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

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Rear-Admiral D'undas C. 8., Commander-in-Chief of
the Baltic Fleet, returned on board the Duke of Welling-
ton flag-ship at Spithead yesterday, accompanied by the
Captaio of the Fleet, the Roo F. T. Pelham' to make.
arrangements for leave. Each will leave for London
•
this day. •
The.gun;boat flotilla iOr the nest year's-campaign in
the Baltic will he commanded by'Captain •theilion. H.
Keppel (Commodore), Captaiii George Elliot, Captain.
Yelverton and Captain Key.' •• •

, Her Majesty's ateackfrigate Vulcani CetoPPed4r
Bowyear, arrived at Spithead yesterday from. the East,,
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-
ing 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, Capt. Ommanney, left Spithead yes-
terday for 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 left 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 Omar, 91, screw, Capt. Robb, was docked yester-
day at Portsmouth to repair defects.
The Arrogant, 46, screw-frigate, Capt. Yelverton, was
taken into dock yesterday at Portsmouth to repair de-
fects.

The steam-transport Imperador, No. 187, arrived at
Spithead from Southampton yesterday to await orders. 6
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 country 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 steamships 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 Tonrville.
Although under steam only part of the passage, the
Jaynes 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
10 to 11. She parted company with the Duke of Wel-
lingt or at 430 p.m. on Saturday. The boilers of the
J ames Watt are se 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 te iffing, and she may be considered ready
f sea. The officers speak well of her sailing qualities.
Both ships experienced severe snow storms immediately
after leasing. On the 6th inst. the steamers Dragon,
6, Captain W. 11. 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 Rhadamanthus, 4,
from Woolwich, with machinery for ships fitting at De-
vonport, and butlers for the Liffey, 50, intended to ho
launched the first week in January, arrived at Plymouth
on Tuesday, and went into flamoaze.
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.
The shaft for working the paper-mill commeeced 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 k nds 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, eo much in demand at
the preEent moment. Two additional powder magazine
hulks have been taken off the Arsenal, and a third un-
dergoing some necessory repairs and alterations is to be
added in a few days.
The 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 maintained its principle as a good one, and
does not appear to have suffered. An appropriate op-
portunity is now offered of testing the supposed superio-
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 tilled 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 bees
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 Batteraby and Henry
C. Reside, 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 is the Brompton Bar-
racks. The cooking and washing houses are built of zinc,
the former with all the recent improvements. The proxi-
mity of the huts to the barracks, added to the great faci-
lit.es for field operations and pontooning, renders the
locality in every way desirable for this arm of the ser-
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 of 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
Tulioch, let Foot ; Ducal, 28th ; Brown, 48th ; and
Willana, 95th. 900 men, including the 735 named above,
were embarked on Tuesday on board the stearnstransport
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 yester"day ;
Horse Guards, Dec. 10.
" With the view of preventing the inconvenience aris-
ing frorn..the overcrowding of military prisons,
.the Field-
Marshal Conimanding-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