"No, ma'am," I replied. "I have no such power. I only made a suggestion to the Prince."
"You may be right," said the Queen, "but I am an old woman now, and I like to see faces I know about me, and not have to begin again with new faces."
We had some excellent boat-racing in the Osborne. One famous race was rowed at Cowes between the officers of the royal yachts Victoria and Albert and Osborne, in six-oared galleys. Her Majesty Queen Victoria came down to the jetty to witness the contest. The stroke of the Victoria and Albert was my old comrade in the Marlborough and Bellerophon, Swinton Holland. I was stroke of the Osborne's crew. At first the Osborne drew ahead—rather, I think, to the Queen's dismay—but eventually the Victoria and Albert won the race, to the delight of Her Majesty.
Another great race was rowed between the Osborne six-oared galley and the Dockyard boat. It took place off Southsea, the whole of the foreshore being lined with people. The Osborne won. Her boat was manned by Irish bluejackets whom I had trained myself.
While I was commanding the Osborne one of the crew met with a singular accident. We were shooting the seine off Calshot, and, as it fouled, I sent a man down to clear it. When he came up, he said that he had been stabbed through the hand "by some beast." I examined the wound and found that his hand had been pierced right through, and I thought that he must have come upon a nail or a splinter in a piece of wreckage. But when we hauled up the seine, there was a huge sting-ray. I cut out the sting and gave it to the Princess. There is no doubt that the fish had transfixed the man's hand. The sailor is still alive, and is well known in Portsmouth for his political enthusiasms. It was in the same haul that we caught a red mullet weighing about six pounds, the biggest I have ever seen.
I ought here to record the very great interest taken by the Royal Family in all matters connected with the Navy. While I was in command of the Osborne, the Prince of Wales graciously consented to attend one of the gatherings of members of Parliament who came at my invitation to see something of the Navy. On this occasion they visited Portsmouth Dockyard, where they were shown everything of interest.
One of the experiments performed for the entertainment and the instruction of the party was firing at a floating cask with bombs thrown by hand, a method of warfare since discontinued owing to the danger it involves to the person bombarding. When the cask exploded, a stave flew between the Prince and the general commanding at Portsmouth, Sir Hastings Doyle. Had it struck either of them he must have been killed.
The general's brother, Percy Doyle, a dear old gentleman well known in society, had very bad sight. I once saw him trying to eat a red mullet done up in paper. After a good deal of harpooning, he got it out, but put the paper in his mouth. We always told him he had swallowed the births, deaths, and marriages column of The Times.
On Sunday the 24th of March, 1878 (the date of my engagement to Miss Gardner), the Eurydice, training frigate, capsized off the Isle of Wight in a sudden squall and sank. The total loss of life was about 300, only two being saved. She was on her way home from the West Indies. Coming under the Isle of Wight, she hauled her wind for Spithead, thus closing the land, so that it was impossible for the watch to see a squall coming up from windward. The captain, the Hon. Marcus A. S. Hare, was anxious to reach the harbour as soon as possible in order to give the men Sunday leisure. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when a sudden squall struck the ship, and she heeled over; the lee main-deck ports being open, according to custom, she took in a good deal of water, depressing her bows; so that instead of capsizing, she simply sailed straight to the bottom, her fore-foot being broken off with the force of the impact, and her topgallant masts remaining above the surface. There was no time to shorten sail. When she was raised it was found that only one rope, the mainroyal sheet, had carried away.