The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-14 00:00:00

REVIE W

THE NAVY.

Of all the abuses existing in connection with the
naval service of the country the steam reserves are
perhaps the greatest. We are not now speaking of
the "officers" of the steam reserves and the officials
attached to them, but of the vessels standing on the
official Nary List composing the reserves, their cost
of maintenance by the different departments, and
their actual value as ships of war, either as they
are at present or could be rendered for any future
time. No exact idea can, perhaps, be given of the
total cost of the reserves. If, however, some mem-
ber of the house would move for full returns on the
subject, he would find in them ample material with
which he could assist the Administration in largely
reducing future naval estimates. If the half-yearly
returns now being examined at the Admiralty of
the vessels forming the reserves at each of our ports
were analysed, the total sums expended by the de-
partments in keeping these vessels in a supposed
state of efficiency would be found to be enormous.
At the same time, while not more than seven or
eight vessels of the whole number can be pro-
nouncc.d ready to proceed to sea under three or four
weeks' notice, others would take months to make
ready, and the remainder could never be made avail-
able again as war ships under any circumstances.
In proof that no part of this statement is at all ex-
aggerated, let one port be selected as an example—
say Portsmouth, and, to keep clear from all compli-
cations, let a sum be selected from one department
alone. The steam reserve at this port, as at the
others, is formed of four divisions, and in the first
will be found one line-of-battle ship, two screw
corvettes, one paddle sloop, and nine gunboats—
the latter of 60-horse power engines. The line. of-
battle ship, the Duncan, is one of the finest and
fastest ships in the service, but could not be made
ready for sea under three months, although a new
ship. Of the two screw sloops, one, the Esk, is,
with the exception of four or five days' storing,
ready for see, having been specially preparing for
commission for some months past. The other
screw corvette, the Nimrod, is quite rotten, and was
rejected on that account by Captain Sherard
Osborn when offered to him by the Admiralty
some time since for the Anglo-Chinese fleet. The
one paddle sloop has been commenced as a floating
factory, and will be finished some day if the steam
factory officials and shipwlight department ever
find time for the work. The six gunboats would
bE available for coast service. In the second divi-
sion stand the Royal Sovereign, turret ship, two
new three-deckers, two new liners, three screw cor-
vettes, and one paddle corvette. The turret ship is
an experimental ship not yet tested; the two three-
deckers and two liners would each take three months
to make ready. Two of the corvettes are of wood,
and aro rotten, the remaining one being of iron and
of so light a scantling as to be fit for nothing but
river survey. Sho is now all to pieces in dock, and
has been selected for the trial of Commander -War-
ren's bow rudder, if her repairs should ever be com-
pleted. The one paddle sloop may be placed in the
useless category. In the third division are sevenix
line-of-battle ships, eight first-class frigatesa,_s_
sloops, and two troop ships, all screws; five
rP One
sloops, and seven gunboats of 20 horse
of the liners has not yet been to seafrb,iu:t:wwsoieuxldlitnaekrse
six months to complete. Theioreinai
resources of Ports-
mouth occupy nearly
mouth yard six or etilglehlvtiohonaeonths to make them
is aro all half rotten,
ready. The hulls of the stool
and their machinery requires.l
.heavy overhaul and
repairs. The two troopships Simoom and. Urgent
have both seen long foreign service, and they neces.
sarily require repairs. The paddles, with the excep.
others
b e of
reckoned as
tion of the Rosamond and Bulldog, may be sent to
the same useless category as
the same
class, and the seven gunboats may
,fill, One of the paddles, the Rosamond,
as a steam factory for the r,is fitting
afloat, and the other, the pitlairs of machinery
best of the paddle class, is under heavy repair in
og, probably the
dock. In the fourth division
and Retribution paddle frigates,on are the the Penelope
keel to topsides ; both rotten from
the Erebush. and Glatton, floating
iron-cased batteries, of
,w tell nothing need be said ;
tk;ree paddle steam
hulks. In the Haslar gunboat tenders,and three or four coal
yard. are 47 gunboats,
one half of which might
be available. In the above
is not
included the
Hector, new iron frigate, as she
18 preparin—
g for sea, and her case does not apply to
our present argument. Out of the whole of the
vessels enumerated in the four divisions there is
only ono vessel—the Esk, 17, screw, of 250-horse
power—that is ready for sea. The Duncan, Fred.
William, Prince Regent, and Neptune, liners; and
°davit'. and G;asgow, screw frigates; Royal Soy( -
4eign, turret ship; Bulldog, Volcano, Rosamond,

