The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-17 00:00:00

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nominal. by Messrs. Mandalay, Field, and Son, and
are from the same patterns, with the exception of
some minor improvements in their detail, as those of
her Abijesty's ship Marlborough. They are on the
firm's horizontal principle, with direct action, and
have Cylinders of 82 inches diameter, with a four

feet length of stroke. The fire grate surface is
565 square feet, the heating surfaces in furnaces
and flue is 2,400 square feet, end the
heating surface of the tubes is 13,300 square
feet. The. weight of the engines is 186 tons,
of boilers 206 tons, and of water in boilers when
filled Us tons. The coal boxes,have a measurement
of 24,480 cubic feet, and stow (300 tons of coals—
seven days' consumption. The propellor is a
11Iaudslay-Griffiths, weighing 11 tons 11 cwt. It
is 19ft in diameter, with a length of 3ft 10,13 in, and
is set at a pitch of 27ft 6in. It has a varying pitch
down to 22ft, but to alter the pitch at any time the
ship must be placed in dock, as the screw has been
made a fixture, in this following the example of the
French Imperial Marine, The stowage of the ves-
sel below in her holds and storerooms is as near

perfection as anything of the kind can possibly be.
The water tanks are fitted on the plan of Mr. Wallis,
of Portsmouth Dockyard Tide Gauge-office, and by

which means each tank is filled from the conden-
sers, without the trouble of pumping by hand, as is
ordinarily the case. The steering of the ship is
managed by a simple reversion to the old gun-
room tiller, i.e., a long straight tiller projecting
from the rndder•head into the after cabin, in a
line with the keel, and the manner in which the
ship answered her helm on Monday satisfied all on
board that the resumption of the old description of
tiller has given back to our ships some considerable
portion at least of their old power of answering the
helm, even before the introduction of the screw.
The ship has been evidently fitted out regardless
of trouble or expense, and there is but little margin
left for any fault-finding in so large an amount of
work. There are, however, two serious faults in con-
nexion with the ship's armour .which it is impossible
to pass by without some notice. The armour plates,
which are admirably put on the ship, are bolted on
with galvanised bolts, and every schoolboy knows
the result of placing iron, zinc, and salt water in
contact with each other. The second error is the
" tapering" of the armour plating at the bows and
stern. Both errors have nothing to do with Chat-
ham yard, both being "by order ;" but both
are most serious, and are being perpetuated
in all the iron-cased vessels now converting
in her Majesty's dockyards. It is indeed said that
the "tapering" of the armour-plate has been aban-
doned by the Lords of the Admiralty, and that an
order is about to be issued that the planking of the
ship's side is in future to be tapered in lieu of the
plate, and that the latter is to be bolted on the
ship's side in all its rough strength.
By the time Captain Broadhead and his staff
had reached the Royal Oak's upper deck from the
deck of the Fancy gunboat the ship's anchor was
hanging to the cathead, and by nine a.m. she was
steaming out towards the Warner Light, to clear
her fires and otherwise prepare for the race over
the trial ground of the measared mile. The morn-
ing was fine, with a light breeze from W. by N.,
just sufficient to furnish a good draught to the
fires, but not prejudicial to the ship's way when
going against it. On reaching the lightship the
Royal Oak's course was altered, and her head
laid for Stokes Bay, where the trials of speed
with full boiler power were at once entered upon
and completed with the following results :

No. of Revolution Time. Speed of —Pressure
Run. of engines. in. s. Ship inknots. of steam. mum.
1.. 59 .. 455 .. 12.203
2.. 611 .. 440 .. 12.500
3.. 61 .. 440 .. 12.857
'4 .. 61 .. 5 2 .. 11.920 221 b. .. 221 in.
5.. 61} .. 430 .. 13..333
6.. 61 .. 5 9 .. 11.650

First mean speed in knots, 12.351, 12.678,
12.388, 12 626, 12.941 ; second mean speed in knots,
12514, 12.533, 12.507, 12.558. Mean speed of the
ship, 12.528 knots.
It ad well here to place in juxtaposition the tem-
peratures of the engine-room and stokeholes at this
time, as we have referred at some length to the great
want of ventilation in ships coated with armour all
round, and the means which have been taken to
remedy this evil in the Royal Oak.
In making the first run at the mile the tempera-
tures were recorded as follow—On deck, 68 deg. ;
in engine-room, 73 deg. and 76 deg. ; in the forward
stokehole—fore part, 84 deg.; middle, 109; and
after part, 113 deg. ; in after stokehole—fore part,
103 deg. ; middle, 105 deg. ; and after part, 103
deg.

