The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-16 00:00:00

Artillery Experiments at Portsmouth.

The shell firing from the 70 pounder rifled guns
at the Alfred target ship was continued yesterday
under the supervision of the same members of the
ispecial committee who were present on the previous
occasion and under the same general conditions.
Previous to the regular firing commencing however
eight of Mr Whitworth's 21 inch shells were fired
from his gun at the ship. These shells contained
each a bursting charge of 51b., just double the
bursting charge of the ordinary shell now being
tested against the Shunt and Wedge gun shells,
half a pound in excess of the bursting charge of the
Shunt shell. The weight of the 21-inch Whitworth
loaded shell does not exceed that of its ordinary
loaded shell (701 b.), although its bursting charge is
double that of the latter, this being attained by
lengthening the shell and thinning its metal, The
eight rounds were fired with the following results :
—No. 1 grazed the water 20ft. from the ship, and
burst on graze ; fuse too sensitive ; No. 2 entered
the ship and burst inboard ; No. 3 pissed through
the ship, meeting apparently with no resistance,
and continued its flight with a peculiar screaming
noise to a considerable distance beyond the ship.
The firing was now suspended for a time, and a
visit of inspection made to the target ship. The
ship's decks, as is usual on such occasions, had all
been carefully swept, and the splinters all removed
from them at the conclusion of the day's previous
firing, so that the results of one day's work should
not by any chance interfere with the other.
On the committee reaching the Alfred they found
that the first shell, which exploded about 20ft from
the vessel's bow, had opened a considerable frac-
ture, about 6ft. by 27ft. in the ship's external
planking, and had let daylight through the ship's
hold. The exploded shell had struck the ship just
above the water line, but the full power of the shell
had not been developed on the ship, owing to its
having burst just clear of her side, No. 2 struck
the ship's bow in a sound part—that is, unshaken
by any previous shell, having struck in the im-
mediate vicinity—and at
.the back of a massive
wooden and ironbound knee on the lower
deck. The knee was split through, from top to
bottom, and thrown out of position. The shell
was slightly thrown out of its course by the resist,
anco it met with in the knee as it entered the ship,
and, deflecting forward, burst in the open on the
lower deck.

In this case the fuse appeared to have been scarcely
sensitive enough, as had the shell exploded on re.
ceiving its check by the knee the result would have
been made more disastrous and satisfactory. The
third shell was found to have passed through a
broken portion of the ship's side, meeting with only
just sufficient resistance to capsize it, but not to start
the fuse, and thus give it that peculiar screaming
sound spoken of as accompanying its after flight.
The committee having concluded their inspection
now returned to their station on the Erebus's decks,
and the remaining five shells were fired thus :
No. 4 burst in the ship ; No. 5 passed through the
ship, and burst on striking the water at some dis.
tance beyond; No. G burst in the ship, low; No. 7
burst in the ship, apparently very high ; No. 8 burst
in the ship.

A second investigation of the target ship was now
made, and the effects of the last five shells were
found to be as follows:—No. 4 had entered the
maindeck forward in a line with the ports, crashed
through the knee of the portbitt, through the main-
deck planking, and lodging in the beam below, about
midships, had there burst and blown the beam to
pieces for about 3 feet, and bent the jagged ends
downwards. Everything near suffered, and the
general effees proved the awful havoc which must
necessarily be occasioned by the bursting of a shell
after having a complete lodgment io any solid wooden
structure. No. 3 was found to have passed through
a former shell fracture, and it therefore caused no
damage to the ship. No. 6 had entered the lower
deck, and burst about 10 feet in and clear of the
side. Part of a beam was cut away, and there
was other damage to beams and stanchions, be. ;
but, as the shell burst in an open space, the
efforts were necessarily much less than with No, 4.
No, 7 entered the ship under the upper deck -water-
ways, and entering the end of a beam there, burst,
and blew the beam for about 10ft inboard from the
ship's side into matchwood in the air above, and a
portion of the upper deck plinking with it. No.
8 entered the ship just above the main deck plank.
ing, past through the fore hatchway port eoamings,
and burst just the moment before striking the op-
posite coamings and a beam-end.
The results of this experimental firing with the
eight 21-inch shells gave an amcunt of damage far
in excess of that effected by any other like number
of shells during the present course at the Alfred,
and this calculation includes the after firing which
took place yesterday from the three guns with
their ordinary shell, and which took place in the
following order

