DOI Heft:
July to December, 1851
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16608#0195
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
183
H. M. S. "PRINCE OF WALES."
ith the closing of the Exhibition, among
other regrets, we must not omit to
mention those naturally excited by the
fact, that Admiral Benbow Hazy, the
Commander-in-Chief of the Serpentine
Station, has hauled down his flag. The
gallant officer retires into private life,
"carrying with him" (says Hoax's Nautical
Record) " those regrets which have usually
attended his departure from the stations
on which he has served during his naval
career."
Without inquiring too closely into the
Editor's phrase—susceptible, according to
some people, of a double meaning—we
may be allowed to express our regard for
the gallant officer whose career has thus
come to a close. In conformity with the
Admiralty regulations—which require the
transmission of all journals, &c, kept
during a commission, to their Lordships—
the Admiral has forwarded to Whitehall a
variety of documents. We extract a
general Report of his, which alone would
suffice to prove the attention he has paid
to his duties, and which is curiously illus-
trative of the present state of naval affairs. Some may suspect the
Admiral of irony, occasionally; but we must protest against any unjust
interpretation of his valuable document.
"REPORT.
" My Lords, " H. M. S. Prince of Wales, Serpentine.
" In forwarding to you the Log of H. M. S. Prince of Wales
with my Journals, I take the opportunity of making some general ob-
servations, founded on the experience of my commission._
" I am glad to inform your Lordships that the Prince of Wales is
quite capable of sailing. When you heave up her anchor and put sail
upon her (which three of your Lordships, at least, know to be the
necessary preliminaries), she proceeds to move through the water,
according to the usual laws of motion. When you put the helm down,
and ease away the head sheets, and so gradually ' raise tacks and sheets,'
and then haul round the after-yards—' hauling of all,' when the after
sails 'fill'—she tacks according, also, to the usual laws—known to three
of your Lordships. I have not observed that she rolls at all remarkably,
or groans, or tears herself to pieces. It may surprise your Lordships,
but such is the fact. Your Lordships are aware that you rarely have a
vessel (capable of sailing faster than a collier) which does not roll, groan,
and tear, whenever it comes on to blow.
" I have to thank your Lordships for not having caused any altera-
tion to be made in the general build of H. M. S. Prince of Wales, while
under my command. Had your Lordships made a total change in the
build of her stern two or three times, as you did to the Caledonia, it
would possibly have spoilt her, as it spoiled the Caledonia. I thank
you for your abstinence in this matter. It is with great deference that
I ask a question—but, Do your Lordships take so much pains about the
sterns of vessels under the idea that that is the part of them we ought
to show to foreigners ?
" I was prepared, my Lords, when I found that H. M. S. Prince of
Wales was a good sailer, to hear that you were about to have her
changed into a steamer. I remembered the fate of the Penelope (with
all her architectural suitors), and expected to have iiad my vessel
lengthened, in order to undergo the said ' sea change.' I am grateful
to your Lordships for your kindness in this particular.
" The Prince of Wales was supplied with the masts and rigging intended
for her, and suited to her size, and not with those of any other of Her
Majesty's ships of war. The experiment has answered admirably; and
I cordially recommend the custom to your Lordships in future.
" I have occasionally found a discrepancy between the depth of water
in the Serpentine sea as established by Nature, and the depth of wrater
laid down in the Admiralty charts. As duty prompted, I have generally
given the preference to the latter authority. But I would (with per-
mission) suggest to your Lordships that these authorities should be
occasionally compared and harmonised.
" Such, my Lords, are the nautical observations which I have to
submit to you.
" With regard to my public duties, as Commander of a British force, 1
leave them to your Lordships' kind consideration. My conduct in the
difficult matter of the enforcement of the compensation of the boy
Snogg, for the seizure of his punt by the Humane Society, was, I
trust, worthy of a British Admiral. Snogg was compensated. Enough,
my Lords. I remember Athens ; Lisbon !
" I have paid off my crew, under the usual regulations, and they are
all dispersed among the navies of various nations. Apart have joined,
the Excellent, at Portsmouth, to learn gunnery; whence, my Lords,
they will gradually depart—to teach that science to the Americans—
according to the existing custom.
" I am, my Lords,
" With, &c, &c,
" Your obedient Servant,
" To the Secretary of the Admiralty." " Benbow Hazy."
We may possibly glance at others of the late Commander-in-Chief's
documents at a future period.
PUNCH'S NOTES AND QUERIES.
Cock Robin.—" Can any of your correspondents tell me," asks
Scaligek, junior, "who killed Cock Robin ?" An under-graduate,
writing from St. Bees, asks, "whether Cock Robin can be the same
as Robin Hood ? " An antiquarian friend suggests that the Sparrow,
with his bow and arrow, belonged to the old family of the Sparrows,
who used to occupy a house over the archway on the Archery-ground
which has been since pulled down.
