The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-13 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Rear-Admiral Dundas C. 8., Commander-in-Chief of
the Baltic Fleet, returned on boaid the Duke of Welling-
t-,n flag-ship at Spithead yesterday, accompanied by the
Captain of the Fleet, the Hon. F. T. Pelham, to make
arrangements for leave. Each will leave for London
this day.
The gun-boat flotilla for the next year's campaign in
the Ba'tic will bs commanded by Captain the Hon. H.
Keppel (Commodore), Captain George Elliot, Captain
Yelverton, and Captain gee.
Her Majeitfe steam-frigate 'Vulcan Commander
Bowyear, ariived-ar-Spittreted yesterday 'Loot -theingag‘
with 85 invalids in charge ; Capt. Crombie, of the 72d ;
Lieut. Stisted, 12th Lancers ; Surgeon Innis, and one
sergeant also came home in her. She left Malta on the
16th ult., and Gibraltar on the 29th, and experienced
strong easterly winds. On the 7th inst., in lat. 46.24 N.,
long. 10.45 W., she spoke with the bark Geelong, stand-
itsg. S.W. The Vulcan went into Portsmouth harbour
yesterday afternoon, and landed her invalids, who pro-
ceeded to temporary quarters in Forehouse barracks.
The Hawke, 60, Cai..t. Ommanney, left Spithead yes-
terday fel. Falmouth, to winter.
The Colossus, 80, screw-ship, Capt. Robinson, went
into Portsmouth harbour, from Spithead, to refit yester-
day.

The Marlborough, 131, screw three-decker, was un-
docked yesterday, and moved into the steam basin at
Portsmouth, where her machinery will be tested pro-
bably to-day.
The steam-transport Victoria loft Portsmouth for
Deptford yesterday.
The Transit naval steam-transport, Commander C. B.
Johnson, will embark in a day or two 36 officers and
1,039 men of the British German Legion for the East.
The Cmsar, 91, screw, Capt. Robb, was docked yester-
day Portsmouth to repair defects.
The arrogant, 46, screw-frigate, Capt. Yelverton, was
taken iato dock yesterday at Portsmouth to repair de-
fects.

The steam-transport Imperador, No. 187, arrived at
Spithead from Southampton yesterday to await orders.
Her Majesty's yacht Osborne, which was fitted out in
such a hurry to attend on the King of Sardinia, at a
great expense in materials used and damaged, has been,
to the astonishment of everybody, dismantled and re-
turned to ordinary. It seems inexplicable that such folly
should be perpetrated. Those only know the cost of these
sudden fittings up and pullings to pieces again who have
the opportunity of observing the wear and tear, and can
calculate the loss. If a supplementary yacht is needed for
the accommodation of distinguished personages, who may
honour this c3untry with a visit, surely no one will dis-
pute the policy of having one ready, and, if the old Vic-
toria and Albert (Osborne) is not to be adapted to such
service, she should be stripped of her out ward gilding
and thrown into the transport service, where she would
earn something for all the'thousands that have been ex-
pended upon her.
The screw steam ships James Watt, 91, Capt. George
Elliott, and Orion, 91, Capt. John E. Erskine, which
arrived at Plymouth on Tuesday morning, left Kiel on
the 6th of December, in company with the Duke of Wel-
lington and the French ships .Duquesne and Tourville.
Although under steam only part of the passage, the
James Watt accomplished it in four days and 17 hours.
In spite of defective boilers she sometimes attained a
speed of 14 knots an hour, her mean speed being from
10i to 11. She parted company with the Duke of Wel-
lington at 4.30 p.m. on Saturday. The boilers of the
James Watt are so defective that they must be removed.
The Orion arrived a few hours after, having made a pas-
sage nearly equal in speed to the James Watt ; her de-
fects are very trifling, and she may be considered ready
for sea. The officers speak well of her sailing qualities.
Both ships experienced severe snow storms immediately
after leaving. On the 6th inst. the steamers Dragon,
6, Captain W. H. Stewart, and Locust, 3, Commander
Bythesea, belonging to the flying squadron, left Kiel for
Faro when the ice had set in so strongly that the whole
of the squadron must come home shortly.
The paddle-wheel steam-vessel Advice sailed from
Plymouth on Tuesday for Queenstown.
The paddle-wheel steam-transport 4hadamanthus, 4,
from Woolwich, with machinery for ships fitting at De-
vonport, and boilers for the Liffey, 50, intended to be
launched the first week in January, arrived at Plymouth
on Tuesday, and went into Hamoaze.

