The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 16, 1860,

RETURN OF THE PRINCE OF
WALES.

(FROM THE TIMES' SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

HER MAJESTY'S SHIP ARIADNE,
PLYMOUTH, Nov. 15.
After a dull and tedious voyage of nearly 27 days,
his Royal Highness and suite completed their long
American tour, and landed in England again to-
day. The length to which the voyage from Port-
land has been protracted—a length only equalling
the average winter passages of sailing ships—may
probably have given rise to apprehensions in the
public mind as to the " rose and expectancy of this
fair State" being buffeted about in all directions by
the rudest of rude storms. For the romance of the
delay, however, I am almost sorry to say there was
but little of this. Few winter passages across the
North Atlantic have lasted so long in which the
ships have fallen in with so few storms or heavy
seas. It was especially desired to make a quick
passage-14 days was the outside spoken of at Port-
land—but there was nothing but a long gloomy
average of fogs and head winds, relieved now and
then by a gale in the opposite direction to that in
which the ships were going, and in contending
against which that insatiable monster of the deep
—leeway—soon swallowed up the fruits of previous
days' hard steaming, and left the squadron to begin
de novo with increased impatience but diminished
coal. To this and other causes must be ascribed the
reason why Albert Edward was the first Prince of
Wales who ever spent his birthday knocking about
the Channel in a south-easterly gale, and to the same
reason, I suppose, we must ascribe it that the Hero,
the crack steam line-of-battle ship in the English
Navy, made, on the whole, rather a poor passage
for a sailing New York trader. I say the Hero
made a bad passage, for the Ariadne could have
been in England in less than 12 days had it been
required ; but whether the Hero went fast or went
slow (the latter was the rule), her consort was
bound to keep her company, and it necessitated
almost as much work on the part of her crew
in shortening sail to keep behind the flagship
as it would to have accomplished one of the fastest
passages ever made by any frigate in the service.
It is now very nearly a month since I closed my
last letter, detailing the progress of his Royal High-
ness through the Udited States. Scarcely anything
remains to add to that transient record save his
arrival and embarkation at Portland, and having
followed his Royal Highness throughout " unto
this last," a few words more will suffice to bring to
a conclusion the narrative of the first great public
colonial visit ever made by a Prince of Wales.
The good citizens of Portland seemed, on the
whole, to be rather disappointed that the Prince
could make no formal visit to their town, and that
it was merely used, intact, as a port for embarka-
tion. It was only doing justice to their hospitality
to state that they left no effort untried which could
induce his Royal Highness to extend this part of
the programme into a more lengthened visit, and
in the hope that they might be successful they had
arranged a little series of excursions and fetes for
their illustrious visitor, which by dint of early
rising and late travelling might possibly have been
got through in a week. But the fiat had gone forth
that the Prince would embark on the 20th, and so,
as on every other occasion of this long and varied
tour, the programme was adhered to, to the day,
the hour, and the minute. It must have been almost
a painful office for those intrusted to carry out these
arrangements on'the route to have to refuse these
continual kind offers of respect and welcome which
were pressed upon the Royal party at every town
through which they passed. They were refused,
however ; had they not been, the Prince could
scarcely have got through his tour in less than 12
months. So Portland, like the rest, had to remain
contented with its good intentions, and expend its
hospitality on the officers of the Royal squadron,
to whuui before the arival of the Prince
a magnificent Ball was given, and every
possible kindness and attention shown during
their short stay. There were the same scenes
of enthusiasm in Boston on the day of the
Prince's departure as on his arrival, only differing
in character. It was less a welcome than a kind
and regretful farewell. On this day, as on all the
days during the Prince's visit to this fine old city,
the English and American flags were intertwined
over the monument erected to commemorate the
battle of Bunker's-hill. Long after the train had
left Boston this great column could be seen with
its rival banners for the first time floating together
over the emblem of bygone strife. At Portland
there was no formality about the reception, The
people were out in thousands, cheering and de-
lighted—kind and respectful as everywhere, quite
content if they only saw the Prince, and knew that
he in turn saw and appreciated their welcome.
