The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-24 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.
The trial of the engines of the new screw steam-
ship the Prince Consort, at Plymouth, which will
take place shortly, will be conducted in a manner

different from that which has hitherto prevailed.

t has been the practice for a newly fitted ship to

be navigated in the morning from her moorings in

Hamoaze to the back of the breakwater, or round

he Eddystone Lighthouse, and to be replaced in
,he evening in the Hamoaze. In the present in-

with their officers, from
will moor her every even-
stance the Prir.ce Consort will be placed in the
thhaen dSst eoafml 0110
emseernves,ewlehctoed,

ing inside the breakwater, and thus avoid the long
and intricate navigation to Hamoaze and the sub-

Sequent difficulty of threading between the ships at
anchor in that harbour. This ship Was laid down
at Pembroke as a line-of-battle ship on the same
lines as the Gibraltar, but was afterwards cut in

two, lengthened 23 feet, and, like the Ocean, re-
duced to a two-decker. She was first called the

Triumph, but this name was altered to the Prince
Consort. Her launch took place in June, 1862.

The dimensions are—length over all, 277 ft. ; length
between perpendiculars, 273 ft. ; keel for tonnage,

232 ft. 3fin.; breadth extreme, 58ft. sin. ; do. for
tonnage, 57ft. tin. ; do. moulded, 56ft. 4in.; depth

of hold, 19ft. 10in.; tonnage, 4,045 26.94 tons;

do. Board of Trade, 3,521.34 tone; tonnage of er•

gine room, 1,913.'14 tons; do.-register, 1,607'6 tons;
displacement when light, 2,924 tons; do. estimated
when loaded, 6,328 tons; estimated draught when
loaded,
23ft. 7in. forward, 25ft. 2in. aft. Her

drßn
OA, when launched, was 12ft. llin. forward,
and lat. 10in. aft; mean draught, 14ft. 101 in

t is intended on the trial to make her draw 23 fee

Sin. forward, and 25 feet Bin. aft. Her iron masts
are stepped, and the guns are on board; there

also be six months' stores in her; the remainder
will be made up with iron ballast. The heel of the
mainmast is forked to admit the propeller shaft;
the mast is 115 ft. Gin. long ; foremast, 109 ft. Gin. ;
mizen, 8211. Sin.; and bowsprit, 41ft. Gin., all of
iron. The armament on the main deck is 24 guns for
8 inch solid shot, each weighing 25 cwt., with four
Armstrongs, 110-pounders, each weighing 84 cwt.
forward, and the like number aft ; on the upper
deck two Armstrongs forward and one af 1-35 in
all. The engines collectively of 1,000 horse-power
(nominal) are from the manufactory of Messrs.
Maudsisy,
Sons, and Field, and are seated 15 feet
before the mainmast; they are termed " horizontal
double piston rod." The horizontal double-action
air-pump is worked direct from the engine. Each
of the engines is fitted with box slides ; they are
worked by double eccentric and link motion, and are
provided with metallic slide valves. The air-pump
valves are of indiarubber, with metallic valves to
discharge through the sides of the ship. The air-
pumps are 29in. in diameter, and heee a 4ft. stroke.
rhe inside diameter of the steam cylinders is 92in.;
they are steam jacketed. The diameter of the main
steam pipes is 23in. The pistons are fitted with me-
tallic packing, and not with hemp as heretofore
There are also in the engine-room two small auxi-'
engines of 12in. diameter.
liary Each of these is
fitted with a pump for filling boilers from the sea;
together they are capable of supplying the requisite
amount of water when the main engines are work-
ing full boiler power.
She has in addition a double
7in. pump, which can be worked by hand or steam,
capable of supplying a sufficient quantity of water
for working half-boiler Power, and arranged so as to
pump on deck or overboard, and to draw water from
the bilges or the sea. The Prince Consort has two
stokeholes, the one before the engine-room has four
boilers, with five furnaces i
A:leach, the one abaft four
boilers with three furnaces in each. The eight
boilers contain 3,840 tubes, each of which is 6ft.
long by 21 in. outer diameter, and 24 inner diame-
ter. By the fore boilers the power of 600 horses
(nominal) can be obtained, and by the other 400
horses, calculated at 71bs. effective pressure per
square inch. The fore chimney is Bft. 3in. diame-
ter, the after 6ft. 6in. Both stoke-holes are well
ventilated, but the pressure of the screw shaft,
shoulder high, in the after stoke-hole, is very in-
convenient—it is cased. The after stoke-hole is,
however, a little wider than the fore stoke-hole.
The length of the propeller shaft in board is 98ft.
3in., weight 17 tons, diameter 18in. forward, and
20in. aft. The gun metal screw propeller 'is four
bladed ;it weighs about 15 too; and overhangs,
or, rather, has no outer bearing. The diameter is
21ft., and the pitch, on Maudslay's principle, can
be altered from 20ft. to 25ft. mean pitch. The
stern bracket is surfaced up, and the boss of the
screw is surfaced also ; the machinery is arranged
so that the screw-shaft can be carried forward to
close the opening entirely where the two surfaces
meet, and thus the sudden i
-13--ax of the sea can be
prevented in case of an accident similar to that of
the Royal Albert in 185(i, when the water rose to
her ash-pane, and her commander was obliged to run
on a sand bank in the island of Teo, in the Me-
diterranean. The Prince Consort's screw shaft is
fitted with a disconnecting clutch and friction
brake, by which, when the ship is under canvas
only, the screw will be allowed to revolve freely in
the water. The brake can be used when it is ne-
cessary to step the screw, and reconnect it with the
engines for the purpose of resorting to steam. In
the fore stoke-hole there is a space blade for use in
case of accident; like the others its flange is per-
forated with blotted holes for the reception of the
screws whic:r fasten it to the boss. The blades
are twisted st:ghtlY' and become much thinned
towards the '01;:er ends. The engines and
machinery sc,igh iot: tons; the cost is about
1:50,500, and the t"-cturer obtains in
mann 4.
ad-
dition £1 per horse power (ka nc)
t, for placing them