In the sixth mile run they were as follow—On
deck, 69 deg. ; in engine-room, 72 deg., 72 deg.,
and 75 deg. ; in forward stokehole—fore part, 91
deg.; middle, 120 deg.; and after part, 112 deg. ;
in after stokehole—fore part, 102 deg.; middle,
104 deg. ; and after part, 103 deg.
The speed attained by the Royal Oak must be
considered in the highest degree satisfactory in all
the sense of the words, if it is considered that
the ship's official estimated speed was set down as
111 knots, and that she has actually exceeded that
rate by over one knot per hour.
In considering the Royal Oak's speed, it willbe
as well also to remember that she is a wooden ves-
sel, with her bottom coated with Muntz's metal,
therefore not liable to foul in the manner our iron
ships do, despite their protecting pigment covering.
So far as this would affect the ship's speed, then, it
may fairly be reckoned, that if the Warrior, Black
Prince, and Royal Oak were stationed in the West
Indies for three months, the Royal Oak at the end
of that time would be the fastest ship of the three.
It is almost needless to refer back to the fact that
the Royal Oak, like the Prince Consort, Caledonia,
and Ocean, is an armour-cased frigate, converted
from the frame of a 91-gun screw liner. Her en-
hines having been made from the same patterns as
those of the Marlborough, 131-gun screw three-
decker, now the flagship of Vice-Admiral R. Smart,
E.H., Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, a
comparison between the performances under steam
of the lofty three-decked steamship and the long
armour-plated frigate may be interesting.
In the " light draught" trials the conditions and
results were as follows :—Marlborougb, tried May
12, 1856.—Draught of water, 21ft. lin. forward,
and 22ft. 10in. aft.; displacement of hull, 4,610
tons; speed of ship 11.866 knots. Royal Oak,
tried March 24,1863.—Draught of water, 20ft.h4iln:
forward, and 23ft. lin. aft ; displacement of
said to be 6,500 tons;
In the seagoing draught of water
h, tried June
speed of ship 12
condi-
tions and results were :—Marlborough, trialsiBtohe knots.o
'extreme breadth, 61ft. 21in.; draught
1, 1858.—Lengthbetween perpendicu ,2o4fsf:va6tienr.:
25ft. 4in. forward, and 27ft. 3in. aft.. ; displacement
speed of ship, 11.233 knots.
extreme breadth, 58ft. Sin. ;
RofoyhaullOL e6k,,otsrioedtoJnusne 15, 1863.—Length between
32f3t.f:. Bin. forward, and 25ft. 7in.
aft.; displacement of hull, 7,430 tons; speed of
la rs
water,27
P e
draughtr P end
oc I If
ship, 12.528 knots.
At the close of the full-power runs it was re-
solved to anchor the ship again at Spithead until
the following morning, it being impossible to con-
clude the whole of the trials, including the runs at
half speed and the testing the turning powers of
the ship in making circles in one day, and the ship
was accordingly steamed into Spithead and her
anchor dropped in nearly its old position.
Soon after the ship brought up Vice-Admiral Sir
Miahael Seymour, G.C.8., Port Admiral and Com-
mander-in• Chief, steamed alongside in the Fire
Queen steam tender, Master Commander Paul, and,
hccompanied by Captain A. Campbell and Com
mender Soady, privately inspected the ship.
It is almost needless to say that the working of
the ship's engines and boilers gave the greatest
possible satisfaction, and reflected the customary
credit upon the manufacturers, Messrs. Maudslay,
Field, and Son, of Lambeth.

Yesterday morning the ship weighed anchor at

NEWSPA_PER
-,14,i74A4114„
•„0-7P-4.
8 a.m., and soon afterwards left Spithead attikin s
under charge of Capt. Broadhead, for clear waters
outside the Nab light vessel, where she could be
tested 'in her power of turning and completing
circles under fiill steam. On "reaching tfie desired
position, however, a hot bearing was discovarcd,
and the full-speed circles had to be abandoned, and
the programme of the ship's trials for the day cut
down to six runs, with two boilers (one-third the
ship's boiler power), and two circles afterwards
with the same power. The runs were made as
follow-a :

No. of Time. Speed of Revolutions Pressure
Runs. min sec. Ship. of Engines. of Steam. Vacuum.
1 .... 8 19 .... 7'214
.. 22 .... 24
2 .... 7 43 .... 7'775
... 22 .... 23
3 .... 6 49 .... B'Bol
4 .... 8 26 .... 7'114
5 .... 6 96 .... 8'867
Mean speed of the six runs, 7 979 knots. The
circles were made under the same conditions of
power, and yicidcd tho following re,uits :

Circle to Circle to
Stitt board. Poet.
'rime occupied in getting up helm 47 sec. .. 30 sec.
Angle of rudder 20 deg. .. t 94 deg.
Turns of wheel
Time occupied in making half-circle.. 3m. 425ec... 3m. 4isec.
Ditto, full circle 7m. 275ec... 7m. 50sec.
Revolutions of Engines previous to put-
ting up the helm 37 .. 37
Revolutions after wards 's .. 34i
Men at the wheel
The diameter of the circles were little over
twice the ship's length. The ship answered every
touch of her helm as quickly and sensitively as a
cutter, and her powers in this respect form a
wonderful contrast to any other of our screw
ships of war. The ship will conclude her trials
to-day.