ON THE SICK LIST.
Photo: Smale & Son, Dartmouth.
The Racer season extended from April 1st to November 1st, or later if desirable; she was laid up during the winter, and was ready for sea by March 15th.
This was a decided step in advance, and there is no doubt the cadets derived immense benefit from these short cruises, which must, moreover, in fine summer weather, have been exceedingly pleasant—after the usual “tribute” had been paid to Neptune!
On March 17th, 1897, while both the captain and the wardroom officers were entertaining guests at dinner, a sensational incident occurred. The Britannia, it will be recollected, has a solitary mast; not a large one for a vessel of her size, but sufficiently lofty to be a target for lightning, and provided with the usual copper strip for conductor. While dinner was in progress there was a shock, plainly felt throughout the ship, and a blinding glare, while a tremendous peal of thunder simultaneously resounded overhead; the ship trembled from stem to stern, and some of the occupants of the wardroom even imagined that they saw the lightning flash through the room. There was no doubt about it, the ship was struck by lightning. It had struck the copper band round the “truck”—the small round disc which surmounts the mast, and carries the blocks for the flag halyards—split the truck, burnt through the wire strap of the signal halyard block, and travelled down the conductor, which is supposed to run right down the mast and pass out to connect with the copper sheathing of the ship under water; perhaps it did, but the lightning apparently stopped short at the galvanised roof through which the mast passes, and spread itself out over the iron, which was very wet. The wrecked truck is kept in a glass case between decks as a memento of this unusual experience.
In the Jubilee procession of 1897 the cadets played a prominent part, and were everywhere hailed with enthusiasm. One hundred of them went to London on this occasion, and were put up for the night at Greenwich College.
They left Kingswear at 10.50 a.m. on June 21st, six in a compartment, with an enormous pasty and a bottle of ginger-beer each. At Bristol buns and ginger-beer were served out during the stoppage, and they were sustained for the remainder of the journey to Paddington, which was reached at 5.20. Here there were ’buses waiting to convey them to Charing Cross, en route for Greenwich.