THE EOYAL NAVY OF TO-DAY. 231 



find a kindred spirit, while on such a vessel the band will discourse sweet music while 

 you dine, and soothe you over the walnuts and wine, after the toils of the day, with 

 selections from the best operas, waltzes, and quadrilles. Then comes the coffee, and the 

 post-prandial cigar in the smoking-room. At sea, luncheon is dispensed with, and the 

 regular hour is half -past two; but in port both lunch and dinner are provided, and the 

 officers on leave ashore can return to either. Say that you have extended your ramble in 

 the country, you will have established an appetite by half-past five, the hour when the 

 officers' boat puts off from shore, wharf, or pier. Perhaps the most pleasant evening is the 

 guests' night, one of which is arranged for every week, when the officer can, by notifying 

 the mess caterer, invite a friend or two. The mess caterer is the officer selected to super- 

 intend the victualling department, as the wine caterer does the liquid refreshments. It 

 is by no means an enviable position, for it is the Englishman's conceded right to growl, 

 and sailors are equal to the occasion. Dr. Stables remarks on the unfairness of this 

 under-the-table stabbing, when most probably the caterer is doing his best to please. 

 But on a well-regulated ship, where the officers are harmonious, and either not extravagant 

 or with private means, the dinner-hour is the most agreeable time in the day. After 

 the cloth has been removed, and the president, with a due preliminary tap on the table 

 to attract attention, has given the only toast of the evening "The Queen " the band- 

 master, who has been peering in at the door for some minutes, starts the National Anthem 

 at the right time, and the rest of the evening is devoted to pleasant intercourse, or 

 visits ashore to the places of amusement or houses of hospitable residents. 



Before leaving, for the nonce, the Royal Navy, its officers and men, a few facts may 

 be permitted, particularly interesting at the present time. The navy, as now constituted, 

 has for its main backbone fifty-four ironclads. There are of all classes of vessels no 

 less than 462, but more than a fourth of these are merely hulks, doing harbour service, 

 &c., while quite a proportion of the remainder varying according to the exigencies of 

 the times are out of commission. There are seventy-eight steam gun-boats and five 

 fine Indian troop-ships. These numbers are drawn from the official Navy List of latest 

 date. 



It is said that since the ironclad movement commenced, not less than 300,000,000 

 has been disbursed (in about twenty years) by the different countries of the world. Even 

 Japan, Peru, Venezuela, Chili, the Argentine Confederation, possess many of this class of 

 vessel, of more or less power. The British fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral 

 Hornby, in the Mediterranean, &c., though numerically not counting twenty per cent, 

 of the fleets in the days of Nelson and Collingwood, when "a hundred sail of the line" 

 frequently assembled, has cost infinitely more. A cool half million is not an exceptional 

 cost for an ironclad, while one of the latest of our turret-ships, the Inflexible, has cost 

 the nation three-quarters of a million sterling at the least. She is to carry four eighty- 

 ton guns. A recent correspondent of a daily journal states that next to Great Britain, 

 "the ironclad fleet of the Sultan ranks foremost among the navies of the world." Be 

 that as it may, there can be little doubt that if Russia had succeeded in acquiring it, it 

 would, with her own fleet, have constituted a very powerful rival. 



The progressive augmentation in the size of naval vessels has been rapid in Great 



