_Coster_. "SEE THAT, LIZ? THERE'S A COUNTRY FOR YOU!"]
* * * * *
[Illustration: PEACEFUL PERSUASION.
(JONES IS NOT NATURALLY A GENEROUS MAN.)]
* * * * *
THE ROMANCE OF A BATTLESHIP.
_(From the Navy League Annual of 1916.)_
I have just returned (writes a Naval correspondent) from an
interesting visit to the condemned battleship, _H.M.S. Indefensible_,
which is now anchored off Brightlingsea, in the charge of retired
petty-officer Herbert Tompkins and his wife.
The history of _H.M.S. Indefensible_, as gathered from the lips of her
present curator, is so romantic as to be worthy of permanent record.
In reply to my first question, "Whom did she belong to first of
all?" Mr. Tompkins said, "Well, she was ordered first of all by the
Argentine Republic, but, owing to a change of Government, they sold
her to the Italians. I remember the launch at Barrow quite well," he
said. "It was a mighty fine show, with the Italian Ambassador and his
wife--the _Magnifico Pomposo_, they called her, I think it was--and
there was speechifying and hurraying and enough champagne drunk to
float her. That was just three years ago: a super-Dreadnought, they
called her."
"Then how did the British Government get her?"
"Lor bless you, Sir, that didn't come for a long time yet.
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