At the outset the _Dreadnought_ had the good fortune to be named and sent afloat by His Majesty King Edward personally. That in itself was an exceptional honour, and one that has fallen to the lot of very few ships of the Royal Navy—to be named and sent afloat by the reigning sovereign. There have been just six instances in all, from the earliest times to the present day. Queen Victoria launched four men-of-war during her long reign; but no King of England ever launched a ship in the four hundred years between King Edward and Henry the Eighth: King Edward with the _Dreadnought_ and Henry the Eighth with the _Great Harry_ are the two historic instances. Many of our sovereigns, of course—practically all of them: Edward the Sixth, Queen Elizabeth, the Stuart kings, Cromwell also, George the Third, and William the Fourth—attended in state on various occasions to witness the launch of some notable man-of-war, but they were present only as spectators, and took no part in the actual proceedings. Charles the First was to have personally named the famous _Sovereign of the Seas_, with the same ceremonial used at the launch of our first _Dreadnought_, and rode down with his Court to Woolwich to do so; but they could not get the ship out of dock, and the King rode back to Whitehall disappointed, deputing the Lord High Admiral to name the ship when she did get clear—not till between eight and nine in the evening. Charles the Second, in like manner, was to have personally named our first _Britannia_, but His Majesty was taken ill on the day before. Again too, as it also happened, there was a hitch at the launch. The _Britannia_ stuck fast for twelve hours, and then went off at midnight to the flare of torches and cressets, after which a courier was hurried off at gallop to Whitehall, to acquaint the King, “lest certain base reports (i.e. that the _Britannia_ had fallen over in dock) may have reached your Majesty.”