Channel Squadron in a Gale

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 88, 8 January 1885, Page 3

Channel Squadron in a Gale

The Channel squadron, tinder the command of Vice- Admiral, the Duke of Edinburgh, which left Plymouth for Gibraltar on the 20th ult., is reported to have experienced very heavy weather on the passage. The squadron ran across the Bay of Biscay in exceptionally fine weather, but as b^ojlos they got out of the Bay bad ■weather was experienced, and the ships rolled in a very unusual manner. Friday the 24th ult., is said to have been the most unpleasant day ever experienced in the squadron. # The ships rolled so heavily that exercise at gen- j eral quarters had to b,e abandoned. ■ The sea ran "mountains high" in the > afternoon, and the enormous hulls _ of the ironclads were tossed about like jolly boats. The Agincourt buried two of her lee quarter boats in the water and were only saved after great difficultly. So badly did the ships roll that his Royal Highness the Vice- Admiral ordered the j extreme roll of each ship to be rcgis- } tered, and the result after an hour's observation was as follows: — Minataur, ,48 degrees; Agincourt, 53; Achilles, 52 ; Northumberland, 65 ; Neptune, 42; and Sultan, 38. Anxious faces were watching the Neptune, as she had never before been subjected to so severe a trial. The huge waves repeatedly burst on her decks, which ■were so flooded with water that the crew were wading about waist deep. During the time the gale lasted there was much confusion on board, nearly all the ship's. mess traps, mirrors, pictures, gun-cases, portmanteaus, chests of drawers, and other articles being scattered about in all directions.