a large number of people. The Queen Victoria is the same type of vessel as those already in the Mission service.
A New Alpine Railway.—A railway from Visp to Zermatt is about to be built, an undertaking that has for a long time been considered impracticable. ”

“ The steam-ship Victoria, built of iron in 1852 for the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, gained the prize of £500 offered by the colonies for the fastest voyage to Australia. Her time from Gravesend to Adelaide was sixty days, including two days’ stay at St. Vincent. She was designed by Messrs. I. K. Brunel and J. Scott Russell for a speed of ten knots under full steam, and to provide as much passenger accommodation and space for high-priced cargo as her coal requirements would permit. She was 261 feet on the water-line and registered 1350 tons. ”

“ In 1849 we left Sydney, where I was born, for San Francisco—father, mother, my brother Rowland and myself, in the ship Victoria. This vessel my father afterwards purchased and sent to Alberni, or Sooke, for a load of lumber for England, when we all were going with her. The vessel never came back, having been wrecked somewhere near where all the wrecks have since taken place, on the west coast of this island. My father was ruined, for there was no insurance, so he had to start life anew. ”

“ The tragic end of the Victoria, which cost the nation, not only a fine ship, but the lives of the greater portion of her crew, and that very talented naval commander, Sir George Tryon, is a well-known tragedy of the sea, and there is little doubt that the enormous weight forward of her huge turret and guns, with nothing aft to counterbalance it, was one of the causes contributing to the completeness of the catastrophe. ”

“ The old line-of-battle ships 'which Nelson led to victory' have given place to huge iron-plated monsters, moved by steam, and carrying such heavy guns, that one such ship would have proved a match for the united fleets of Britain and France at Trafalgar.
In matters which are more directly concerned with the welfare of the people, the country made remarkable advances during the reign of Queen Victoria. Political freedom was given to the masses, and many wise laws were passed for improving their social condition. ”

“ Seldom has he an abundance, and often he suffers from a scarcity, of provisions; while, if his strength fails him from illness or injury, he can scarcely hope to regain his ship alive. The first exploring expedition which was sent out during the reign of Queen Victoria was placed under the command of Sir George Back, in the Terror ”

“ No one speaks of the ship that is dead and gone.
Victoria, whose personal share in the common sorrow can be but small, seems to grieve as much as any of us. I am not (121) allowed to be with her now—rather I see she does not want me, and I keep away. When she starts for the Peak, I start for the Watcher’s Cave, and we pine on opposite heights. Her simple household duties done, she will disappear for the whole day. I pass a good deal of time in the Ancient’s library, reading yellow British classics, out of the old scuttled ship. ”

“ The Alexandra was supposed to be the most powerful ship in Victoria's navy at that time. She carried the flag of Admiral Lord John Hay. She was a little city of the sea with her divisions of labour, her social distinctions, her alleys and her avenues. She had a population of about one thousand inhabitants. These were divided into officers, petty officers, bluejackets and marines. Around the flagship lay half a dozen other ships of the fleet. ”

“ Hidden from mortal eyes ever since the fatal day when the Camperdown rammed her, the Victoria lay in eighty fathoms of water, and now, by the wildest of coincidences, the submarine of the Olive Branch had descended nearly on top of the wreck of the ill-fated ship.
"If the reciprocators have fallen amongst that tangle they are hopelessly lost," remarked Lieutenant Palmer, indicating the position in which the wreck lay. ”

“ Her children and grandchildren, princes and princesses, walked slowly behind her down the long avenue of trees, whose branches shown out clear and distinct against the bright blue of the sky. At the water's edge, the gun-carriage was drawn on board the yacht Alberta. Followed by the Victoria and Albert, the Osborne, and the massive Hohenzollern of the Emperor William, the little yacht moved through the mighty lines of warships, English, German, and French, whose cannon thundered out their last salute. ”

“ Lord Melbourne said, “It’s very 389well of John saying he won’t support,” and so forth, but that it would be impossible for us not to take one side; our interests would compel us to do so; they lay so much with the Low Countries; England, he said, could never permit France to have possession of Antwerp, which was such a great Maritime place. He then read me a letter from Lord Minto relative to an alarm which prevails, and which was caused, Lord Melbourne says, by a speech the Duke of Wellington made in the House, about the weakness of our Naval force ”

“ Every foot of the shore that would give a view of the warships was crowded with spectators, and they had a sight well worth the seeing. Ships and steamers were beautifully decorated with flags and crowded with guests. The men-of-war were drawn up in a double line, and the royal yacht steamed slowly along between them. Every vessel manned its yards and fired a royal salute as the Queen passed. The most enthusiastic cheering echoed and reëchoed. Then came a mimic naval attack on Southsea Castle, and the brilliant day was at an end. ”

“ Ten minutes, or little more, were sufficient to show the dark outline of a schooner, her masts and spars relieved against the starry sky. Silent as the grave, the boats pulled on, their oars so carefully dipped, that scarcely a splash was heard. Those on board the schooner slept, or seemed to sleep, for not a sound was heard from her decks. A slaver’s crew, however, conscious of the risks they are running in their nefarious traffic, are seldom off their guard, and the British seamen were fully prepared for a reception with a shower of grape and musketry. ”

“ On the 19th May the Arrogant and the Hecla, two steamers—the first a screw, commanded by Captain Yelverton, and the second by Captain Hall—had been detached from the fleet, and employed for a considerable time in reconnoitring the forts of the enemy about Hango Bay. Propulsion by means of a screw was at this time a novelty, the steamships of war being generally large paddle boats and sailing ships combined, a state of transition between the frigate of Nelson’s day and the modern steamship. ”

