The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-08 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

On the occasion of the visit of the Duke of So•
merset and the other Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty to the dockyard and naval establish•
merits at Chatham, on Tuesday, they, before leaving
the port, spent some time in the inspection of the
extensive works which have been for some years
past in progress in the vicinity of the dockyard for
the enlargement and extension of the Royal
Marine establishment. The members of the Board,
who were conducted over the works by Mr Rivers,
the head of the department of Admiralty works at
Chatham, first inspected that portion of the dock.
yard which is proposed to form the site of an ex-
tensive range of buildings on which will be erected
officers' quarters, offices, and drillsrooms for the
Royal Marine division, and will form, in fact, a
continuation of the present barrack buildings. The
space which has already been marked out for the
site of the new buildings includes rather more than
an acre of the dockyard, and will render the re.
moval necessary of some portion of the buildings
used in the rope-making department, as well as a
part of the master painter's stores. The official
residence of the master ropemaker, which formerly
stood on the same spot, has been taken down and
re-erected in another portion of the dockyard. It
is also intended to take in a portion of the road
leading to the dockyard, used by the public for
some years past, which will add about half an acre
to the space previously appropriated. The most
important of the alterations in progress, however,
are those connected with the erection of the new
wing to the existing barracks, by which additional
quarters have been obtained for several hundred
men, thus doing away with the necessity which
had for some time eeisted r,f quartering a portion
of the Royal Marines with the troops of the
line in Chatham Barracks. Their Lordships
inspected this portion of the Royal Marine esta-
blishment with much attention, and afters
wards went through the buildings at the extreme
western end, which are now in course of erection,
and which are to be used as the grand division ads
jutant's and paymaster's offices. The block of build-
ings hitherto used as fieldeofficers' quarters, as well
as the quarters for the subalterns, will be taken
down, and the additional space thus obtained thrown
into the barrack-square and parade-ground. The en-
tire work, which has been already two years in
hand, will be completed before the end of the en-
suing financial year, the Lords of the Admiralty
having decided that the whole of the undertaking
shall be proceeded with without intermission.
An order has been received at Chatham directing
one of the vessels attached to the sailing reserve at
that port to be brought forward as a fiegship at
Woolwich to take the place of the Fisgard, 42. The
vessel selected is to undergo the necessary repairs to
adapt her for the service for which she is intended.
The screw corvette Cadmus, 21, 400 horse power,
will leave her moorings at Chatham dockyard to-
day, and steam down the harbour, in readiness to
make her official trial of speed at the Maplin Sands
to-morrow, should the weather prove favourable.
The Fox, screw frigate transport, arrived at Spit*
head yesterday from the Thames, and after receiv-
ing on board Staff Commander Moriarty (late of
her Msjesty's ship Marlborough), her future corn-
mender, she resumed her voyage for Devonport and
other western ports at 4 p.m.
The Royal Sovereign, turret ship, was yesterday
brought down from her moorings in mid-stream in
the upper part of Portsmouth harbour, and again
placed at her old berth alongside Portsmouth dock-
yard. This course has been adopted to enable the
dockyard authorities to compete the required alterae
lions to the ship's fittings on the upper deck about
the middle of January—the stipulated time—it
having been found impossible to carry on the work
satisfactorily with the ship lying at eo great a dis-
tance from the dockyard as her late mooring berth.
Sir William Armstrong visited the ship a few days
since, and made some remarks upon the necessity of
substituting iron gun-carriages for the present
wooden ones. It is open to question, however,
whether it is quite desirable to do this at present.
The wooden carriages now in the turrets of the
Royal Sovereign are undoubtedly warped to a cer-
tain extent, but at the same time not sufficiently
to interfere with the practice of the guns in the
remotest degree, while they have every appearance
of remaining Efficient and lasting as long as the
guns themselves. In the meantime, the Prince
Albert, Wy Tern, and Scorpion turret ships are
waiting for the new wrought-iron carriages which
the authorities profess their intention to provide for
turret ordnance. 'the time, however, when these
carriages will be ready for delivery is not stated.
The Warrior iron frigate remains in her berth
alongside Portsmouth dockyard, waiting a chance
to be docked and prepared for the first division of
the Steam Reserve. Her machinery and boilers
are undergoing the usual overhaul at the hands of
the steam factory officials, as is customary on a
ship being paid out of commission. It is almost
needless to say that Ler engines are in excellent
condition, considering the amount of work they
have done since the ship started on her first trip
under steam from the Thames to Spithead. The
boilers necessarily show the E ffecte of work in a
more decided manner than the engines, but their
deterioration has not at all reached the point anti.
cipated. They have been drilled through in innu-
merable places, Her funnels are, as a matter of
course, worn out, and must be replaced with new
ones. \Whether the boilers will now be removed
from the ship and thoroughly repaired on shore,
or whether they will be patched up on board,
of course rests with the authorities. The most
probable course is that new boilers will replace
the present ones on board, so that the
latter may be thoroughly examined and repaired
at leisure on shore. The Admiralty appear as yet to
have arrived at no cicci.ion as to the course they
will pursue with the ship in preparing her for re.
commission. There are two courses open. The ship
may be refitted in her present form, or her plating
may be continued all round. The first course would
preserve to the ship all her present unequalled ex-
cellencies in point of speed, seaworthiness, and ven-
tilation—while the other course would most pros
bably deprive her of them. If the ship is plated all
round, her figurehead, cutwater, quarter galleries,
O.:co would of necessity be removed—but if the ship
was not opened out in her frame she would have a
much deeper immersion than at present, and would
therefore carry her portails much nearer the water
line. The ship's armour.plating at present amounts
to, as near as possible, 1,876 tons, including her
athwart ship armoured bulkheads. If the ship is
Plated all round and deduction is made for the
weight of the armoured bulkheads, which, under
such circumstances, would be removed, the total
weight of her armour would amount to 2,421 tons.
The Warrior ha; however, so well represented the
nation as its first ironclad that the Admiralty would
be chary of attempting to " improve "her. With a
poop on her quarter deck the Warrior would make
an unexceptionable flagship for the Mediterranean,
while her ventilation and sweetness of atmosphere
between decks is superior to that of any wooden or
wooden ironclad ship in her Majesty's navy.
The Hector, iron frigate, Capt. Preedy, C.B, is re-
fitting alongside Portsmouth dockyard. Pert of the
crew are employed in scraping the ship clean eaters
nally from the watersline, this gives an opportunity
for inspecting the armour-plating, which appears to
be as perfect and rigid in every part as e, hen she
was first brought round to Portsmouth from her
builder's yard on the Clyde. The crew of the Hector
are stated to be inamost unexceptionable state of dis-
cipline. It is rumoured that Capt Preedy is about to
receive another appointment in the command of one
of the Coastguard ships.
Advantage was yesterday taken by Major-Gen,
Sir R. Walpole, K.C.8,, of the favourable weather
to hold a field.day of the available forces under his
command at Chatham garrison. The troops, inciud,.
log the whole of the corps now quartered at Clats
ham, assembled on the Great Lines at 10 o'clock
a.m., in heavy march in g order, and on the arrival of
;Major-General were put through an
.extended
course of brigade and other movements incidental
to a field.clay, returning to their quarters shortly
after noon.
Col. Dickson, of the 16th Lancere—Lieut,sCol.
Chads, of the 64th— Geist. the Hon. H. M. Hobart,
of the 63d—and other officers have rejoined the gar-