The Horner Family.—We have been unable to trace the Horner family
further than the corner into which we were driven when looking after
little Jack Horner, the eater of the Christmas pie. Pies were not
always eaten at Christmas ; but a correspondent, dating from Buenos
Ayres, near Margate, suggests that a Mag-pie may have been the pie
alluded to.
Enough's as good as a feast.—We agree with our correspondent,
Clericus, that " enough " may be a corruption of un ceuf— meaning that
an egg is as good as a feast. The Saxons were the first who, from an
excess of filial piety, taught their grandmothers to suck egg"
A TEA-TOTALLER'S WISH.
Mine be a cot beside a rill,
Where I can always drink my fill,
And underneath an osier's clump
Give me a good old-fashioned pump.
Let me a pleasant brook command,
Where I could drink out of my hand,
Or ask—for lack of other mug—
The nightingale to lend his jug.
A stream should run from north to south,
O'er which I'd hold my watering mouth ;
And if on more I fain would glut,
Give me a good-sized water-butt.
Let others sing the joys of wine—
The cistern's wholesome draught be mine:
I only need a small estate,
Enough to pay my water-rate.
Let me hang idly o'er the marge
Of some full-laden river-barge;
My face in water let me dip,
To catch the fluid on my lip.
Wealth has for me nor charm nor bribe,
While water I can still imbibe ;
Let poets other seasons sing,
But give me a perpetual spring.
Fashionable Departures.
The tide of emigration has fairly set in, or, rather, has set out, from
the Crystal Palace. Half Austria has been crowded into vans of every
description; a portion of Russia has left in cabs; fragments of the
Zollverein have been carried off on trucks; and we have seen bits of
France on the top of an omnibus ; the Greek Slave was driven off in a
spring-cart; and Cain and his Family took their departure in a very
broad-wheeled wagon. _
Not a Bad Dodge.
By a curious coincidence, the name of one of the United States
Commissioners at the Exhibition of Industry was Mr. Dodge. The
Americans could not have selected a better representative, as far as
name is concerned, for they have shown us a great many clever
Dodges that were quite unknown to us before, and we dare say the
Commissioner is the cleverest Dodge of the whole.
183
H. M. S. "PRINCE OF WALES."
ith the closing of the Exhibition, among
other regrets, we must not omit to
mention those naturally excited by the
fact, that Admiral Benbow Hazy, the
Commander-in-Chief of the Serpentine
Station, has hauled down his flag. The
gallant officer retires into private life,
"carrying with him" (says Hoax's Nautical
Record) " those regrets which have usually
attended his departure from the stations
on which he has served during his naval
career."
Without inquiring too closely into the
Editor's phrase—susceptible, according to
some people, of a double meaning—we
may be allowed to express our regard for
the gallant officer whose career has thus
come to a close. In conformity with the
Admiralty regulations—which require the
transmission of all journals, &c, kept
during a commission, to their Lordships—
the Admiral has forwarded to Whitehall a
variety of documents. We extract a
general Report of his, which alone would
suffice to prove the attention he has paid
to his duties, and which is curiously illus-
trative of the present state of naval affairs. Some may suspect the
Admiral of irony, occasionally; but we must protest against any unjust
interpretation of his valuable document.
"REPORT.
" My Lords, " H. M. S. Prince of Wales, Serpentine.
" In forwarding to you the Log of H. M. S. Prince of Wales
with my Journals, I take the opportunity of making some general ob-
servations, founded on the experience of my commission._
" I am glad to inform your Lordships that the Prince of Wales is
quite capable of sailing. When you heave up her anchor and put sail
upon her (which three of your Lordships, at least, know to be the
necessary preliminaries), she proceeds to move through the water,
according to the usual laws of motion. When you put the helm down,
and ease away the head sheets, and so gradually ' raise tacks and sheets,'
and then haul round the after-yards—' hauling of all,' when the after
sails 'fill'—she tacks according, also, to the usual laws—known to three
of your Lordships. I have not observed that she rolls at all remarkably,
or groans, or tears herself to pieces. It may surprise your Lordships,
but such is the fact. Your Lordships are aware that you rarely have a
vessel (capable of sailing faster than a collier) which does not roll, groan,
and tear, whenever it comes on to blow.
