Until after Waterloo had been won, the Donegal helped to keep the seas for England, and on more than one occasion with shotted guns in the face of the enemy.
Our second Donegal, a wooden 91-gun two-decker, built in the Fifties of the last century, was one of the very last sent afloat of our old “wooden walls.” She still exists, under the name of the Vernon, torpedo school ship at Portsmouth.
The direct association between the Donegal of the Royal Navy and County Donegal came into existence first of all in the case of the present armour-clad cruiser, the Donegal of King Edward’s fleet. She is a sister ship of the Kent, and was launched and named by the Duchess of Abercorn, as wife of the Lord Lieutenant of Donegal, and at express desire of the King. The Donegal of to-day was the second ship of our county cruisers to receive the honour of a special county presentation in commemoration of the name she bore. The presentation was made before the assembled officers and men of the ship by the Marquess of Hamilton, as M.P. for Derry City, and comprised a service of silver plate, inscribed as the gift of “the King’s subjects in the County of Donegal and the City of Derry.”[12]
IX
ON BOARD OUR FLAGSHIPS AT TRAFALGAR
CAPTAIN HARDY AND THOSE WHO MANNED THE VICTORY
Heard ye the thunder of battle,
Low in the South and afar?
Saw ye the flush of the death-cloud,
Crimson o’er Trafalgar?