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Published: 1845

Total Pages: 114

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Comic work intended to lampoon the sea trials of an experimental squadron conducted by the British Navy in the autumn of 1844. The naval trials came about during Sir William Symonds' (1782-1856) tenure as Surveyor of the Navy, when an acrimonious three-cornered debate ensued between his "empirical" school of thought, the "scientific" school based on the first School of Naval Architecture (closed down in 1832), and the "traditional" school centered round a number of Master Shipwrights from the Royal. In the present volume, the ships are portrayed with comic surrogates: the HMS Albion depicted by Britannia on a white stead; HMS St Vincent as a bishop on a bull; HMS Caledonia as a witch on a donkey; and the HMS Queen as Victoria on an elephant. The first trials were conducted in 1844 when HMS Queen performed poorly and this is in all probability why the artist has depicted the ship as Victoria bestriding an elephant. These trails continued into 1845 but were deemed inconclusive and Symonds resigned.