I was accordingly appointed to the _Thunderer_ as commander. Her captain was John Crawford Wilson (afterwards Rear-Admiral). The Navy lost one of the best officers that ever sailed the seas when he died in 1885. He {147} was mentioned in the Admiral's dispatch for gallant conduct in the affair of the Peiho Forts in 1859, served on the Pacific Station, and was commodore of the Australian station. He was commander of the _Bombay_ screw wooden first-rate, when she was burned off Montevideo on the 14th December, 1864, and when 97 officers and men perished. Many of those who were lost had climbed out on the bowsprit, and when they were forced overboard by the heat, the melting lead of the gammoning (the lead covering to the chain gammoning securing the bowsprit) dropped on them and killed them. It was largely due to the splendid discipline maintained by Wilson that the loss was not far greater. The men held their posts although the flames were licking up through the skids, so that the falls of the last boat, lowered from the yard-arm, were actually burned through. It should be added that in this disaster the Royal Marines enhanced their unrivalled reputation, 34 out of 97 lost belonging to the corps, the sentries dying at their posts. The _Thunderer_ was of 9190 (4407) tons, 6270 (800) h.p., and belonged to the Channel Squadron. She was an improved central battery twin-screw ironclad, designed, with the vessels of a similar type, _Devastation_ and _Dreadnought_, by Mr. E. T. Reed, C.B. In these ships there was no propulsion by mast and sail power. They also embodied the idea of limiting the armament to heavy guns, the secondary armament of lighter guns being omitted. This arrangement, after having been wisely abandoned for many years, was repeated in the _Dreadnought_ of the year 1906, only to be once more recognised as a mistake. One of many reasons why a secondary armament was essential, particularly with muzzle-loading guns, was that, lacking it, the men might have been exposed to the enemy's fire for some time before they could reply, a most demoralising position. These considerations were constantly represented by Captain Wilson to the Admiralty. While the science of gunnery progressed, the element of time has remained a {148} factor in the problem, though under different circumstances. The _Thunderer_ carried two pairs of muzzle-loading guns in two turrets; the foremost pair being 38-ton guns, hydraulic loading, the after pair 35-ton guns, hand-loading. She was belted with 14-inch armour along the water line; and the armour projecting squarely from the hull, its edge struck the water so hard when the ship rolled, that she was shaken throughout her structure. To remedy this defect, wedge-shaped pieces were fitted along the lower edge of the armour. Before I joined the ship she had burst a boiler, the escaping steam causing great loss of life. Captain Wilson, who was in the engine-room at the time, was saved by his