The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-28 00:00:00

the ship's side 12ia beyond the plate's inner surface. No.'s
shot struck the plate in a central and undamaged part, went
clear through and buried itself with the broken fragments in
the side of the ship, the outer surface of the shot being 3in
below the plate's outer surface. No. 3, the last shot, also
struck the plate in a central and undamaged part, and about
2ft aside of the last shot. It cut its way in with 9!in dia-
meter, aboue one third of the plate's thickness, and then
carried everything before it on to the lower deck of the tar-
get ship, The shot in passing through the broken pieces of
the plate increased the diameter or the hole it made en en-
tering the plate from 91in to 3ft at the other end. It passed
entirely through one side of the ship and struck against the
opposite side. The shot entering the plate by a hole 9.'-,in in
diameter passed into the ship bya hole 3ft in diameter, tear
ing five planks away from the inside, and covering both aides
of the deck for some distance round with broken pieces of
wood and iron. One piece of the plate, measuring 17in by
14in, was picked up on the ship's deck, 15ft from the side
of the ship where it had entered with the shot, The shot
itself was found on the opposite side of the ship's deck, and
was but very little changed in form. With the above facts
demonstrating the destructive powers of steel spherical
shot, it is necessary to state that the America target frigate,
on which the plates were bolted yesterday, is a razeed
ship, and has a line-of-battle ship's scantling, and that
a careful examination of her condition has satisfied the
authorities that a sounder wooden ship could not well be
found. The condition of the timbers and planking where
the steel shots passed through fully confirms these conclu-
sions.

The following appointments have been made at the Ad-
miralty :—Capt. J. G. Bickford, to the Meander; Capt. F.
L. Barnard, to the Narcissus ; Staff-Commander J. E.
Davis to the Fisgard, additional for temporary service in
the Hydrographer's department; Francis B. Christian,
master, to the Firefly; W..C. Moreton, in the Fisgard, pro-
moted to the'rinalr'Of engineer ; 'Joseph Russell, aesistant-
engineer, to the Ajax ; George Worth, midshipman, to the
Hector; Edward Hinvest, second master, to the Fisgard,
for the Ranger; Richard S. Kiernan and Thomas Owen,
assist,-engineers, to the Fisgard.
The Whitworth and Armstrong Committee, appointed at
Woolwich by the War Department to decide on the com-
petitive merits of the two rival gunmakers, notwithstand-
ing their efforts to bring the trial to an issue, have received
a notification from the Whitworth Company stating that
their arrangements are still incomplete, and that no
definite time can be fixed at present for the trial to take place.
This has occasioned considerable inconvenience and annoy-
ance to the committee, as well as unneceseary expense to
the Government. The whole of the Armstrong guns have
been in readiness for some time past, and are as fellows :
Three 12 pound muzzle-loaders, rifled on the shunt prin-
ciple; three 12-pound breech-loaders, and six 70-pound
breech loaders. The Whitworth guns proposed to be fur •
nished for the trial are six 12-pounders as above and three
70-pounders. The whole of the Government arrangements
have been made for some time past, and various meetings
of the committee have taken place with a view of urging
the Whitworth Company to fulfil their engagement without
delay.