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

.arging her cargo, consisting of o, lei
—namely, guns, shot, ammunition, and Tower
stores.

The four 20 ton
Works, to the orderh
fo,n•th was fired yesterday
days at the butt in
ti, em have withstood
guns cast at the Lowmoor Iron
of Capt. Blakely, for the Ras
the test
Arsenal. Three c f
caaypn charipdiane:(
;;:.
rmi
..v itii z:.:c, 7c:;esengo:l
ibbta.o of
tawfuo
andst:
npower,irdwiasice.c
lo.nt 0
have proved on successive •
test
Isvaat(ii:faaentdoraily6;ootlibit :
sian Government,
the usual survey
moist the ordinary prow'.
tlthe first round with
ivy') ags tcoo ntrvhaeeye ki!di•crttoae
red that the b 3 so
section at the hel:d of the breech,
.had
into which ho
it button" bppears to be screwed' .
and a large rent or split wall eieur," given '1137,
The plod vv u.,;., of course, at an end, a the gun hte gun was
afterwards hoisted on one of the head
somewhich 7owe
were
er SaOttameheend,bealnodng
department
the wharf for transhipment.
Dr. Barton, staff assist.-surg in the Royal A ~..
senal Infirmary at Woolwich, having been promote d
and appointed Burg. on the staff in New Zealand ,
has been permitted to retire from the service. He
will be succeeded at Woolwich by Staff Assist.-
Surg. Cullen, from Chatham. Dr. Burton's retire-
ment is occasioned by continued indisposition, the
effect of overwork during his Indian campaign.
The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Dr. Alexander Rsttray, sur-
geon, to the Salamander ; Richard Cann on, acting
assist.-surg., to the Salaviander ; Benjami u Barber,
chief engineer, to the Salamander; John R. Cooper,
engineer, to the Conqueror; John West, en gineer,
to the Asia, for the Tyrian ; James Orchard,
fistengi-
neer, to the Salamander; James W. E.Baron, -
class assist.-engineer, to the Euryalus ; Will riam
Brenner, second-class assist.-engineer, to the S a la-
mrder, ; Alfred G. Hill, assist.-clerk, to the Re3i, S.
ta
ee ; and John R. D. Tollemache, nominated to a
naval cadetship.

EXPERIKENTS AT SHOEBURYNESS.

