crubbing-brushes, attached the hose
to the fire hydrant, and industriously washed, scrubbed, and holystoned
the decks and cleaned paintwork for an hour, after which the planks were
thoroughly squeegeed and dried. Then all hands went to work to polish
brasswork until eight bells, by which time the ship looked as spick and
span as if she had been kept under a glass case, just removed.

When eight bells struck, Beachy Head bore North-North-West by compass,
distant fourteen miles. Prompt at the stroke of the bell, Mrs
Vansittart came up on deck, dressed in her blue serge seagoing rig, and
bade us a cheery good morning. After receiving Kennedy's report and
verifying the bearing and distance of the headland, she gave orders for
the course to be altered to west-half-south for the run down channel.

It was at this time a clear and brilliant morning, the sky a hard blue,
streaked here and there with mare's tails, the sun, pallid and without
warmth, hanging low over the French coast well on our port quarter. The
breeze was blowing fresh and very keen, although, running before it as
we were, we did not feel anything like the full strength of it. Of this
we could only get a correct idea by observing the run of the short,
bottle-green channel surges breaking in foam all round us, and the way
in which a few brigs and schooners, the former under single-reefed
topsails, beating up channel, lay down to it and flung the spray over
their weather catheads. There were a good many craft going our way too,
both steam and sail, the latter, like ourselves, making the utmost of
the good fair wind by showing to it every rag that they could spread.
But we overhauled and passed them, one after the other, with the utmost
ease; and when, a little later, the breeze freshened, we began to give
some of the steamers the go-by as well.

By noon we had brought Selsea Bill square abeam, some sixteen miles
distant; and at two o'clock in the afternoon, when I went on deck after
luncheon, Saint Catharine's was a point abaft the beam, distant eight
miles. At nine o'clock that night we were abreast of the Start, when,
Mrs Vansittart having determined our distance from the Point by a
couple of bearings taken an hour apart, ordered the studding sails to be
taken in and the royals and mizen topgallant sail to be furled. We then
"took our departure", and, hauling our wind on the port tack, shaped a
course for Ushant, which was sighted and passed at three be