There was a short drive made round the town,
and then the party went to lunch at the Prebble-
house, for there was much leave-taking to be gone
through and, kind Canadian friends to bid fare-
well. Mr. Rose, of whom all had so many warm
recollections, was there, with Mr. Cartier, the
Prime Minister, the Mayor of Montreal, and the
leading gentlemen connected with the series of
superb entertainments which that great capital of
Canada gave the Prince. There were gentlemen
too from Halifax and New Brunswick, Quebec
and Toronto, London, and Hamilton. All who had
been in any way concerned in the magnificent dis-
plays and receptions of the great Canadian
colonies were waiting to wish his Royal High-
ness a happy voyage back, and take a kind leave
of their young visitor, who on that soil will
always be remembered with pride and affection. A
little before 3 o'clock his Royal Highness left the
hotel to embark. Nearly two months previous it
had been arranged that the departure should take
place from Portland at 3 p.m. on the 20th of
October. " The day and the hour" had come, and,
with the same perfect accuracy which had distin-
guished every movement of the long progress, this
last appointment was kept, Crowds thronged the
streets down to the wharf, the hill overlooking it
was black with people, the ships in the bay were
dressed with colours. There was great shouting,
cheering, and waving of handkerchiefs as his Royal
Highness, with the chief members of his suite,
stepped into the Hero's barge, and one long-shouted
farewell seemed to fill the air as the boat shoved
off from American soil, and the first Prince of Wales
who has ever visited the United States quitted the
shore with the love and good wishes of all its
people. There was a moment of ceremony as the
Hero, Ariadne, Flying Fish, Nile, and Styx manned
yards and slowly thundered out a Royal salute.
Another salute as the Prince's standard went up to
the Hero's main. Then "boats recall" was hoisted,
and before 5 o'clock the Royal squadron was steam-
ing out of the harbour. One last salute was given as
the vessels passed the forts. It was returned gun for
gun, dotting the hills with smoke, till the crowds
were hidden and the land lay in a dim blue haze,
which gradually sunk lower and lower in the
; horizon.

On board the Hero the Prince, with all the im-
mediate members of his suite, was embarked. The
Ariadne had only two of the Prince's travelling
companions, if I may so term them—the son of
Lord St. Germans, the Hon. Mr. Elliot, and the
Hon. C. Ellis, the son of Lord Howard De Walden.
The pretty little Flying Fish took no one ; for in a
vessel of such small size and comparatively low
speed :it was not unreasonably conjectured that a
winter passage over the Atlantic would be both a
long and an uneasy one. How she has made her
way through it is still unknown, for there was rather
a strong swell on, with an adverse wind, the first
night of departure, in which she was not able to
maintain the speed of the other vessels, and gradu-
ally dropped more and more astern, parting com-
pany towards the middle of the night. It will very

likely be a week or ten days before she makes Eng-
land.

A winter voyage across the Atlantic is the same
for Princes as for other people—that is to say,
always a long, dull, and comfortless affair—a damp
mon otonyof days and nights,slightly broken now an d
then by a thick fog or a sharp gale. On this run, and
in going out, and as all through Canada and much of
the United States, his Royal Highness had his usual
ill-luck with regard to weather. There were head
winds, there were calms, there were fogs, and in the
short intervals when the breeze was favourable
there was so much of it and to spare, that on the
whole one rather wished the calms and fogs were
back again. There was no desire to be fastidious
on board the squadron. Any wind with West in it
would do. But, of course, this never came but
once, when there was such a considerable admixture
of the westerly element that I think everybody in
his heart was glad when it was gone again. It is
astonishing what an amount of discomfort is con-
cealed under the saying of a " Thirteen knot gale
in your favour." For the first two or three days
out both the Hero and Ariadne were under steam.
