Note 138 — Chapter II

With regard to the question of the progress of steam-ships in the Royal Navy since then, Mr. T. H. Farrer, of the Board of Trade, remarks, with great force, in a letter I recently received from him: “We hardly know how fast we move. One of my first colleagues at the Board of Trade, in 1850, was Admiral Beechey, an officer of very superior attainments and intelligence, and one who, having been much employed on surveys, was well acquainted with steam-vessels. And yet I well remember his telling me that he did not believe that the Navy of the future—the Royal Navy—ever could consist of steamers! Nor could he endure iron ships. It was a very few years after this that, in company with him, I witnessed one of the most beautiful sights of my life—the Naval Review at Spithead, in the first summer of the Russian war, when the last four or more sailing-vessels of the Royal Navy formed the attacking squadron. I shall never forget the beauty of the scene, when late in the afternoon these magnificent ships came on with a gentle breeze from the east, and the descending sun shed a ‘dying glory’ on their towers of canvas. It was a fit obsequy for the Hearts of Oak of Rodney, Howe, and Nelson.”