The year very nearly closed with a naval disaster of
the -first magnitude. On Wednesday, December 20th, the 'Re- solution,' a new first-class battle-ship, while proceeding to Gibraltar, encountered in the Bay of Biscay a gale of great violence. The ship proved herself anything but seaworthy, and rolled so terribly that a lifeboat hoisted 30 ft. above the load-line went under water, and was carried away, while the fires were nearly put out by the water that poured into the ship. An officer on board, described as a man both of pluck and practical knowledge, gives, in a private letter published in Thursday's Times, an appalling account of the Resolu- tion's' instability. In moderate weather, she rolled forty-two degrees each way, and when the gale was encountered all on board felt that she could only survive if her head were kept to the sea, and that any deviation of the helm would mean destruction for the 700 men on board. The " rollers " caused by the storm were so high that they blocked all view of the horizon from a bridge 37 ft. high. "Forty feet is a low estimate of the height of these rollers. During the squalls, the whole surface of the sea was torn up and simply driven along in a sheet of spray mixed with hail- stones. The sight and noise were horrifying." The letter ends with a very significant passage I have no fault to find with the gale or with the ship during the gale. She per- formed her part splendidly so far as it went. What is certainly a serious matter is this evident want of stability. There is not a man of mature age in the ship but feels he is in a thoroughly unsafe ship." In opposition to this, we must note that on Thursday Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth denied in the House of Commons the vessel's instability, and generally minimised the danger through which the ship passed. We fear, however, that seaworthiness is not the strong point of the modern ironclad.
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