The former was at full speed, the latter at less than
half, and having to resort to every nautical artifice
to keep her place behind the flagship. In spite of
all, however, this beautitul frigate kept ranging up
alongside and ahead of the Hero. There seemed to
be no keeping her great speed within bounds, and
between the intervals when the watch turned up to
shorten sail the main deck forward echoed with an
impromptu song among the sailors, with the chorus
of " Wait for the Hero, wait for the Hero, wait for
the Hero, she's a long way behind." There were
" chaffing" signals, too, going on between the ves-
sels as to the state of passengers on both, and ironi-
cal offers of medical assistance in case they were
very bad. In these, however, the Ariadne had
much the best of it, for, with the exception of his
Royal Highness and one or two others, the knot of
passengers on the poop of the Hero was lamentably
thinned by the first one or two days' head sea. Now
and then the Ariadne ranged up so close alongside
that both parties could converse from their respec-
tive quarter-decks by writing out their questions on
black-boards, and holding them up. Once, indeed,
the Ariadne came so close that both could speak
with ease. This experiment, however, was only at-
tempted once, for a heavy swell was running, and
the two ships were within a hair's-breadth of coming
broadside against each other, when the consequences
might have been serious. Their yards actually
touched, and nothing but the speed of the Ariadne
and the indomitable coolness of Captain Vansittart
saved them from actual collision. Even as it was
many ran below, thinking the masts and spars
would be about their ears. After this slight escapade
open order was kept, except in fogs, when the
Ariadne had to follow, almost touching the Prince's
vessel. These fogs were as frequent as on the voyage
out, and were a source of perpetual anxiety. Every
officer on board the Ariadne was determined, come
what might, not to part company with the Hero.
Yet the danger—to say nothing of the difficulty of
keeping together when both were steeped in yellow
clouds, impervious to light, and almost to sound—
can easily be understood. The mists seemed by their
very weight and density to make the ocean dumb,
and only a huge, silent fog swell, which seemed
almost supernatural in its mute undulations, gave
evidence that the vessels were really at sea. Every
mast and spar was hidden, fog lights were useless
even at a few yards off they only shone with a dim,
thick, yellow glare, which might be a mile off or a
yard for anything one could distinguish. The very
sea itself was blinded out by this wet, dun, choking
atmosphere, and as far as sight or sound could tell
the Ariadne or the Hero might both have been, rs
they really seemed, in the clouds. Voices could be
heard on board the Hero, and the creaking of her
masts and cordage as she drooped over and over
from side to side with the swell; but not a vestige
of her form or lights could be discerned for a
single instant. The fog hung, in fact, on every-
thing like a pall, and seemed to check sight and
noise, and even motion. The hero used to go
ahead, sounding her fog whistle, till the shrill
alarm was faint in the distance, and stifled in
the thick air. Then the Ariadne would follow,
sounding hers, till close upon the flagship, when
the Hero again took up the scream and went
ahead ; and in this manner, moving step by
step, the nights and days would pass. On these
occasions Capt. Vansittart, and Mr. Phillips, the
first lieutenant, seldom left the bridge for an in-
stant. It was both dull and anxious work, espe-
cially as the fog always melted into a thick calm,
leaving the vessels lounging from side to side with
a heavy idle motion like a couple of " jibbing"
horses that would back, or rear, or sidle, or do
anything, in fact, but go on. The Ariadne carried
coals enough for her voyage home, but the Hero
only stowed some six or seven days' fuel, most of
which, of corse, was reserved in case, as it really
happened, of their coming on this coast with
easterly winds against them. But, in spite of the
care with which the coals were husbanded, it was
evidently of no good lying becalmed 600 miles off
Portland, so on Thursday, the 25th, both vessels
got up steam, and went a-head, the Hero at full
speed, and the Ariadne keeping her place with ease
at little more than one-third, and with only from
81b. to 101 b. steam in her boilers. On Friday, the
26th, a signal was made to the Ariadne to tow.
The idea of a 26-gun frigate towing a line-of-battle
ship through rather a heavy swell seems almost ab-
surd, but the Ariadne, either under sail or steam,
can do such feats as were never heard of from a
steam frigate before. So the Ariadne took the
Hero in tow, and actually dragged her along
through a heavy rolling swell at the rate of nine
knots an hour. Such an effort appears almost in-
credible, and I must own that, had I not seen it
myself, I should have found some difficulty in be-
lieving that any frigate afloat could possibiy have
done it. Both ♦essels were rolling rather heavily,
and the hawser kept tightening and vibrating like
a harp-string. No one knew the instant it would
part, and as it was taken along the Ariadene's up-
per deck, where the men could not possibly be al-
ways kept clear of it, it was a constant source of
anxiety to all. It went at last with a terrific snap
at about 5 a.m. on the 27th. There were plenty
of men near it when it parted, but providentially
it sprung into the air and went clear over th e
stern without hurting any one. At that time
the long-wished for wind had come at last from
the north-west. The towing, therefore, was not
renewed, but both went on under all plain sail, the
Ariadne shortening hers every hour to keep up
with the Hero. During Saturday the breeze
freshened more and more, the sea got up as the
glass went down, and the wind came in fierce
squalls, driving showers of sleet and hail before it.
