From a Photograph] [by Gregory
& Co.
ADMIRAL SIR NOWELL SALMON, V.C.
In command of the Fleet during the Jubilee Review.
Exactly at eight o’clock the combined fleet began to decorate itself with a million flags, taking time from the Commander-in-Chief’s flagship. The unnumbered merchant and pleasure craft of all kinds that dotted the waters and lay still at moorings by the quays were already gay with streaming pennants, nor were the fourteen battleships of the foreign powers behindhand in embellishing themselves for the great review. Some time before two o’clock the business of clearing the lines for the procession commenced, and at two precisely a Royal salute of guns on shore announced that the Royal yacht was under way. Not long afterwards the Victoria and Albert, with the Prince of Wales on board, preceded by the Trinity House yacht Irene, approached the head of the lines. Royal salutes and the cheers of bluejackets marked the passage of the Royal yacht along and through the lines. The Victoria and Albert was followed by a train of vessels—the Peninsular and Oriental Company’s liner, the Carthage, carrying those Royal guests for whom there was no accommodation on the Victoria and Albert; then another Royal yacht, the Alberta; then the Enchantress, with the Lords of the Admiralty and their friends; next the Danube, carrying the members of the House of Lords; after her the Wildfire, with the Colonial Prime Ministers and their suites and the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, on board; then again the superb Cunard liner, the Campania, carrying the House of Commons; and lastly the Eldorado, with the foreign Ambassadors. The procession occupied two hours in traversing the lines. Before the proceedings terminated the Victoria and Albert anchored abreast of the flagship Renown and the Prince of Wales received all flag officers, British and foreign, on board, After this ceremony the Royal yacht weighed anchor and returned to Portsmouth, receiving, as she departed, three cheers from every ship in the fleet. Simultaneously with the arrival of the Prince of Wales in Portsmouth Harbour the following signal was made to the fleet by Admiral Sir Nowell Salmon:—“I am commanded by the Prince of Wales, as representing the Queen, to express his entire satisfaction with the magnificent naval display at Spithead and the perfect manner in which all the arrangements were carried out, and at his request I order the main-brace to be spliced.” Splicing the main-brace, it should be explained, involves the serving out of an extra allowance of grog, and is still a very popular order with our man-o’-war’s men. Almost immediately after this a thunderstorm burst, accompanied by a deluge of rain, and for some hours the “city of ships” was lost in an impenetrable haze.
THE NAVAL REVIEW: THE ROYAL YACHT PASSING BETWEEN THE LINES OF BRITISH AND FOREIGN SHIPS.
The United States cruiser, Brooklyn, painted white, is a conspicuous object in the line of foreign men-of-war. The battleship in the foreground is H.M.S. Victorious.
From a Photograph] [by West, Southsea.
THE NAVAL REVIEW: THE ROYAL YACHT ANCHORED ABREAST OF H.M.S. “RENOWN.”
