Chapter Fourteen.
Review at Spithead—Admiral Triton’s Opinion of Steam-vessels—The Allied Fleets in Cavarna Bay—Jack visits Murray on board the Briton—Bombardment of Odessa—Loss of the Tiger—Jack in Command of the Tornado runs into the Harbour of Sebastopol—A Visit to the Guards’ Camp.
“A magnificent sight! What would Nelson have done with such a fleet?” exclaimed the admiral, as, with his eye at a telescope turned towards Spithead, at an early hour on the morning of the 11th of March 1854, he gazed at the fleet collected there under Sir Charles Napier. “We must have a nearer look at them, ladies; the Gauntlet goes out of harbour, and Adair has sent his coxswain to say that his gig is waiting at the pier. Come, Deborah; come, Mrs Murray; get on your wraps. Lucy, my dear, you mustn’t mind appearances; though the sun is bright, the wind is still keen, and you will find it cold enough coming on shore again.”
The ladies, who had already finished breakfast, were soon equipped; and the admiral, helped by Miss Rogers and his sister, had got into his pea-jacket, and, Lucy having tucked the ends of the comforter which surrounded his throat well into it, he was ready, stick in hand, to tramp across the common. Lucy’s well-fitting yachting-dress, with an overcoat calculated to withstand all weathers, became her well. The gig was soon alongside the Gauntlet, at whose gangway Adair stood ready to receive his guests. It was the first time Lucy had come on board, and with no little pride and happiness he helped her up the accommodation ladder.
The next instant, casting off from her moorings, the Gauntlet steamed out of the harbour towards Spithead. “Well, after all, there is something to be said in favour of steam,” observed the admiral; “and though I did once think it would never come to much, I must confess I was wrong; though, had it never been invented, we should not have felt the want of it.”
“At all events, admiral, it enables us to get out to Spithead, which we otherwise should have found it a difficult job to do,” answered Adair, laughing. “Look at the magnificent Duke of Wellington, with her 131 guns; see the Royal George, and Saint Jean d’Acre, with what ease they can now manoeuvre, by the aid of their screws. I suspect Nelson would have been willing to exchange the whole of his fleet for three such ships at Trafalgar, and not only would have gained the victory, but would not have allowed one of the enemy to escape.”
“It might have been so,” said the admiral; “but I suspect, had the chance been given him, he would have preferred having his tough little Victory and the other stout ships of his fleet, to all the new-fangled contrivances.” The admiral, it was evident, had still a hankering for the good old days when he first went to sea.
The Gauntlet was able to steam through a considerable portion of the fleet before she took up her destined station; thus passing in succession the Duke of Wellington, Sir Charles Napier’s flagship, the Neptune, Saint George, and Royal George, 120-gun ships, the Saint Jean d’Acre, 101 guns; fourteen other ships carrying from 60 to 91 guns, most of them fitted with screws; five frigates, each able to compete with an old line-of-battle ship; and eighteen paddle-wheel and screw-steamers, anyone of which would speedily have sunk the largest ship of ancient days.
In a short time the Queen appeared in the Fairy yacht, passing through this superb fleet, when, the yards being manned, the crews greeted her with hearty cheers, and such a salute broke forth from their guns as had never before been heard.
“Well, admiral, I hope when we come back we shall be able to give a good account of our proceedings, if the Czar ventures to go to war,” observed Adair; “we may at least expect to take Sweaborg, Helsingfors, and Cronstadt, and perhaps lay Saint Petersburg itself under contribution.”