HMS Princess Alice

HMS Princess Alice (1844)

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Name	Princess Alice	Explanation
Type	Packet
Acquired	January 1844
Hull	Iron
Propulsion	Paddle
Builders measure	270 tons
Displacement
Guns	1
Fate	1878
Class
Ships book
Note	Purchased
Snippets concerning this vessels career
Date	Event
11 January 1848	Commanded by Lieutenant commander Thomas Swain Scriven, Dover
25 April 1862	Commanded by Master Richard Cossantine Dyer, Plymouth, tender to Royal Adelaide
*Extracts from the Times* newspaper**
Date	Extract
Th 15 September 1853	WOOLWICH. Sept 14. The Cyclops steam frigate, in charge of Mr. Alexander Pope, assistant to the master attendant at Sheerness Dockyard, left Woolwich in the forenoon of to-day, with the boilers and engines of the Nile, for Devonport. The Admiralty have decided on discontinuing the Dover mail packet service, and that the mails between England and France shall be carried in future by contract steam-vessels. The present Dover mail steam-packets are — the Garland, Lieutenant-Commander Edward Wylde; the Onyx, Acting Second Master E.C. Rutter; the Princess Alice, Acting Second Master John Warman; the Violet, Lieutenant-Commander Henry P. Jones; the Vivid, Acting Master Luke Smithett; and the Undine, Acting Second Master Edmund Lyne, all paddle wheel steamers. Four of these vessels it is contemplated to dispose of, and reserve two for further service as tenders at some of the naval ports. It is also said that Captain Smithett will be appointed to the command of the Black Eagle, Admiralty steam-yacht, at Woolwich; in that case her present commander, Mr. John E. Petley, will, in all probability, be appointed Superintendent of the Compass Department, which has not been filled up since the death of Captain Johnson.
Tu 24 August 1869	THE CRUISE OF THE LORDS OF THE ADMIRALTY. (FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT) H.M.S. AGINCOURT, PLYMOUTH SOUND. Monday, Noon Plymouth Sound was never before so well defended as it was this morning, when the sun, breaking through the mists which hung thickly over land and sea, shone down upon eleven magnificent ironclads anchored under the lee of the breakwater. The Monarch and Inconstant had joined during the night from Spithead, making the number of ships to sail this afternoon under the Admiralty ensign seven in all, and fortunately giving the fleet the company of our first and as yet untried seagoing turret-ship Monarch. The Black Prince entered the Sound yesterday afternoon from Bermuda, having left there on the 31st ult., and the Warrior anchored here last night from Spithead; neither of these vessels, however, will take part in the coming cruise. The Warrior would have joined had it been considered possible to get her ready in time on her arrival from Bermuda, but this anticipated cause of delay, although it has been got over, has now been supplemented by another in a change in her command, and our first and still handsome and formidable ironclad will not, therefore, join in the cruise. This is to be regretted, as it leaves a gap in this division of the combined fleet at sea previous to joining the Mediterranean division. With the Warrior in company, two lines or divisions equal in numbers could have been formed, but under the present conditions one division must necessarily be of four and the other of three ships. Vice-Admiral Sir T.M.C. Symonds, K.C.B., commanding the Channel Fleet, hoisted his flag at 8 o'clock this morning on board his flagship, the Minotaur, Captain James G. Goodenough, on his return from short leave. An official notice has been issued that letters from England will find the combined fleets at Gibraltar from the 1st to the 4th of September, both dates inclusive, and at Lisbon on the 13th. The ships which sail to-day from England will arrive at Queenstown on the 27th of September. The arrangements for the ships of the Channel Squadron to weigh this afternoon and proceed outside to wait for the Agincourt remain unaltered, and they are expected to leave the Sound about 5 p.m. Mr. Childers will arrive at Devonport from London by the 5 p.m. train, and go on board the Agincourt about 6 p.m., when she will immediately leave the Sound and join the other ships outside. By midnight the whole will be well off the land, and steering a course to clear Ushant, en route for Gibraltar. (BY TELEGRAPH.) At noon to-day most of the ships in the Sound belonging to the Channel Squadron weighed one anchor, took in all boats, and got up steam. At 4 30 p.m. the Minotaur started from the centre of the Squadron under steam only. Wind, S.S.W., light; weather, fine ; tide, first quarter's flood. The Minotaur was followed by the Bellerophon and Hercules. The Northumberland, being the easternmost ship, had to wait until the others were clear, and left at 4 50 p.m. The Inconstant started at 5 and the Monarch at 5 30 p.m. Mr. Childers, the First Lord, who came down by the South Devon Railway, went on board the steam tender Princess Alice, at Millbay, at 6 p.m., under a salute of 19 guns from the flagship Royal Adelaide, Captain Preedy, in Hamoaze. Within 15 minutes his Lordship left the tender, and proceeded in the Port Admiral's barge to the Agincourt, on board which lie was received with yards manned. The Admiralty flag was then hoisted at her mainmast, and was saluted by the Plymouth Citadel and by the Monarch, which hove to off the Rame Head, outside the harbour. At 6 30 p.m. the Agincourt returned the salutes, and at 7 followed the other ships for Gibraltar. The Warrior and the Black Prince are the only ships of war now left in the Sound.

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