On Sunday it blew more than half a gale, and hour
by hour, reef after reef was taken in by the Hero,
and, of course, the Ariadne was obliged to follow
the example. Both ships began to roll rather
heavily, and stray traps went crushing about—the
Ariadne creaked and groaned in every timber, the
wind moaned and howled through the shrouds in
every tone of hoarse and dangerous anger, while
the clouds of hail drove over everything, and kept
ringing and spinning, from the deck like small
shot. Everything was dark, wet, noisy, creaking
below, while above nothing could be heard but the
hurried tramp of the sailors, the roar of the storm,
and dash of the spray as it leaped up over the
ship's side on to the deck. This was the 12-knot
breeze in our favour. About 3 a.m. on Monday
this brief storm was at its worst, and struck down
upon both ships in a succession of angry squalls.
The Hero was abreast of the Ariadne, not quite a
mile to windward, no longer towering with a mass
of canvass moving with stately undulations over
the ocean, but with a few wet, black-looking sails,
close-reefed, and rolling quick and heavily—a mere
hard-struggling, weather-beaten ship. The squall

which the copper-coloured clouds foretold came on
her first with a hoarse, loud roar, as if a mountain
was in motion. At once it split both her foresail
and her mainsal, and heeled her sharply over.
What more it did I cannot say, for the storm
seemed to muffle her up with clouds of mist and
hail, till in a short time her outline only loomed
faintly through the haze, like the shadow of a ship
upon a watery cloud. The Ariadne's turn came
next. With a loud premonitory rush of hail and
dash of sea up over her sides, the wind struck her,
as sailors say, "like a hammer." The reefed
maintokail split at once. Then the forestaysail
went. The almost instant destruction of this
sail was a wonderful sight. The block holding
it broke up, and the huge mass of wet canvass blew
out 'slatting in the wind with a fierce noise like
volleys of musketry, and jerking every timber in
the ship as though she was actually striking.
Another minute and this, the newest and strongest
sail in the ship, had blown away piecemeal in little
shreds and fragments. With this squall the thick-
ness of the weather increased, till even the dubious,
greasy light of the moon was damped out. A t last
the clouds partially cleared at six o'clock, and then
the Hero was nowhere to be seen. The last that
had been seen of her was through' the mist, when she
was apparently heaving to to reef. So the Ariadne
hove to also till nearly nine o'clock, in the hope of
her consort being still in the neighbourhood. At
nine o'clock the gale was almost as bad as ever,
but the sun was bright for a short time, yet still
the flagship was nowhere visible. Blank conster-
nation fell on all the Ariadne's, from captain to
crew, for to part thus, after all their long days and
nights of trouble, was felt to be mortifying indeed.
After a delay of two hours and more, Captain Van-
sittart came to the conclusion that the Hero must
have run before the gale, and was still ahead.
Acting upon this supposition, which proved to be
quite correct, all the sail which the Ariadne could
safely carry in such a heavy breeze was crowded
on, and away she went, tearing through the waves
at the rate of more than 13 knots an hour. For
the credit of this noble vessel, however, I grieve to
say that in this her first real trial in a heavy sea
she proved rather an uncomfortable ship. It is
true she was running almost before the wind and
through the trough of a very heavy sea; but,
making every possible allowance for these disad-
vantages and her weight of coal, it still by no
means accounted for her tremendous lurches. She
rolled with a deep, slow, heavy motion, as if almost
at times about to capsize. To say that she dipped
her main deck guns under water, of course means
a great deal, but even this is short of what the
Ariadne accomplished in her unwieldy gambols. She
rolled from 24 to 26 degrees to'windward,:and from
30 to 36 or even 38 to leeward. In some of her
lurches over to leeward it was only possible to guess
at the number of degrees she went, but her inclina-
tion may be judged froi.: the fact that in one tre-
mendous dip she made she actually dipped her
quarter-boats into the water. This was certainly
her worst, though she very often heeled over so as
to bring the boats within a few inches of the sea.
