Her due, too, must be given to the 'Old _Alex_,' as the Navy used to call the favourite flagship of the Fleet during the closing years of Queen Victoria's reign. On board the _Alexandra_ (Captain C.F. Hotham) Mr. Israel Harding, the chief gunner of the ship, won the V.C. Just at ten o'clock, about three hours after the action began, a 10-inch spherical shell crashed through the _Alexandra's_ side, at a part where the ship was unarmoured, and with its fuse burning rolled along the main-deck. With great gallantry and presence of mind, Mr. Harding, who from below had heard the shout, 'There's a live shell just above the hatchway!' rushed up the ladder, and taking some water from a tub near by, dashed it upon the burning fuse, after which he seized the shell and plunged it bodily into the tub, rendering it harmless. For this act of valour, which undoubtedly saved many lives, Mr. Harding was deservedly awarded the Victoria Cross. The shell was presented to His Majesty King Edward, then Prince of Wales. It was in the circumstances by no means an inappropriate presentation. The _Alexandra_ was so named in honour of Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, then Princess of Wales, who launched the ship on an April day of the year 1875 that Chatham is not likely to forget. On the stocks, until a few days before she was sent afloat, the ship had been known as the _Superb_, and her re-naming as the _Alexandra_ was meant as a special compliment to her royal sponsor, which met with universal applause. It drew forth, among other poetical tributes elsewhere, the following Latin verses in the _Times_:-- THE LAUNCH OF THE ALEXANDRA Fulcra securifera fabri succidite dextra; Omen habet primas si bene tangit aquas. Dicite--Sit Felix--proraeque invergite vina; Nomen _Alexandrae_ dulce _Superba_ tulit. Nomine mutato, sit et omine fausta secundo; Sit sine rivali, nec tamen ipsa ferox. Jam neque tormentis opus est, nec triplice lamna, Forma tumescentes sola serenat aquas. Te capiente capi qui non velit ipse phaselus, 'Ferreus, et vere ferreus iste fuit.' H.K. To add to the _eclat_ of the _Alexandra's_ launch, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Tait), with the Bishop of Rochester, conducted the religious service on the occasion--the first time that a religious service of any kind had been used at the launch of a British man-of-war since the Reformation. To Queen Alexandra we owe the restoration of the ancient usage of invoking, at the outset of their existence, the protection of Almighty God on the ships by which our homes and our Empire are guarded, and also on those who are to man them; and the practice, so instituted, has continued to be observed at the launches of all British men-of-war, ever since the launch of the _Alexandra_.