The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-19 00:00:00

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TRE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1863.

no NO C FORGET YOUR APPOINTMENT.
—We Sup at EVANS', Covent-garden, after Jullien's
Concert.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

ture of their monster guns, in the preparation of
which they were now using the Bessemer metal,
for which privilege they had recently paid the sum
of £lO,OOO. At the close of the lecture Lieut.• Col.
Collinson, in the name of the audience, thanked
Commander Scott for the deeply-interesting address
which he had delivered.

THE NAVY.

The screw steam frigate Topaze, 39, Commodore
the Hon. John W. S. Spencer, from the Pacific
station, arrived in Plymouth Sound yesterday morn •
ing. She left Vancouver's Island on the 27th June,
arrived at Valparaiso 26th August, left the 21st of
September, arrived at Rio Janeiro the 27th of Ode-
bee, sailed thence the 2d of November, and had a
fine passage home. The frigate brings as passengers
two assist..engineers, Mr. Creswell of the screw
steam gunboat Forward, Lieut. and Commander the
Hon. Horace D. Lascelles, and Mr. Singer, of the
screw steam corvette Satellite, 21, Capt. Stephen S.
L. Croften, 33 naval and military invalids, including
Lieut. Murray, of the screw steam sloop Cameleon,
17, Commander Edward Hardinge, and Mr. Boys,
assistant paymaster; also 43 supernumeraries and
18 prisoners. No deaths have occurred on the pas-
sage home. The Topaze was put in commission by
her present Commodore on the 11th of June, 1859,
and very little change of her officers has occurred.
She has been chiefly occupied in the Pacific, and
while there ran over a course of more than 72,000
miles. The ship is in good condition and will proba-
bly go to-day from the Sound into Homaze to be
dismantled and put out of commission. She left at
Vancouver's Island the screw steam frigate Sutlej,
35, Captain Matthew Connolly, flag of Rear-Ad-
miral John Kingcome ; and at: Valparaiso the
screw steam frigate Leander, 39, Commodore
Thomas Harvey. There Were no ships of war at
Rio Janeiro. The Topaze spoke on the Bth, in
lat. 10 8 S., long. 37 53 Mr., the ship Indies, of
Cardiff; 15th, in lat. 10 41 S., long 32 48 W.,
the ship Mandarin, ehowing first distinguishing
pendant 1,614 ; lat. 10 41 S., long. 32 40 W.,
the ship Witch of the Tees, showing third dis-
tinguishing pendant 1,794; and an Eng ish ship
showing third distinguishing pendant 9.233;
and 17th, in lat. 6.14 S., long., 32.4 W., ship Glen-
alve, showing first distinguishing pendant, 4,517 ;
19th, in lat. 6.44 S., long. 39.11 W., the ship James
Carthy, showing third distinguishing pendant 215.
All these ships were outward bound.
Yesterday morning about 220 boys belonging to
the training ship Impregnable, 78, Captain F. S.
Tremlett ; end about 80 from the training ship Im-
placable, 24, Commander S. 13. Dolling, in Ha-
moaze, left Plymouth by the South Devon Rail-
way, on leave of absence until January 11. About
220 were bound to Paddington, the others for in-
termediate stations. The boys looked well and
seemed in high spirits.
An Admiralty order has been received at Chatham
directing the following screw steamers, which were
directed some time since to be commenced at that
dockyard to be struck off the list of vessels ordered
to be built—viz„ the Pitt, 91, gun line-of-battle
ships; the Boadicea, 51 gun frigate ; the Diligence,
17; and the Albatross, 4.

Tne following appointments were made yesterday
an, to the
at the Admiralty :—Lieut. Henry C. -wog
Orontes; Cecil P. Palmer, midshipman, to the
Meeanee ; R. R. Jaffray, midshipman, to the Aurora ;
Thomas Brown, promoted to inspector of machinery
affoaf, and appointed to the Excellent, as additional
far special service at the Royal Naval College ;
Michael Harris, supernumerary in the Eurytdas,
confirmed as first class assist-engineer.

The officers appointed inspecting commanders of
the Coastguard, vice Commanders Gore, B cresford,
and Webb, whose period of service has expired, are
Commanders W. L. Staniforth, Joseph Robinson
and H. C. Burleigh.

