In the small hours of the morning it was decided to utilise the fair wind, which was freshening a bit, by making sail, and dispensing with the services of the tug. Accordingly, the jib was hoisted, the topsails loosed and the sheets dragged home; there was not enough "beef," as Jack would say, to hoist them, so they bellied out, all loose and baggy, with the following breeze, a sorry sight for a man-o'-warsman; that smart seaman, Captain Harris, must have found it go sorely against the grain to leave them so. He had a certain compensation, however; for no sooner did she feel the old familiar pressure on the masts, than the _Britannia_ asserted herself as a ship with a reputation under canvas, and came tumbling after the tug, which had just been cast off, and whose best speed, unencumbered, was probably about six knots, in such lively fashion that she almost ran over her. Along the chalk cliffs from St. Alban's Head the little squadron passed in the dim light of early morning, the long snake-like breakwater, and the wedge-shaped island of Portland gradually showing up more clearly. The cadets began to come up in twos and threes, their hands stuffed well into the pockets of their monkey jackets; soon, however, they were summoned to "bring ship to an anchor," as the _Britannia_, with the _Trafalgar_ still in close attendance, rounded the breakwater and approached her moorings, already laid down. Not even Captain Harris, however, would venture on the experiment of picking up moorings of this class under sail, in a three-decker, jury rigged, with her topsails on the cap; so the anchor was in readiness for letting go. "Fourth division, up on the poop, and man the spanker outhaul!" Up they went, and realised immediately how extremely cold a fresh east wind can be on a February morning, as they held the rope in their benumbed fingers awaiting the order. "Haul out the spanker! Hard down with the helm!" and the _Britannia_ gracefully rounded to, topsails all shaking; as she lost her way, the anchor splashed, the cable rumbled out, and she brought up, close to the dockyard "lump" supporting the heavy moorings. In such fashion was the arrival of the _Britannia_ on her new station; and as the present writer happened to be one of the fourth division above referred to, and has a vivid recollection of that morning--particularly of the biting wind--the account may be taken as moderately accurate. The cadets were sent for a run on shore in the afternoon, while the dockyard men, assisted by a party of seamen from the _Trafalgar_, got in the moorings.