Wedge breechloader—shell, 411 b bursting charge
—gun's powder charge, 91b, en ricochet.—No. 1
grazed 60 yards from, and burst on ship—No. 2 hit
direct, and burst in ship—No. 3 hit direct, and
burst in ship—No. 4 struck at waterline, and burst
—No. 5 grazed 20 yards from, and burst in ship—
No. 6 grazed 10 yards from, and burst in ship—
No. 7 grazed 6 yarns from, and burst in ship—No.
8 grazed 25 yards from, and burst in ship—No. 9
grazed 90 yards from, and went over ship, and did
not burst—No. 10 grazed 30 yards, and burst in
ship. _ _

Shunt gun, muzzleloader—shell, 4lib bursting
charge—gun's powder charge, 101 b, on ricochet,
continued from three rounds fired on Monday.—
No. 4 burst prematurely 20 yards from the muzzle
of the gun—No. 5 grazed 70 yards from, and burst
in ship—No. 6 grazed GO yards from, and burst in
ship—No. 7 grazed 20 yards from, and burst in
ship—No. 8 grazed 45 yards from, and burst in ship
—No. 9 grazed 60 yards from, and burst in ship—
No. 10 burst prematurely between the muzzle of
the gun and ship.

Whitworth gun; shell, 211 b bursting charge;
gun's powder charge, 10Ih, en ricochet —No. 1
struck near the ship's water line, and burst inside—
No. 2 grazed 5 yards from the ship, and burst on
graze—No. 3 grazed 30 yards from ship, and burst
on graze—No. 4 hit direct, and burst very low in
ship's hold—No. 5 bit direct, and burst inside, low
down—No. 6 grazed 5 yards from ship, and burst
well inside—No. 7 grazed 90 yards from ship, and
burst on graze.

Shunt gun, en ricoched.—No. 1 hit direct, and
burst inside—No. 2 grazed 40 yards from ship, and
burst inside—No. 3 grazed 20 yards from ship, and
burst inside—No. 4 grazed 20 yards from ship, and
burst inside--No. 5 grazed 20 yards from ship, and
burst inside—No. 6 grazed 20 yards from ship, and
burst inside.

Wedge gun, en ricochet.—No. 1 grazed 00 yards
from, and burst in ship; No. 2 grazed 5 yards from,
and burst in ship—No. 3 grazed 40 yards from, and
burst in ship—No. 4 grazed 50 yards from, and
burst in ship—No. 5 grazed 60 yards from, and
burst in ship. _ _

The ship ;vas, by the time the last shell was fired,
nearly a ruin above water, and at the same time
barely afloat. On her port side, or that she pre-
sented to the gunboat, there were several holes near
the water line made by the shells from the shunt
and wedge guns, while on the opposite side one of
the Wte.tworth small shells had burst against the
inner planking on the bow, and, like the shell from
the shunt gun on the previous day, had opened a
hole, the lower edge of which was just awash with
the water line, so that one of the launch's crew
might easily have crawled through from the boat
into the ship's bold. Under these circumstances, it
became impossible to heal the ship over either way,
and she thus presented a striking illustration of a
ship with a hole punched in each of her Bides near
hir water line of too ever a nature to admit of
temporary repairs, and t,,,1;09e captain must feel
under each cirenmetereeq that whatever his next
rnarirtvre might b 2 his ship mist inevitably sink
from under him and his crew, and the only chance
of safety lay in hauling down his ship's colours and
abandoning his luckless ship to her fate.
The special committee found themselves in a
somewhat similar position yesterday at the close of
the firing we have recorded, and the hauling down
of their ensign on board the Erebus signalled
" cease firing," and it will most probably not be

resumed until the Alfred has been placed in dock
and her damages at and near waterline tempora•
rily repaired. This will, it is expected, n acoom•
plished by Friday next.