The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-27 00:00:00

THE QUEEN'S YACHT.

( From the Hampshire Advertise,- and Portsmouth
. Herald.)
We are sorry to see every evidence of perpetrating the
bungle we alluded to in our last, relative to altering the
Queen's steam-yacht Victoria and Alberto. She is along-
side Portsmouth dockyard jetty discharging furniture,
stores, &c., and being bored to ascertain her soundness,
as it is her Majesty's wish, if sound enough to undergo
the operation, that she be lengthened 63 feet amidships.
This will make her sharper in body certainly, and as
Penn, the eminent engine maker, of Greenwich, says,
with engines on his most improved and approved prin.
eiple, he can guarantee realising a speed of 15 knots am
hour, there is no doubt but that the botching will be
done. How often have we seen in our walks, especi-
ally through a poor district, the small signboard hung
out over a dingy dark area, advertising " Mangling
done here." The announcement strikes us as peculiarly
apropos for adoption by naval authorities in all matters
of construction, or nearly all, and in none so pointedly
as in the continuous alterations of the Queen's yachts.
The first cost of the Victoria and Albert was
69,9411. ; this was to the 9th of September, 1843 ;
her subsequent expense was 43,8061.—making a
total of 113,7471., but this expense was incurred up to
the 19th of April, 1848, only. Beyond that period to
the present we have no official return, but as five years
have elapsed since the last was published, and the yacht
has undergone refits, alterations, additions, and improve-
ments, yearly since, we may fairly set down a large sunk
in thousands of pounds for those annual refits ; and after
all, what do we find ? Why, that three-deckers and
two-deckers go ahead of her when put upon their mettle,
and her Majesty very naturally does not like to see her
model vessel eclipsed in fleetness by lumbering men-of-
war ; and so, with a consideration for expense which every
Englishman ought highly to estimate, prefers having her
old yacht altered to putting the nation to the expense of
a new one. We proclaim this is highly creditable to the
Queen, but her Majesty should not be suffered to make
such shifts, nor would such be advocated by any other than
a Scotch-headed Government (general as well as naval). If
the ordered increase of length would make the Victoria
and Albert more efficient, more comfortable for her
officers, or more permanently serviceable as a seagoing
1 family ship for the Sovereign, we would be the first to
hail with approbation the contemplated patching, but
when we know that no amount of alteration short of
that applied to Paddy's worn-out gun (which needed a.
new stock, lock, and barrel) will ever make the Victoria
and Albert what the Queen's seagoing steam-yacht ought
to be, we cannot but deeply regret that so much money
will be added to that already thrown away upon her in
so futile an endeavour. Her Majesty prefers a paddle-
wheel steamer to a screw, owing to the former giving
less vibration astern than the latter, and therefore we
imagine that the more sightly screw yacht will not be
adopted for the Royal pleasure ; we would therefore like
to see an efficient paddle steam-yacht carrying the Royal
standard, and this the present Victoria and Albert never
will be made.

It is almost beyond belief, but it is nevertheless the
truth, that this Victoria and Albert, which should have
been a model of perfection from the first, has the most
beggarly accommodation for those who are obliged to
berth themselves permanently on board of her of any
vessel afloat. Fancy the noble and esteemed Commo.
dore being berthed in a dark cupboard, as it were, below
the water line, with certainly a scuttle-hole to admit
what little light and air can penetrate through it from
just above the surface of the briny element without !
Yet this is, and has ever been so ! Again, imagine two
gentlemen (her principal officers) being apportioned only
one berth in common between them—the one obliged to
undress and turn into bed on a sort of shelf over the
other !—to wash, &c., before the other ! But so it is on
board the Sovereign's pleasure yacht Victoria and Albert !
Such a state of things is not only derogatory to the cha-
racter of the Court movements afloat, but is altogether
indecent. Such ill accommodation might be expected
in a merchantman of "economical" proportions, but
when there is, as in the present instance, neither lack of
materials, workmanship, nor labour, and moreover
ample funds from the national treasury willingly pro-
vided for the support of the Queen's dignity and comfort
afloat, we cannot permit such glaring inconsistencies
and improprieties to escape stricture. We are quite sure
that with the limited complembnt of officers her Majes-
ty's yacht carries (she has neither an officer of Marines
nor a chaplain, strange to say), ample room might be
provided for all the Royal circle, the Court attendants,
and domestic retinue, and still leave proper quarters in
which to berth her own staff; and whether the present
yacht be lengthened or a new one built (and this latter
course we would earnestly recommend), we trust she
will never again put to sea with the Queen on board
under such undignified and unwholesome circumstances
as those we have related.

(From the Morning Herald of this day. )
We have yet some hopes that common sense and good
taste will prevail, and that the Queen of England will
not have a patchwork yacht for the Royal aquatic excur-
sions, but a handsome, comfortable, easy, and roomy
ship, of unrivalled speed—a vessel worth showing to the
world as a specimen of British naval architecture and
engineering skill. The Victoria and Albert was a bung-
ling affair from the commencement. She was bad in
design, and bad was made worse in the unauthorised
alterations that were made by her builder. Her machi-
nery was neither adapted for the vessel, nor tlfk vessel
for the machinery. Her accommodations on the whole
were execrable ; for although the Royal apartments
were roomy, the other portions of the yacht were miser-
ably cramped. She ought to have been faster for the
power placed in her, but she had always hot bearings,
and nothing but new boilers almost every year could
make her go at a respectable pace. Moreover, she
always had an ungainly list, and nothing could bring
her to a graceful trim, for, do what they would, she
dropped down by the head, and they were obliged to
raise her bulwarks forward to " keep up appearances."
Take away the ,gingerbread, and the gilding, and the
painting, and she was the ugliest tub afloat. We firmly
believe that nothing but the most extraordinary and in-
cessant care and attention, shiftings, and contrivances
on the part of all on board, from the noble commodore
downwards, and especially we may say from Captain
Crispin's skill and ingenuity, has saved her from con-
demnation for many years.
And it is for such a faulty constitution as this that
the Navy Office doctors are called upon to prescribe.
The task is an impossible one. The case is hopeless.
Spend 100,0001. and she will still be "a mess and a
cobble." She may go faster, but she will have the same
tug-like bow and barge-like stern.
Her Majesty has most condescendingly put up with
the inconveniences of the yacht, and has been silent as
to her imperfections. But the time has arrived for the
country to show their gratitude to the Sovereign, and to
provide her Majesty, the Mistress of the seas, a vessel
worthy the Royal acceptance—worthy to be called the
floating palace of the Queen of that empire on which the
sun never sets.

( From the Times of this day.)
Her Majesty's yacht Victoria and Albert, Captain
Crispin, flag of Rear-Admiral Lord Adolphus Fitzcla-
Fence, G.C.H., is under the shears in the steam basin,
having her engines taken out preparatory to being docked
for lengthening 63 feet, which we believe will be done.