EWSYAIJI
.7.7\74-2e4
and Syra would take months to cohaplite; whitolt
would be questionable policy to repair the rernai‘ Z
der under any circumstance& It ire foe! _ *l4
expended for the annual maintenance OctissiUie
that we want to direct attention. If weeliscardes(
charges under the head of wagas and victuals t 4 --
warrant officers, engineers, stokers, seamen, &c.,
and also under the steam factory and shipwright
department, as well as any consideration of interest
of the capital invested, and select only one item--
" the preservation and repair" of the machinery on
board by the engineers and stokers of the steam re-
serve alone, it will be found that it alone in the ono
port amounts to about £45,000 per annum. For
this annual sum under one head Portsmouth dock.
yard and harbour at this time possess but one vessel
ready for sea, while the remaining vessels, if they
,ire ever to be completed and repaired, would occupy
the whole of the present resources of the shipwright
and engineering department forseven or eight years.
In consequence of the great success which haa
attended the newly-invented ventilating arrange_
Flaunts on heard the iron-clad screw frigate Royal
Oak, 35, Capt. Campbell, fitting for sea at Chatheni,
the Lords of the Admiralty have decided on intro-
ducing a similar system on board the other vessels
composing the squadron of armour-plated steamers.
Orders have accordingly been received at Chatham
dockyard for one of the officials from Devonport
dockyerd to proceed to Chatham for the purpose of
obtaining a knowledge of what has been done,
with a view to their being applied to the armeece
plated frigate Ocean, recently launched at
Devonport. The system of ventilation carried out
in the Royal Oak is from a plan submitted to the
Admiralty by Capt. Fanshawe, superintendent of
Chatham dockyard ; the engineroom and stokeholes
being ventilated according to the principles laid
down by Mr. Baker, inspector of machinery, and
the chief of the engineering department at Chatham.
The sailing frigate Volago, 26, hitherto used as a
floating magazine in Chatham harbour for the re-
ception of shells, has been given up to the dockyard
authorities by the War Department, in order that,
she may be converted into a powder magazine, to
be stationed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the supply
of the North American and West India squadrons
with powder, shot, and shell.
By direction of the Admiralty, one of the officials
from Devonport dockyard is to attend at Chatham
for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the
system adopted at that dockyard for annealing and
bending the armour plates required in the construc-
tion of the iron and iron clad ships building, with
a view to a similar plan being introduced at Devon-
port for preparing the plates required in armour
plating the Ocean frigate.
In order to hasten forward the completion of the
Orlando, 46, 1,000 horse power, now undergoing
extensive repairs at Chatham, a number of caulkers
are to be sent there from Sheerness and Woolwich

yards.
The Prussian sailing frigate Gefion, Capt. Klatt,
arrived at Spit head yesterday morning from the
West Indies, and on anchoring exchanged salutes
with the Victory, flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir AL
Seymour, G.C.8., Commander-in-Chief; the Edgar,
86, screw steamer, Capt. the Hon. F. Foley, flag-
ship of Rear-Admiral Sidney C. llacres, C. 8., lying
at Spithead, and with the saluting battery of the
garrison. Capt. Klatt afterwards landed, and, ac-
companied by the Chevalier Vandenberg, the Prus-
sian Vice-Consul at Portsmouth, paid an official
visit to Major-General Lord W. Paulet, C. 8., and
Sir Michael Seymour at their residences at the Go-
vernment and Admiralty Houses. The Gefion
sailed from the Havannah on the 18th April, her
Majesty's ship Nile sailing from there for Bermuda
on the same day. The French liner St. Louis had
landed her guns at Havannah, and was loading with
stores for the French army in Mexico. All the ice
that could be procured at the Havannah had been
purchased and shipped on board the St. Louis for
the use of the sick and wounded of the French army.
The Swedish screw corvette Lagerbjelke, Capt.
Herkepe, arrived at Spithead yesterday from the
Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena, sailing from tho
Cape on the 10th of March and St. Helena on the
25th. Easterly winds and fine weather were expe-
rienced throughout the voyage until yesterday
when a strong westerly gale was fallen in with. The
Lagerbjelke on anchoring exchanged salutes with
her Majesty's ships Victory and Edgar, and with
the saluting battery of the garrison.
A letter, received at Portsmouth from her Ma-
jesty's screw slocp Espoir, dated Feb. 22, at Ka-
bunda, says :—The fine Dutch bark Jane, which we
some time since captured, has been condemned in the
mixed court Sierra Leone. This makes our sixth
capture on the coast. The slave question out
here is getting more complicated than ever since the
treaty with America. Our visits are much increased,
and the slavers aro, if possible, more particular than
ever in concealing all trace of the object of the voy-
age until the last hour, when six hours will convert
a legal trader into a slave ship full of slaves, so well
are these ventures organised. We sail in a day or
two for a two months' cruise south of St. Paul's do
Loando.
With reference to the statement in The Sun of
Monday last relative to the cylinder covers of the
Black Prince, we are informed that the representa-
tives of the manufacturers of the engines, Messrs.
John Penn and Son, after a careful examination,
consider the objections raised of no importance, and
that, so far as the firm are concerned, the ship can
at once proceed on foreign service. The covers were
tested with a water pressure of 451 b., and if they
did " sweat" somewhat under such a test, as it is
said they did, it is the only result which could bo
possibly expected.