" I have to thank your Lordships for not having caused any altera-
tion to be made in the general build of H. M. S. Prince of Wales, while
under my command. Had your Lordships made a total change in the
build of her stern two or three times, as you did to the Caledonia, it
would possibly have spoilt her, as it spoiled the Caledonia. I thank
you for your abstinence in this matter. It is with great deference that
I ask a question—but, Do your Lordships take so much pains about the
sterns of vessels under the idea that that is the part of them we ought
to show to foreigners ?
" I was prepared, my Lords, when I found that H. M. S. Prince of
Wales was a good sailer, to hear that you were about to have her
changed into a steamer. I remembered the fate of the Penelope (with
all her architectural suitors), and expected to have iiad my vessel
lengthened, in order to undergo the said ' sea change.' I am grateful
to your Lordships for your kindness in this particular.
" The Prince of Wales was supplied with the masts and rigging intended
for her, and suited to her size, and not with those of any other of Her
Majesty's ships of war. The experiment has answered admirably; and
I cordially recommend the custom to your Lordships in future.
" I have occasionally found a discrepancy between the depth of water
in the Serpentine sea as established by Nature, and the depth of wrater
laid down in the Admiralty charts. As duty prompted, I have generally
given the preference to the latter authority. But I would (with per-
mission) suggest to your Lordships that these authorities should be
occasionally compared and harmonised.
" Such, my Lords, are the nautical observations which I have to
submit to you.
" With regard to my public duties, as Commander of a British force, 1
leave them to your Lordships' kind consideration. My conduct in the
difficult matter of the enforcement of the compensation of the boy
Snogg, for the seizure of his punt by the Humane Society, was, I
trust, worthy of a British Admiral. Snogg was compensated. Enough,
my Lords. I remember Athens ; Lisbon !
" I have paid off my crew, under the usual regulations, and they are
all dispersed among the navies of various nations. Apart have joined,
the Excellent, at Portsmouth, to learn gunnery; whence, my Lords,
they will gradually depart—to teach that science to the Americans—
according to the existing custom.
" I am, my Lords,
" With, &c, &c,
" Your obedient Servant,
" To the Secretary of the Admiralty." " Benbow Hazy."
We may possibly glance at others of the late Commander-in-Chief's
documents at a future period.
PUNCH'S NOTES AND QUERIES.
Cock Robin.—" Can any of your correspondents tell me," asks
Scaligek, junior, "who killed Cock Robin ?" An under-graduate,
writing from St. Bees, asks, "whether Cock Robin can be the same
as Robin Hood ? " An antiquarian friend suggests that the Sparrow,
with his bow and arrow, belonged to the old family of the Sparrows,
who used to occupy a house over the archway on the Archery-ground
which has been since pulled down.
The Horner Family.—We have been unable to trace the Horner family
further than the corner into which we were driven when looking after
little Jack Horner, the eater of the Christmas pie. Pies were not
always eaten at Christmas ; but a correspondent, dating from Buenos
Ayres, near Margate, suggests that a Mag-pie may have been the pie
alluded to.
Enough's as good as a feast.—We agree with our correspondent,
Clericus, that " enough " may be a corruption of un ceuf— meaning that
an egg is as good as a feast. The Saxons were the first who, from an
excess of filial piety, taught their grandmothers to suck egg"
A TEA-TOTALLER'S WISH.
Mine be a cot beside a rill,
Where I can always drink my fill,
And underneath an osier's clump
Give me a good old-fashioned pump.
Let me a pleasant brook command,
Where I could drink out of my hand,
Or ask—for lack of other mug—
The nightingale to lend his jug.
A stream should run from north to south,
O'er which I'd hold my watering mouth ;
And if on more I fain would glut,
Give me a good-sized water-butt.
Let others sing the joys of wine—
The cistern's wholesome draught be mine:
I only need a small estate,
Enough to pay my water-rate.
Let me hang idly o'er the marge
Of some full-laden river-barge;
My face in water let me dip,
To catch the fluid on my lip.
Wealth has for me nor charm nor bribe,
While water I can still imbibe ;
Let poets other seasons sing,
But give me a perpetual spring.
Fashionable Departures.
The tide of emigration has fairly set in, or, rather, has set out, from
the Crystal Palace. Half Austria has been crowded into vans of every
description; a portion of Russia has left in cabs; fragments of the
Zollverein have been carried off on trucks; and we have seen bits of
France on the top of an omnibus ; the Greek Slave was driven off in a
spring-cart; and Cain and his Family took their departure in a very
broad-wheeled wagon. _
Not a Bad Dodge.
By a curious coincidence, the name of one of the United States
Commissioners at the Exhibition of Industry was Mr. Dodge. The
Americans could not have selected a better representative, as far as
name is concerned, for they have shown us a great many clever
Dodges that were quite unknown to us before, and we dare say the
Commissioner is the cleverest Dodge of the whole.