A bad accident occurred on Wednesday on the Solent. The
royal yacht 'Alberta,' with the Queen on board, was steaming across the channel at 16 miles an hour, when it ran down the 'Mistletoe,' a yacht of 120 tons, owned by Mr. Heywood, of Manchester, who was on board, with two Misses Peel, his wife's sisters. The ' Alberta ' clove the ' Mistletoe ' in two, the master was killed, and the elder Miss Peel, with a sailor, and, it is believed, a cabin-boy, were drowned. The inquiry is not yet completed, but it is suggested that the master, who is dead, was directed to get as near the Royal yacht as he could, as the ladies wished to see the Queen, and then, finding himself too near, tried to get his yacht out of the way, whereas he _should have held on, the rule of the road—eyed by the 'Alberta '—being that a steamer should always give way to a aailing-vessel. It has not, howcier, been shown why the 'Alberta,' travelling at railway speed across a crowded arm of the sea, and with half-a-dozen officers on deck, was not kept one hundred yards off the much less manageable yacht. The officers of the 'Alberta' gave every aid to the sufferers, Commander Fullerton, in particular, repeatedly diving after Miss Peel, and the Queen, who was on deck, was greatly affected. It would be wise, remembering the usual pace of the Royal yachts, to adopt a rule that everything is to make way for the Royal flag.