The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty :—Lieut. J. A. H. Trotter to the
Alert ; Lieut. Chas. E. Pearse to the Columbine ;
Lieut. W. H. Maxwell to the Sutlej ; Lieut. Geo.
B. Goolden to the Pembroke ; Thos. Warr, master,
to the Alert ; Henry Y. Slader, master, to the
Columbine ; Philip G. Richards, midshipman, to the
Resistance; Reginald A. Brock, James F. Owen,
Frank A. Harston, and Mark C. D. Osborn, mid-
shipmen, to the Alert; John G. W. Harris.on, mid-
shipman,to the Curacoa ; J. S. Alexanderl na3-
Lionel A. de Saumarez, midshipmen, to the
bine ; Francis W. Davis, surgeon,
Ttoidteinte;Ao_leour.tn;
Benjamin Crabbe, surgeon, to the
John
shJiellid,
Hendsor, surgeon, to the Columbine;
the Columbine ; George A
acting-assist-surgeon, to
acting assist.-surgeon, to the Alert; Thos. Browne,
Welch, paymaster, to the Jason; Alfred 11. Martin,
Paymaster,
clerk, to
paymaster, to the Alert ; Isaac Ifearden,
to the Columbine; John Davenport, engineer, to
of the oth Brigade Royal
the Megtera, on permanent service; W. r.
to the Columbaitnteer;yand 11. 'l'. Scale,
Chatham clerk,
Alert.
D b
garrison to
p
here it will be stationed during
the
lAolemr
Artillery has proceeded from el
Aldershot camp, w
the summer.

ALARMING OCCURRENCE
yvAy
woRRs.
yest
aNacyE
mATorTnliiiE,gl‘,llD L
betweenA N D RAfoluLr-
____—.
and five o'clock, neighbourhoodouootiiatoyiiotyf Agar Town
works the er
progressing at the former l
Camden Town, in the immediate
goods terminus of the Midland eTexwtennsainvcie
p ace for the metropolitan
y a loud crashing noise
alarmed b Railway Company, was
proceeding from the direc-
tion of the works in question. It appears that, amongst
other erections, the Midland Company are building, under
the management of their engineer, Mr. Croskill, of Derby,
an enormous goods store, eloscdy abutting on that which
was formerly known as Cambridge-street, Agar 'town. The
contract for this building was entrusted to Messrs. Smith
and Co., of L"icester, and for some days past the workmen,
it is stated, have observed au apparent sinking of one lido
of the outer walls, and, as they had been built simply
on the London clay, and without any.
concretehtliav e be al a
foundations, it was feared that there q
rino'.clocx yetheroay
slipping of the soil. Shortly after
Qt_liding
to prepare for
morning some men, who entered b
{Valli a fortunately. had not
the get era' body
pirate retreat. 'They had
ttrrivid, observed loafr;ewofist
hearing a crashing made 1
:vh)ein a large portion of the build-
erenos'orin the outward wals, and
not done so a great while when
crash,
bringing a consider-
ing came down with a terrific
able portion of the b'
vent taken place about an hour later,
ward walls. Had thewoere
engaged,
there is little doubt that
,idors and roofing along with the out-
when the workfni n
lei'Q would have been the consequence.
a great loss
ill be remembered that it was from a
spired; but it. w
there is blame attaching to any one has not tran.
the of the City
archeskacrifice of the lives of the
and 1I
am,.
,„„„mith Railway gave war, some two or three months
p‘rVechie.,ehicyr,,tion.lar cause
----caused a lamentable
back, and
workintat.