By direction of the Admiralty a party of ship-
wrights
and labourers, under the direction of Mr.
Bascombe, one of the foremen at Chatham dockyard,
are to proceed to Shoeburyness for the purpose of
taking to pieces and removing the Bellerophon
target. The plates from the target are to be re-
moved to the dockyard.
On Thursday evening Commander It, A. E. Scott,
R.N., delivered a lecture at the Soldiers' Institute,
Chatham, on "Ironclad Ships and their Arma-
ment." The chair was taken by Lieut.-Col. T. B.
Collinson, Royal Engineers. In the course of a
highly interesting lecture, Commander Scott re-
viewed the history of English armaments from
the manufacture of the celebrated Horsfall gun,
by the Mersey Company, down to the present
period. That weapon, which the Mersey Com-
pany generously presented to the British Gover-
ment, he looked upon as the most remarkable
gun ever made, and its trial at Shoebury -
nese a short time since fully proved the enormous
power of the weapon. Glancing at the Armstrong
and Whitworth guns subseqaeatly manufactured,
the lecturer directed attention to what had been
done, and was now doing, by other nations, and
especially by the Americans, in the way of improv-
ing their armaments. In 1862 they found the
Mersey Company manufacturing a gun with a 12in.
bore for the Government of the United States, so
that even at that period we bad been distanced by
the Americans. Subsequently, however, the roost
rapid strides had been made in the manufacture of
English guns, and now they had the monster Arm-
strong guns, capable of throwing a 300-pounder
shot, and an elongated shot of double that weight.
The lecturer then pointed out the advantages aris-
ing from the use of the ordinary large muzzle•load-
ing guns when fired with a heavy charge of powder
end a steel shot, one of which had recently been
sent through a s*in. iron plate, and then proceeded
to examine the monster Dahlgren guns, already
manufactured by the Americans, and the still larger
guns of that character which they were now pre-
paring. Hitherto the Dahlgren guns had been made
of a weight of 71 tons, and fired with 301 b weight
of powder, which experience had proved they were
capable of using in each charge; but another de
acription of gun was now being manufactured,
which would be fired by a 431 b charge. This gun
was, perhaps, the best in the American service, as
it could send a shot through a 43in plate, backed
with 20in of timber. In the other cases where the
American guns had failed to penetrate the armour-
plates the backing
of the vessels was torn until
there was scarcely any resistance left. In firing
the ordinary 68-pounder naval gun against the
target, they found that although the shot made an
indent of two inches only, the backing was com-
pietely destroyed. This was perfectly in accord-
ance with the experiments at Shoeburyness, where
it was shown most conclusively, that the more rigid
the backing the better the plate stood, or in other
words, that the plate resisted the effect of the shot
in a direct ratio to the rigidity of its backing. The
lecturer gave some further details of the Dahlgren
gun, and remarked that we went on manufacturing
guns which were certainly inferior to those of
America, while the Americana appeared to ignore
altogether our iron-clads, After contrasting the
power of the guns of the two nations, Capt. Scott
ared with
which was borne
tohfensodmreewoaftttehnetiAonmteoriacatnabgluensshaos comp
the power
nip
those in use in this country, from which it appeared
that the 24-pounder had more than double the
outpower
b otfhteheEnglish
five
18-pounder,experiments
made at Portsmouth, where
it ways found that 32-pounder shot did not pro-
duce so great an effect upon armour.plates as one
shot from a 68-pounder. From the repeated trials
made at Shoeburyness he was led to the conviction
that the principle upon which We were building our
ironclad vessels was altogether wrong, and that,
instead of placing the thick armour-plating on the
outside of the ship, as we were now doing, we
should reverse the process, and place on the outside
the iron skin, within it the backing of timber, and
finally inside the iron armour-plates. This he was
prepared to contend was the best form with which
to construct our iron ships. From its adoption he
believed that several advantages would result, the
' chief of which would be that the shot would be
deprived of much of its powers in passing through
the iron and timber before coming into contact with
the armour, while all danger from splinters would
be at an end, and increased steadiness given to the
• vessel from the armour being removed from the
1 outside. He would also advocate the placing of
• the guns in casemated batteries on board ship, so
that a shot entering at either of the ports would
be confined in effect entirely to that portion of
the vessel. He looked upon Chalmers's target as
being the beet yet tested at Shoeburyness, but, at
structed on an altogetherright principle. Captain
Scottthe sa
same
then
alludedbe didte
t h not
o turret-shipsconsider
to o be b
e c
built by the Americana, which would be covered
to the rapid strides MAde by them in the manraftio-
t n :long-
with plates ten inches in thickness. lie also referred

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