The iron screw-transport Durham, No. 179, having
landed the lighter portion of her condemned stores at
Woolwich Arsenal, was yesterday, during the flow of
the tide, hauled up to the wharf, where she discharged
some heavy guns brought home from the East. She
subsequently steamed up the river to Deptford.
Tim shaft for working the paper-mill commenced about
two months since in the Arsenal-yard, Woolwich, was
finished yesterday. This addition to the new depart-
ments there has been long in contemplation, and when
completed will form a most important part of the esta-
blishment, and it will supply the whole of the Ordnance
with all kinds of paper in official use. A magnificent
temporary erection is likewise nearly completed, mea-
suring about 300 feet by 200, and is intended for the
purpose of a general store-room, so much in demand at
the present moment. Two additional powder magazine
hulks have been taken off the Arsenal, and a third un-
dergoiug some necessory repairs and alterations is to be
added in a few days.
Toe mortar raft, on which some experiments were car-
ried out at Shoeburyness a short time ago, now lies in
Woolwich dockyard completely dismembered. The raft
itself has maintaened its principle as a good one, and
does not appear to have suffered. An appropriate op-
portunity is now offered of testing the supposed snperio-
rity of the welding system over that of rivets, as the float
has only suffered in the riveted joints. That portion of
the metal is literally torn away, and the rivets have fallen
out, so that the pontoon suddenly filled with water.
The new fortifications at Dale Point, in Milford Haven,
are in a forward state, and, although rot sufficiently ad-
vanced to have the guns mounted, yet the heavy ordi-
nance has been conveyed there by the Government
steamer:, from the dockyard. The measure has been
taken that the machinery erected by the contractors for
moving heavy weights may be made available for lifting
the ponderous pieces of ordnance supplied for the Dale
battery.
The committee for the management of the clothing
from the Crimean Fund for the wounded at Chatham—
viz., Second-Class Surgeons Robert Battersby and Henry
C. Meade, and Staff Captain Rawlins—met at Brompton
yesterday, and distributed to 40 men leaving this day—
to each man a Guernsey shirt, two pairs of stocks, and a
comforter, with which they were highly delighted.
The huts for the officers of the Royal Engineers and
men of the Royal Sappers and Miners at Chatham have
been completed by the contractors for 525 men, and will
be given over this day to Capt. J. Stawell, temporary
Barrack-Master, for the purpose of their being fitted up
with iron bedsteads, bedding, and barrack utensils, 550
Sappers being expected from Woolwich on Saturday, 25
of whom are to be accommodated it the Brompton Bar-
racks. The cooking and washing houses aro built of zinc,
the former with all the recent improvements. The proxi-
mity of the huts to the barracks, added to the great faci-
lities for field operations and pontooning, renders the
locality in every way desirable for this arm of the sou-
-1 vice.

The following appointments were made yesterday at
the Admiralty :—Commander Wm. Horton, to the Ar-
dent ; Lieut. G. W. Carter, to the Impregnable; Lieut.
R. F. Scott, to the Forth ; Lieut. A. R. Wright, to the
Blenheim ; Lieut. L. A. Whimper, to the Forth; Lieut.
A. Dent, to the Sanspareil ; Lieut. G. E. Barnes, to
the Arachne ; George J. Whitehouse, Second Master to
the Royal William ; Wm. Smith, Second Master to the
Victory ; John Fowler, Second Master to the Impreg-
nable ; H. W. Arlidge, Paymaster to the Trusty ; W.
A. Martin, Assistant-Clerk to the Forth ; W. R. Jolley,
Assistant-Clerk to the Thunderer ; E. Rees, Assistant-
Clerk to the Trusty.

735 men belonging to the Land Transport Corps, in
command of Major Ireland and Adjutant Jenkins, es-
corted from Bristol by Capt. M'Court, arrived at the
Plymouth station of the South Devon Railway on Tues-
day afternoon, and were received by Brigade-Major
Ibbetson, Capt. Butt, 79th ; Lieut. Bussell, 23d ; Lieut.
Thackeray, 28th ; and Lieut. Campbell, 48th. This de-
tachment or the Land Transport Corps will be accom-
panied by the following officers of the line :—Capt. Trys-
den, 55th ; Lieuts. Hale and Brodigan, 28th ; Ensign
Tulloch, Ist Foot ; Ducal, 28th; Brown, 48th ; and
Wiliam, 95th. 900 men, including the 735 named above,
were embarked on Tuesday on board the steam-transport
Urgent, Commander Phillips, which sailed yesterday for
the Crimea.
The annexed circular memorandum, directed to the
General officers commanding districts and at Aldershott,
the Commandant at Chatham, and the officers command-
ing cavalry depots and depot battalions in the United
Kingdom, was issued y yesterd
"allo;—rse Guards, Dec. 10.

" With the view of preventing the inconvenience aris-
ing from the overcrowding of military prisons, the Field-
Marshal Commanding-in-Chief is pleased; to direct that,
in order to reserve prison accommodation for the young
soldiers, prisoners of hardened character under sentence
of imprisonment be committed to the nearest county
gaol, whenever the nearest district military prison shall
not afford disposable accommodation, the amount of