The shot was sent below from the upper deck, and
the long 68-pounders so lashed that, unless she
actually turned over, they could never move. Two
of the light brass howitzers forward, however, were
capsized, and some anxiety was felt during the
heaviest rolls lest any of her huge main-deck guns
below should get adrift. Fortunately, however,
they had been well secured, and never moved
an inch. All our troubles, however, were
forgotten when, though the gale still blew, the
weather cleared, and the man at the mast-head
haijed that the Hero was in sight. It was only
from the mast-head, however, that she could be
seen under the very meagre allowance of canvass
which Commodore Seymour meted out to her on all
occasions—about 14 or 16 miles ahead. The instant
the discovery was made, additional sail was crowded
on the Ariadne, and the way she tore through the
water was " a caution." The Hero herself must at
least have been going 10 knots before such a wind,
and a stern chase is proverbially a long chase ; yet
in less than five hours after first sighting her from
the mast-head the Ariadne was alongside once more,
and the Hero signalled how glad she was to be re-
joined by so good a consort. -With the night the
wind—the only favourable wind we had—died
away, and left both ships rolling helplessly to the
bidding of the long, smooth swell. Then came calms
by day with fogs by night, then more idling and
rolling, getting a start of wind for a few hours to
raise momentary hopes of still making a fair pas-
sage ; then again calms, and yet more fogs, till the
chances of reaching England under 14 days waxed
fainter and more faint with each day's non-pro-
gress. Then the Ariadne would tow again. To
prevent danger from the hawser parting while on
board, the end was made fast to the shackle of
her stream cable—a huge piece of iron, equal,
according to the calculation of the dockyard au-
thorities, to nearly three times the strength of
the towing hawser. Yet before the towing had
lasted half an hour the shackle broke, and left the
Hero adrift. I would venture humbly to suggest
that the Lords :of the Admiralty should see this
wretched piece of iron-work. The fracture shows a
worse kind of metal than one would expect to find
in the coarsest pig-iron. Yet on the strength of this
shackle the Ariadne herself, with all on board,
might have to depend for safety in her most trying
emergencies. It is impossible that it could have
been tested at the dockyard before it was issued, as
it broke at less than half the strain it is professed
to have been proved to. A larger shackle was
then got up, and with this the Ariadne again set
to work, and pulled the Hero through the water
some 200 miles, making every timber in the ship
reak and work awfully under the strain. After 20
hours of this work the hawser parted on board the
Hero, and as there was then a little wind the tow-
ing was not renewed, but both vessels crept on
under sail, the Ariadne, as usual, though having
her mizentopsail and topgallantsail backed, dodg-
ing about on all sorts of tacks to keep with the
flagship. In this manner, now creeping on for a
few hours with a faint wind, then steaming a little
through calms and fogs, the Ist of November found
the ships in that part of the ocean called " the be-
ginning of the Chops of the Channel," with the sea
like glass, fogs by night with a long fog swell, and
a steady easterly wind against us during the day.
On this, the Ist of November, we were 600 miles
from the Lizard—at noon on Monday, the sth, we
were 430. These figures give the best idea of the
amount of progress made in this time. The Hero
had not coal enough to steam, and the wind was
too strong in the day, and the swell too much at
night, for the Ariadne to tow. Thus day by day
and hour by hour was
.passed, with these two fine
ships lying all but idle in the water, and everybody
fuming and fretting for the fair wind, which the
more it was wanted " the more it wouldn't come.'
Gn Monday, the sth, there was another at-
tempt made to tow the Hero, but then there
was a heavy swell on, and after some three
hours the hawser parted again, and both ships
jogged on as usual, creeping up slowly to wind-
ward, and passing many sail of merchantmen
similarly engaged. At last, on Monday night, the
sth, the glass fell, and a strong south easterly gale
set in, the very foulest of all the foul winds that
could have chanced to us. Of course there was
nothing for it but to close reef the topsails,
tand
ekeep
dodging about to remain as near tl
ntootstaoy
the Channel as possible. Thisilltoouwn.
be done. The gale was fierce, tmake
both sea was not high, though high enough to
eh
v strangeer was
both vessels generally uncomfortable and wet below.
were passed with no sign of
Thus the 6th and 7th
the wind abating, and the two ships still staggering
heavily to leeward across a sea of dirty-looking
foam.
Everybody studied the barometer, which
still kept obstinately high, and everyone thought
the wind must come round on the next day, though