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234 A portrait of this yacht, engraved by Henry Moses in 1827, is here reproduced, and represents her leaving Portsmouth harbor under full sail. The Royal Sovereign proved a very fast vessel, and Knowles in his Naval Architecture, published in 1822, gives the lines of this yacht, which are here reproduced, and refers to her as follows: "The Royal Sovereign, launched for the particular service of his Majesty in the year 1804; a ship whose exterior and interior are of incomparable beauty; but, whose ornaments, splendid as they are, will scarcely be considered by the artist as more than adequate to the beauties of her form, and her qualities as an excellent sailer and a good sea boat; in which respects she has been found superior to all her predecessors, and the most perfect vessel of her class ever constructed. Upon one fine morning, when his Majesty was on board, in the summer of 1804, The Royal Sovereign quitted Weymouth Roads, and proceeded on a cruise, accompanied by the Royal Charlotte, yacht (built in the year 1749), the Princess Augusta, yacht (built in the year 1710), and a frigate. The new yacht excelled her companions so much, in point of sailing, as to drop anchor in the Roads, upon her return, at six in the evening; while the Royal Charlotte did not arrive until ten o'clock at night, the frigate until midnight, and the Princess Augusta until six the next morning; an unquestionable proof of the very great superiority of The Royal Sovereign; of a superiority which gives her the eminent distinction of being beyond controversy, the best sailer of the British Navy."