May 7th, 1873
Easter Sunday was very wet at Bermuda & I never left the ship. On the 14th a seaman belonging to the "Royal Albert" ironclad, fell from the main rigging to the bottom of the great iron floating Dock a distance of 70 feet, and was picked up dead. On the 17th we took in an 100 tons of Coal, & caught an Octopus, or Devil Fish in the bathing place. This fish has 8 arms of feelers capable of clinging to anything, a man or a rock, & is the most horrible thing to look at in the world. His eyes and mouth are in the middle of his body, and he looks something between a Dragon, Star Fish and the Devil. A large octopus is capable of holding a man under the water until he is suffocated, they are not often met with, but there is one living in the aquarium at Brighton; our specimen died.

On Sunday 20th all hands went to the Dockyard church, and in the afternoon I had a walk to the Dockyhard cemetry, & spent nearly two hours reading the inscriptions on the Stones &c. You would be surprised to see what a quantity of seamen & Naval Officers have been burtied there, during the last 80 years.....There are 3 Admirals buried there, and a large monument to the 350 Officers & men belonging to H.M. Ships Acorn & Supply; which foundered with all hands between Halifax and Bermuda about 40 years ago. But the prettiest stone of all is one dated 1809 to the memory of 2 midshipmen, brothers belonging to the same ship, one 17 years old, the other only 13, who died within 3 days of each other from Yellow Fever. We are to bring a stone back with us from Halifax to Bermuda, in memory of our Schoolmaster, and the sailor boy who was killed off S. John. The subscription was made for it the other day and over £15 was obtained.

On Monday, April 21st we left Bermuda for Halifax....