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

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 disc
tance beyond; No. 6 burst in the ship, low ; No. T
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 fiva shells were
found to be as follows :—No. 4 had entered the
maindeek 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 jsgged ends
downwards. Everything near suffered, and the
general effects proved the awful havoc which must
necessarily be occasioned by the bursting of a shell
after having a complete lodgment in any solid wooden
structure. No. 5 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, ec. ;
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 planking with it. No.
8 entered the ship just above the main deck plank-
ing, past through the fore hatchway port coamings,
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 amount 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, 41lb bursting charge
—gun's powder charge, 91b, en ricocket.—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 yards 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, 4ib bursting
charge—gun's powder charge, 101 b, et 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 60 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, 101 b, 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
gre Z3—No, 3 grazed 30 yards from ship, and burst
on graz:—No. 4 hit direct, and burst very low in
ship's hold—No. 5 hit direct, and burst inside, low
down—No. 6 grazed 5 yards from ship, and burst
well inside—No. 7 grazed 00 yards.from ship, and
burst on graze.
Shunt gun, en ricochet.—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 90 yards
from, and burst in ship; No. 2 grazed 5 yards from,
and bunt 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 \Veitworth 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, eo that one of the launch's crew
might easily have crawled through from the boat
into the ship's hold. Under these circumstances, it
became impossible to heel the ship over either wey,
and she thus presented a striking illustration of a
ship with a hole punched in each of her sides near
her water line of tan scvcro a nature to admit of
temporary repairs, and whose captain must feel
under such circumstances that whatever his next
manaaavra might be hia ship mint inevitably sink
from under him and his crew, find the only chance
of safety lay in hau:ing 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, accom.
plished by Friday next.