The Prince came back to England in the month of August to spend a short holiday with his parents at Balmoral, but rejoined his ship, which was lying at Halifax, in October. His return was welcomed by his mates and by the citizens of that town; and the Governor, the Earl of Mulgrave, entertained His Royal Highness and the officers of the St. George at a state dinner on the eve of their departure for a cruise to Bermuda. Among the sunny islands of the South the ship and her crew were everywhere received with the utmost enthusiasm, the black and white population alike vying with each other in their demonstrations of loyalty; but the sudden death of the Prince Consort at the end of December compelled the return home for a time of Prince Alfred, who left his ship at Halifax on receipt of the sad news, with every expression of sympathy from his brother officers. In the spring of 1862 Wauchope's ship paid another visit to the West India Islands, taking up her station for some weeks with other six ships of the line at Bermuda, where the young 'middies' were entertained to a continued round of amusements and excursions.
A seafaring life, if often one of risks and toil, has its seasons of enforced idleness. Midshipmen's amusements and practical jokes are proverbial, and the quarter-deck of the St. George was not always free of them. Many pranks were played upon one another in idle hours by these sprightly young officers, leading sometimes to reprimands by their superiors; and young Andy Wauchope did not always escape the suspicion that he was an active leader in such ploys. It has even been hinted that he had on one occasion the pluck—or, shall we say, audacity?—to have a stand-up fight with the Queen's son. We do not vouch for the story; but of this we are certain, that, if he had a just cause of quarrel, he was not the boy to let even the prestige of royalty stand between him and the punishment due to the aggressor, whoever he might be.
Some years afterwards, in the winter of 1863-64, when Prince Alfred resided at Holyrood Palace, and was a student of Edinburgh University, he paid a friendly visit to his old shipmate at Niddrie, spending the day in pigeon-shooting. He and a number of his friends arrived in the forenoon on horseback, and the identity of the party not having been made known to the keeper of the Niddrie toll, through which they had to pass to reach the house, he peremptorily insisted upon payment. But being told that it was the Queen's son going to see the laird, his loyalty so much got the better of him that he would not take a copper.
After luncheon the party adjourned to the park to have some shooting. Mr. Wauchope, 'Andy's' father, was with them, and was persuaded to try a shot, but unfortunately the piece went off in his hand before he could take aim, and one of the footmen in attendance was hit in the arm by the charge. Mr. Wauchope was so distressed over the accident that he vowed he would never again take a gun in his hand.
ANDREW WAUCHOPE, Midshipman, Age 14.
But it was not in the navy that young Wauchope was destined to distinguish himself. It has been said that the severity and even harshness of the naval discipline gave him a distaste of the service, and drove him from it. Possibly some remarks he made on one occasion as to his having been unjustly punished for some petty offence may have given some colour to this supposition. We rather incline to accept the explanation of a brother officer, who asked him afterwards why he left the navy. His reply was, 'for no reason except that his father wished him, and that his father desired that he should have a naval training before he entered the army.'
The St. George
The experience gained at sea was certainly not lost, for his father's wisdom furnished him with a dual equipment which in after years was not infrequently of value. The injustice of the punishment he received when in the St. George, whatever it may have been, certainly impressed itself upon him to this extent, that later in life he made it a rule never to punish a soldier until thoroughly satisfied of his guilt, and he always was inclined to give a man the benefit of a doubt.