LOSS OF THE "EURYDICE." 227 



and the tough oars bent to the stalwart efforts of the oarsmen. The boat sped onward 

 in the chase, but ere this the steam-tug had on her own account altered her coarse, and 

 by some cause or other came round, and made again for the point whence she had 

 started. Having described a complete circle, she again started off on a voyage en zigzag, and 

 then made direct for Calshot lighthouse. Here the men on the look-out descried her 

 position, and having launched and manned their own boat, also started in pursuit. The 

 race now became truly exciting, the course of the steam-tug being utterly uncertain and 

 irresponsible, according as her helm shifted to and fro at the sport of the waters of the 

 Channel. By this time, however, she had run some distance, and at length her speed 

 .gradually diminished, her steam giving out, when her paddles stopped from sheer exhaustion. 

 'The crew from the lighthouse were the first to board her, and her own crew coming mp 

 about twenty minutes after, she was at length got into working order, and brought safely 

 into dock. It appears that the crew had some justification, for leaving her, the vessel leaking 

 seriously, and being in imminent peril of going down. 



From Southampton Water to the beautiful Isle of Wight is a natural transition. To 

 fully describe its coasts and fishing- villages and watering-places, and other points of interest, 

 would occupy a large volume. Cowes and Ryde, with their regattas and generally festive 

 look; Osborne, with its royal residence; Shanklin and Blackgang "Chines"; Ventnor and 

 Niton; Alum Bay and " the Needles/' will be familiar to the larger number of our readers. 

 Inseparably connected with the gay little island must ever be remembered an event which 

 -cast a gloom not merely over the households of hundreds of direct sufferers, but over 

 ihe length and breadth of the entire land. Need it be said that we refer to the terrible 

 loss of that fine training-ship the Earydice, with its living freight of three hundred young 

 and promising sailor lads, in sight of laud and home, and just as they were nearing, after 

 long foreign service, the haven of their hopes. 



" For there came down a squall, and the snow swept the wave 

 Like a white winding-sheet for the brave man's lone grave ; 

 And with scarce time to glance a farewell at the sky, 

 The three hundred went down without e'en a cry." 



On the morning of March 25th, 1878, the country awoke to one of the most painful 

 and unlooked-for catastrophes that have befallen the navy during the present century 

 that of the Captain hardly excepted, for certain doubts had always been felt as to how the 

 bulky ironclad would behave in a heavy gale. " One of the finest corvettes of her class 

 that ever floated," said a competent authority, " commanded by a captain and officered by 

 men of the highest professional experience, and with a crew young, but sufficiently trained, 

 .and numerous enough in nautical parlance to have 'torn her to pieces/ capsizes, with the 

 loss of every soul on board her but two. Such a calamity, taken in all its bearings 

 .and with such a loss of life, is unparalleled in the modern history of the navy. It 

 is true that about forty years ago a man-of- war schooner (the Pincker] , very much over- 

 masted, was, off the ' Owers/ not very far from the same spot, capsized in a heavy squall, 

 and all her hands were lost, although she was in company with a corvette at the time, 

 But the Euri/dice was not over-masted, and she went down in broad daylight and in smootli 



