The following year--1881--a cruise of even more extended scope was undertaken. The 'Hornet' left Dover on May 20, and proceeded down Channel to Dartmouth under the command of Mr. C. E. Seth-Smith, assisted by Mr. A. B. Woodd, Mr. Dodd again acting as boatswain and Mr. Brooks at his old post. At Dartmouth all hands signed articles. On Tuesday, May 24, the steam launch and boiler having been got on board, the 'Hornet' left England for the South at 9 A.M. and lost sight of the English coast at 11.15 A.M., Prawl Point being her point of departure. The weather on her passage out was on the whole favourable, and on Tuesday, May 31, the Burlings, fifty miles west of Lisbon, was sighted, the ship's run from noon of the 30th to noon of the 31st having been 218 knots. On June 3, after a period of light winds and calm, the ship being about 120 miles west of Gibraltar, it came on to blow from the eastward, and the square fore-topsail was got in for the first time since leaving Dartmouth. On June 4, the wind increasing to a whole gale from the east with heavy sea, they stood in shore to south of Cape Spartel and lay to 'up and down' in Spartel Bay all night. Next day, the weather moderating, the 'Hornet' stood over to the Spanish coast and sighted Gibraltar Rock at 6.15 P.M., for which she stood steadily in; but at midnight, being becalmed, she was towed in by the gig, and at 2.30 A.M. the anchor was dropped in six fathoms off the Ragged Staff in Gibraltar Bay, after a passage from Dartmouth of thirteen days. The interval between June 6 and 11 was spent at Gibraltar in necessary cleaning and repairs, in exploring the Rock and its neighbourhood, and in giving and receiving hospitalities; and at noon on June 11 a start was made for Tangier, where the 'Hornet' arrived at 5 A.M. There she remained until the afternoon of June 12, when, the sights of the old Moorish town having been seen and various Oriental purchases made, the anchor was weighed for Cadiz. At 4 A.M. next day Cadiz was sighted, a pilot taken on board, and at 9.30 A.M. the anchor was let go in Cadiz Bay. At Cadiz a halt was made until June 17, employed by the ship's company in excursions to Seville and Jerez, and in seeing at Cadiz the procession of Corpus Christi and a bull-fight, distinguished on this occasion by the bull-ring taking fire. At 11.30 on the 17th a start was made for Lisbon. From Cadiz to Cape St. Vincent was a beat to windward, until on the 20th they were becalmed off the Cape. A breeze springing up in the afternoon, Cape Epischol was sighted, and at 9 A.M. on the 22nd a pilot was taken on board for Lisbon, and the 'Hornet' sailed in with a light breeze by the south channel, and let go her anchor between Belem and Lisbon at 2 P.M.