8 MY MEMOIRS

Prince Adalbert, who had begged to be allowed to command the squadron, was no longer in the zenith of his power, but after some hesitation the King granted his request—to celebrate his resignation, so to speak —and we went to the Azores. Instruction on these armoured ships was still influenced by the customs of the sailing-ships: we even tried to sail on this voyage, but the hulks refused to move. The position of the Prussian Navy at that time is characterized by the fact that we had no dockyards for big ships in German harbours. When the ships were commissioned sufficient weight was not given to the fact that an iron ship must be docked every year to be cleaned. When the war with France began to smoulder, our squadron had not been docked for several years; we calculated later that the Konig Wilhelm had over sixty tons of mussels on its sides which had reduced its speed from fourteen to ten knots. An engine defect compelled us to run into Plymouth for a lengthy period of repair and the English admiral offered us his dock. It is still not clear to me why we did not accept it; it was stated in the officers' mess at the time that the Prince was the difficulty, because he could not stay all the time in the dockyard. However that may be, we steamed back through the Channel in the middle of July, without having been into dock, and in daily expectation of being attacked by the French, against whom our only defence would have been practice shot (filled with peas) and a fuse which misfired at every opportunity.