rison at Colchester from leave of absence, &c.,
during the past week. Col. A. J. Taylor, Inspector
General of Artillery, has just completed his half-
yearly inspection of the Coast Brigade a' Harwich,
Colchester, Ipswich, Languard Fort, and other
stations in the eastern district, Thi Rev, C. Wool.
lett has been appointed Roman Catholic chaplain at
Colchester pending the arrival of the Rev. Mr Virtue
from Bermuda. Lieut. Hawley, of the Ist battalion,
6th Regiment, and Lieut. Parkerson, of the 82d, are
under orders to join the service companies of their
respeotive corps. Detachments of the 4th, 9th, and
10th depot battalions have during the past week
proceeded from Colchester to Languard Fort, and
others have returned to Colchester from that station.
The rifles in the possession of the troops at Colches-
ter, Languard Fort, and Harwich have just been
examined by a viewer from the War Department.
Capt. Klerker, attache to the Swedish Legation
in London, on Tuesday, made an inspection of the
manufacturing departments of Woolwich Arsenal,
on behalf of his Government: Having visited
the Laboratory and carriage departments, he in•
spected the Royal gun factories, where he was
shown the process of manufacture of a couple of
experimental guns recently commenced, from plans
submitted by Mr Frazer, manager of the factories.
These guns, it is stated, are being made of a less
costly material andconstruction, differing materially
from those now in use, end are to be built up of
coils of extraordinary strength and capacity. The
project is considered of importance, and should the
experiments prove successful, the result will create
a manufacturing and financial triumph for the Go.
vernment. It is considered that the cost will be
about half that of the present gun.
The examination of candidates for promotion at
Chatham dockyard will commence today.
The examination of candidates for admission to

the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which come
menced on Thursday last, at the Royal Hospital,
Chelsea, before the Vice• President and other mem•
bers of the Council of Military Education, termi-
nated yesterday: There were upwards of 140
candidates.

The next examination of candidates for admission

to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, before
the Council of Military Education, is to take place
on Monday, the 2d of the ensuing month, at the
Royal Hospital, Chelsea, and will extend over 15
days, ending on Wednesday, the 18th.
The following appointments and promotions were
made yesterday at the Admiralty :—Commander
A. W. Gillett, to the Achilles—E. G. Ashworth,
engineer, to the Cumberland for the Chasseur—W.
Dark, engineer, to the Cumberland for the Fearless
—T, H. Kitto, of the Defence, G. F. Sutton, of the
Cumberland, H. Hull, of the Indus, and W. Totten-
ham, of the Royal Oak, promoted to be engineers—
J. Gordon, of the Curlew, F. W. Robinson, of the
Triton, W. Chase, of tho Euryalus, T. Gray, of the
Sutlej, W. Harwood, of the Eik, and W. B. Cottam,
of the Leander, promoted to be acting•engineers.