“ We all remember how serious a collision, even going at slow speed, may be when we recall how three years ago the Camperdown sunk the Victoria of the English Mediterranean squadron on a peaceful day off the coast of Africa, in going through some simple evolutions, and when hundreds of brave sailors, including the Admiral of the fleet himself, were drowned, as the Victoria went down before the small boats of the other vessels of the fleet could reach them. ”

“ Two Dutch ships and a British trawler picked up as many men as they could crowd on board and made for the English coast. The total loss on the ships was 1500 men.
Even in this terrible disaster, the men of the British Navy were “ready, aye ready” when all that was now asked of them was that they should die like heroes.
SOME OF THE FIRST V.C.’S
When the Great War broke out in August 1914 the Victoria Cross had not been conferred for ten years. But it was not long before the newspapers began to report one deed after another of “signal valour and devotion performed in the presence of the enemy.” ”

“ The Victoria is 3611⁄2 feet in length, 401⁄2 feet beam, 241⁄2 feet depth of hold to main, and 32 feet to spar deck; her measurement is 3287 tons gross. She has compound engines of 500 nominal horse-power, with cylinders of 57 inches and 108 inches diameter respectively, having 4 feet length of stroke of piston, and six boilers with eighteen furnaces, consuming, when at full speed, “14 knots per hour on the measured mile, 45 tons of coal per day of twenty-four hours.” She has accommodation for 150 first-class and 900 steerage passengers, besides her crew, and also large cargo space. ”

“ In December following the detachment was ordered to be increased to a half company, and the reinforcement of fifteen rank and file, sailing from the West India Docks in the ‘William Shand’ freight-ship, in February, 1845, landed at Victoria on the 28th June following. In May, 1851, the party returned to England, but its strength was reduced by casualties to six men only. Of the remainder, four were invalided, three died, one was drowned on passage from Victoria to Macao, and one was killed by falling over a precipice. ”

“ It is impossible to exaggerate the deep and abiding interest of such a correspondence; and the seriousness, the devotion, the public spirit that are displayed, without affectation or calculated impressiveness, make the whole series of letters singularly memorable.
The King of the Belgians had married Princess Louise of Orleans, daughter of Louis Philippe, in 1832. She was only seven years older than the Princess Victoria, who grew to regard her with the tenderest affection. ”

“ These three vessels did not give the satisfaction anticipated, and though various alterations were made in the Victoria no great improvement was effected, and the results were not considered such as to justify the construction of any more like them. The Benbow’s big guns were in barbettes, and those of the Sans Pareil were in a turret. ”

“ Our passengers were rather queer. I always enjoy the queerness of people. One day, when speaking about the boat, I said:
"Everything is such an improvement on the Victoria. The food is good, the passengers are refined, the officers are polite and the ship is comfortable and pleasant."
When I finished my complimentary remarks about the ship, a little bride who had been a source of interest to us looked up and said:
"Yes, everything is very nice; but the life preservers are not quite comfortable to sleep in." ”

“ If anyone still believes that the country has been saved more than once merely by lucky chances of weather, and that the England of Elizabeth has been converted into the great oceanic and colonial British Empire of Victoria in 'a fit of absence of mind,' it will not be for want of materials with which to form a correct judgment on these points.
It has been accepted generally that the principal method of manning our fleet in the past—especially when war threatened to arise—was to seize and put men on board the ships by force. ”

“ For the first time in the history of the British Fleet naval man [oe] uvres had been held in 1885, and in the year after William II.'s accession the young ruler witnessed the greatest display of British sea-power which had ever been organised. The assembly of 1889 far exceeded in numbers and in the suggestion of power the Naval Review which had marked the celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. It was the most powerful fleet ever brought together in time of peace. ”

“ One of our best captains shall head a troop of picked soldiers across the river and effect a junction with them, while the bulk of our army shall simultaneously operate upon this side."
"The plan is excellent, Captain Marion," observed Victoria approvingly. "Especially at this juncture, such an alliance is of great service to us. Your eyes have, as usual, seen rightly."
"If one has good eyes, he must seek to put them to the best use possible," the captain answered with his wonted affability. "That is what I said to my friend Eustace." ”

“ Von Spee was left but a month in which to enjoy his triumph over Cradock; Emden was defeated and captured by Sydney; Karlsruhe vanished as by enchantment from the sea; and Von Hipper’s battle-cruisers, going once too often near the British coast, had been driven in ignominious flight across the North Sea and paid for their temerity by the loss of Blücher. Three months of the Fisher-Churchill régime had seemingly put the Navy on a pinnacle that even the most sanguine—and the most ignorant—had hardly dared to hope for in the early days. ”

“ After a short sojourn at the Spice Islands, the return voyage was made by the ship La Victoria alone, commanded by Juan Sebastian del Cano, [358] who set sail from Tadore on the twenty-first of December, 1521, the ship La Concepcion having been burned at the island Bohol, and La Trinidad having been left at the Moluccas in a leaking condition. Following the route along the coast of Africa, the ship La Victoria arrived at Seville, on Monday, the eighth of September, 1522, she having sailed in the entire voyage, according to Pigafetta’s computation, fourteen thousand six hundred leagues. ”

“ At two a.m. both ships weighed, the Hecla leading, and the crews being at their quarters. They slowly and carefully felt their way along the intricate navigation of the river, till they suddenly found themselves within range of the guns of a battery posted on a promontory before them, which was crowded with Russian soldiers—stout-looking fellows, habited in long grey coats and spiked helmets of steel, which glittered brightly in the sun; and the bluejackets now for the first time saw the enemy. ”