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

TILE QUEEN'S YACHT.

--.---- -
(From the Hampshire Advertiser and Portsmouth
Herald.) .
We are sorry to see every evidence of perpetrating the
bungle we alluded to in our last, relative td altering the
Queen's steam-yacht Victoria and Albert. 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-
ciple, he can guarantee realising a speed of 15 knots an
hour, there is no doubt but that the botching, will be
done. How often have we seen in our walks, espeei.
ally through a poor district, the small signboard hung
out over a dingy dark area, advertising "Mangling
done here." The announctment 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 ;
hes 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 sum
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
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
th'it 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 presenc 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 0 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 ! I
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 complement 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 the vessel
for the machinery. Tier 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 trite, 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.

(Front the Times of this day.)
Her Majesty's yacht Victoria and Albert, Captain
Crispin, flag of Rear-Admiral Lord Adolphus Fitzcla-
rence, 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.

THE GOVERNORSHIP OF GREENWICH

_HOSPITAL.

A. great push seems to be making to impress the public
with the 31aiins of Rear-Admiral Sir James Gordon for
the governorship of Greenwich Hospital—his services are
now being paraded through the newspapers. We regret
this, for although Sir James is a gallant and very dis-
tinguished officer, and has seen a great deal of hard
fighting and sharp service, and, moreover has suffered
loss of limb in engaging the enemies of his country, it
cannot fail to be known that they will not bear compari-
son with the services of his seniors, Lord Dundonald,
G.C.8., and Sir William Parker, G.C.B. It is a pity
that Sir James Gordon is not allowed to enjoy his pre-
sent position. He must be very comfortable where he is
as the lieutenant governor, and his friends are acting a
most indiscreet part in thrusting him before the public
as a rival candidate to the two officers above men-
tioned. We are compelled to say that, whilst Sir
James Gordon has been nursed in successive shore
berths for the last twenty years, with a pen-
sion of 3001. per annum for his wounds, in addi-
tion to the emoluments of his appointments—half-
pay and salary, both Lord Dundonald and Sir William
Parker have been actively employed on foreign stations
the latter in Lisbon, China, and the Mediterranean,
and the former in the West Indies, where he spent all
his pay in reforms and improvements.
The comparison of claims and services is most invi-
dious. With the utmost bad taste it has been repre-
sented as against the appointment of the noble earl that
he is too old, and the inference is suggested that he is
only fit for the infirmary. The only reply to this incon-
sistent and unfeeling allusion is that the admiral is as
active, perhaps more so, than most of the flag officers
on the list. He is in full possession of all his extraor-
dinary faculties, and has a mind fresh enough and
energy sufficient to detect, root out, and reform any
prescriptive abuses that may exist in the Royal Hospital,
Greenwich.
We repeat that if service claims are considered to have
their just recommendation in the selection of the officer
to fill the vacancy at Greenwich, Admiral then Earl of
Dundonald, G.C.8., gazetted on no less tha ine oc-
casions for his daring exploits, will be the new governor
of the hospital.—Morning Herald.

THE NAVY CONTRCT.—The quantity taken on Irish
account is very large, and a considerable portion of it
will be made up in this city by the house of Messrs.
Gould and Co., Mr. Selby Clare, Messrs. George Madder
and Co., and Messrs. P. Murphy and Son, the two lat-
ter firms having been so fortunate as to have their ten-
ders accepted at higher figures than any other contract.
i Ilig parties, The quantity to be made up in Ireland is
4,050 tierces and 1,100 barrels of beef, and 7,800 tierces
and 3,900 barrels of pork; on French account, 1,000
tierces and 500 barrels of beef, and 1,300 tierces of pork ;
on American account, 1,100 tierces of beef, and Dantzic
account 400 tierces and 600 barrels pork. The making
up of such a large quantity of the contract in the city,
and the extensive labour it will afford to the coopering
trade, &0., as well as to other branches of employment,
will be of no small advantage during the winter season.
—Cork Constitution.
ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTER".—A new branch of
this excellent and flourishing institution will be opened
on Wednesday evening, at the house of Br. D. H.
Whiting, Sir Ralph Abercrombie, Charles-street, Hat-
t )n-garden, by Br. Feta 3, District Chief Ranger of
the London United District. A large number of the
most influential members of the order will be pre-
sent on the occasion.