600-pounder shunt gun aosebsinsigde, an't
theT Wheasrmri
tt
mr
iti c4t,:e d.
The target is an esxwers
the Warrior floating target.
were tested yesterday at
of Sir Wm. Armstrong's
and measures
counterpart of a section of
Shoeburyneea again
18Affrtrlo.
mu,n
1,11
pos
etnbittgyh
eb y
filo. f t .
a backing of teak 18 inches in is height. It is
best homogeneouse°mn:
come two sets of 34 inch plates, depth.
beamspoints of
of fir
th
eo foi immense m
ande n s3eoo .p thickness.
ounder
eisron plates of the
thick, bolted to
Behindoarget this
tthairsgreatsngfoerfieaascteedrtaeilnoisnegbyth, the cliotrtrieecnetgleeeal
ribs of T iron, the whole being
moored at 1,000 yards distance
er and'.
vaoi
shored
itted to massive
ring
vutioonafaern
the iron one.
The first shot from " Big Will" was a dummy ens t_
iron shell weighing 6001 b, and was levelled with such
unerring aim at the wooden target as to smash it
literally to powder. The el evation of the eoece in
The
this
instance was 2 deg. 5 min., and the charge 7 01b.
next shot was a steel shell with a cast-iron head
•;7teghing 6101 b, and containing no less than 2 41b of
powder, which is only four-fifths of its normal
charge. •
Before firing this shot aconsultation took
place among the artillerists pre scent as to the die_
vation to be given, it having been discovered that
the wooden target demolished by the first shot had
been moored at 1,020 yanls instead ofdi 1
at ,000 as had
been originally intended. After some scussionhe
gun was fired at 2 deg. 10 min. elevation, the shell
passing just over the top of the target a little to the
right of the central lines. The next two sb ots--
live steel shells similar in all respects to No. 2-- de-
monstrated in a meet surprising ful
way the woad
r
accuracy of the gun in obeying the slightest chat ige
in elevation. For shot No. 3the piece depressed
was
to 2 dcg. 3 min., the shell p .ssing through the ezaot
centre of the top of the target, and carrying loyal'
a piece of the wood framing of a semicircular shape.
The fourth shot was fired at only 3 minutes lass ele-
vation and struck the target as near the cent re as
possible, making daylight through it, and explo ding
at the very moment of impfrom the spray act. Tnose who
madk 3 did not a
mind getting a wet jacket
rush for the boats, the more prudent making use of
the steam tug Bustler. Oa boarding the target ttae
havoc made by the ponderous missiles was found to
to have surpassad all expectation. A hole 2 feet by 20
inches yawned iu the 41-inch plate, level with and a.
few inches left of the bull's-eye. The teak
backing
was splintered into fragments from the size of a
cocoa nut to the merest fibre, and the fain& plates
torn away like
and one of the ribs were completely
below the hole, there IAY
BO much paper. In fronf,
©a
three or four
a huge mass of iron plate,
hundredweight, and looking iik,o a piece of crumpled.
black rag. The plate above rho one which was
pierced was started from its pule, mad bulged out-
ward, nearly the whole of the belts hni:ling it to the
target being broken away. In fact, All present
allowed that since the great battle of gull census
plat® had begun to be waged there had neyaar beet,
such a complete triumph for the former combatant.
At first it had been intended to try the effeots of
the 600 pounder upon the Warrior target at 2' 000
yards, but the first blow at 1.000 yards
80 disabled
it as to render a new target necessary,
On returning to the firing point the 300 pounder
was next tried, four shots being fired, but owing to
several causes only one of .aiem
took effect. The
charges for this gun were found
to be a few inches
short, the consequence of Which was that in three
instances the target was missed,
the charge for which was
At the fourth shot
s of the proper size, the
shell struck the right to
ing but not penetrating p corner of the plate, smash-
this shot was nog it. Theslight effect taken by
doubt greatly owing to the target
having been sleeved round
degrees with the I. to au angle of nearly 40
"Big Will. ''lone of fire by the fourth shell from
This
When the t•idebbed concluded the firing for the day.
those
present revisited
had sufficiently many of
the smashed target.
around it, AU
to the extent of 200 or 300 feet, lay
masses of iron and steel of different sive, which
gave one a perfect idea of the damage that
Would have been caused to the "between decks
and 0 •
pposite aide of any vessel unlucky enough to
receive such a shot. On closely exaraining the
breach made, it seems clear that the projectile must
have exploded when . about halfway through the
target. This was made peculiarly
evident by the
way in which the hole gradually enlarged after
passing through the outer iron plate, and by the
appearance (4' the splinters in the teak backing.
One of the massive bulks of timber was split ii:t
two, another was blown upwards apparently by the
mere force of the explosion. In the mischief done
everything betokened a great exeess of powe
there is consequently every certainty of the effect
being almost equally great at 2,000 yards, as tie
velocity of the shot at that distance is only •
dimi-
nished by about 120 feet per minute.
A large number of gentlemen, including
members of the Ordnance Select mutes,om several
the Special Committee on Iron, and
throughout the experiments. were present
Capt. Noble ascertained the
initial velocities
the projectiles fired from the 600 er of
found them to differ only very ,
from thoao
-Pound
already given in Me Sun.
' Slightly i I and
During the whole of the ea
wind were driving art y gusts of '
left, but seemed to have'"
the Tab ge fromrain and
curacy of the
_, right to
firing. 'llti( lien on the ec-

_____.---_____.
JUSTICE WIGITTAIAN'S DEATIL—In allusion to
this melancholy occurrence the Law lames of to-
day (just published) remarks
:--" On the eve of gotet:
intelligence will caus,:: ptofound regret "'st
press we have received a telegram announcing
ihke "This
death of Mr. Justice Wishttaan this day, at Fork. This pro-
fession, by whom his Lorthhip was universallyivrattily dis-
for the urbanity and kind feeling which he
o.unhina.
played to all who had the honour
of
kn°w:arnales—out of
masterrt.
The " pardon " of Pay
martial has arisen
whose trial at Mhow the Crawley ,
,cilueing placed upon half
—has been followed by that officer
as
struck off the strength
Pay from the date at which he w
of the laniskillings.
esteemed