W. L. Wyllie, A.R.A.]
THE WHITE STAR LINE R.M.S. “TEUTONIC” AS AN ARMED CRUISER AT THE NAVAL REVIEW, August 4, 1889.
Addressing the members of the Institute of Naval Architects on March 30, 1887, upon the “Merchant Service and the Royal Navy,” Sir N. Barnaby, late Director of Naval Construction, referred to the arrangements which had then recently been completed between the Admiralty and the White Star and other Companies for the retention of their steamers for war purposes, and pointed out that “this seed, for which we have to thank Mr. Ismay, was planted at the Admiralty nine years ago; ... the outcome of proposals made by Mr. Ismay as far back as 1878,” when he urged upon the attention of the Admiralty that a fast mail or passenger steamer might be as efficient a factor in a naval war as an ordinary war cruiser, and offered to make an agreement to hold at the disposal of the Admiralty, upon terms then specified, certain ships for the purposes of the State in time of war.
More than mere womanly emotion, this, in presence of an exciting scene. The May Day poet put on it the same interpretation:
“Swell, organ, swell your trumpet blast!
March, Queen and Royal pageant, march
By splendid aisle and springing arch
Of this fair Hall!
And see! above the fabric vast
God’s boundless heaven is bending blue,