File:The Gun-Boat Rattlesnake coming to Admiral Baird's fleet with news of the enemy - ILN 1889.jpg

English: The Gun-Boat Rattlesnake coming to Admiral Baird's fleet with news of the enemy. The Naval Manoeuvres. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 31 August 1889.

Volume: 95 , Issue: 2628
W. H. Overend was the ILN's special artist with the A Squadron on board Admiral Baird's flagship HMS Northumberland.

The annual Naval Manoeuvres of 1889

Read the ILN

THE NAVAL MANOEUVRES. The two opposing divisions of her Majesty's equally loyal and patriotic naval forces-that is to say, the Attacking Fleet, under command of Admiral Baird, holding the coasts and ports of Ireland, with orders to do its utmost, in harmless mimicry, against the shores, towns, and trade of Great Britain ; and the Defending Fleet, under Admiral Sir George Tryon, ordered to capture the reputed enemy's ships, to protect the coasts and maritime commerce of England, Wales, and Scotland, and to recover all it can on the Irish shores-have been at war since Aug. 15; but hostilities would terminate on Thursday. Aug. 20. Admiral Baird's fleet, having lost three ships on Saturday, the 17th, in the action that took place in the open Atlantic. some eighty miles south of the Irish coast, in the direction of Cape Ushant, has lain blockaded in Queenstown Harbour, except a squadron detached to pass round the western and northern shores of Ireland and Scotland. But this squadron, composed of the Inflexible, Anson, Collingwood, and Australia, has visited Aberdeen, Wick, Peterhead, and Leith, and has formally conquered these almost defenceless towns. The cruiser Arethusa and others have captured many English merchant-steamers. Our Special Artists - Mr. W. H. Overend, on board H.M.S. Northumberland, the flag-ship of Admiral Baird, and Mr. J. R. Wells. on board Sir George Tryon's flag-ship, H.M.S. Hercules-have furnished Sketches; the most interesting of which are those of the rendezvous of the Attacking Fleet in the open Atlantic, during a thick fog, on Thursday, the 15th; and the battle on the Saturday, in which only three ships of that fleet-the Camperdown, the Hero, and the Immortalite - were engaged, being cut off from the rest and obliged to surrender to a superior force. These ships, with the Anson, Collingwood, and Australia, were intended to enter the English Channel, and to attack the south coasts of England. They were encountered by Admiral Tracey, with the Rodney. Howe, Warspite, and Marathon, and were successively overtaken and captured after a running fight of four hours. The best account of this action, in which the unlucky ships were admirably handled, is that published in the Daily News of Monday, Aug. 19, written by the special correspondent of that paper on board H.M.S. Hero. We give an Illustration also of the arrival of the captured ships in Falmouth Harbour, in charge of H.M.S. Rodney; and of the torpedo-vessel Rattlesnake bringing the news to Admiral Baird at Queenstown. Another interesting Sketch, from Admiral Baird's fleet. is that of the torpedo store-ship Hecla, surrounded by six torpedo-boats, which she has to feed and help, reminding the fancy of a "Hen and Chickens".