The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-18 00:00:00

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the camp to-morrow. ky
The guns and ammunition wagons belonging It*
the E and F batteries Royal Horse Brigade, in
command of Capt. A. M. Calvert and Lieut.-Col.
the Hon. D. Fraser, were yesterday conveyed to
Shoeburyness in barges, for the purpose of a course
of target practice in gunnery. The officers and
men of the batteries, 382 in number, will be in-
spected this morning on parade at Woolwich, and
will proceed to Shoeburyness in one of the river
steamers.

PRICE.....
STAMPED ....sd.

---
Naval and Military Intelligence.
1

THE NAVY.
Whilst the Duke of Somerset was holding his
levee at the_office of the Admiral-Enperintendent in
Davenport dockyard on Saturday morning, Ad•
miral Sir F. Grey, Admiral Eden, and Commander
et o
ship the
Drummond, proceeded acrossfiam o
z
exercising field (near Torpoint) of the gunnery
Cambridge, Capt. C. J. F. Swart, where the crew
formed into six companies of light infantry, drawn
up under Commanders Jones and Parry, and Lieuts.
Nicholson and Mitchell. From their four field pieces
they fired a salute of 19 guns, and then formed into
open column, formed into line, presented arms,
broke into open column, fired in companies, threw
formed in square to receive ca-
omvuaeltnrys;kieg:rnmet
tions elicited the approbation of Admiral Grey, who
&c. The skilful manner in which the
colleagues,sea-
ogpoint
tali;
as e
pionrttriAdmiralintricate
military
sir aoeuvsotloun•
with
Stewart,his left
T
at noon, and recrossed Ha-
moaze. Here they met the Duke of Somerset, with
whom they proceeded to inspect the fortifications at
Tregantle and Sereasdon in Cornwall.
At four o'clock the Lords of the Admiralty, in-
cluding Mr. Stansfeld, accompanied by Mr. Ro-
maine, and Col. Greene, Director of Works, went to
Keyham steamyard, where they were received by
Rear-Admiral Superintendent Thomas M. C. Sy-
monds, C. 8., Mr. R. Townshend, superintending
civil engineer, Mr. Miller, chief engineer of the
yard, and inspector of steam machinery, and the
Master's Attendant Commanders Broevn and Bid-
dlecombe. After examining the iron-plated Prince
Consort, which is in the south basin, they went
through the great quadrangle to the site of the
proposed extension of the north basin. The details
were pointed out by Admiral Symonds. Their
lordships then proceeded to Plymouth citadel, where
they met the Secretary for War, the Earl de Grey
and Ripon, and Captain Martindale, of the Royal
Engineers, who had just landed from an inspection
of the new circular fort erected on Drake's
Island. Under directions of Colonel Shuttleworth
and Colonel Maberley, of the Royal Artillery,
25 rounds each were fired from three Armstrong
guns at a floating staff some 2in. thick, fixed off the
south point of Drake's Island, at a distance of 3,100
yards. Two wedged guns, one a 40-pounder, the
other a 70-pounder, mounted near the flagstaff on
the citadel, were commanded by Major Palmer of
No. 2 battery, and Captain Glanville, gunnery in-
structor. One ordinary Armstrong 1101 b. at King
Charles's bastion was under command of Lieut.
Sandemann of No. 8 battery. The wind at the time
was strong from the south-west and the atmosphere
somewhat thick, notwithstanding which the prac-
tice was exceedingly good, as most of the balls fell
near the distant mark. At the conclusion Earl de
Grey and Ripon and Capt. Martindale, in company
with the Commander-in-Chief of the West District,
Gen. Hutchinson, inspected the quarters of the offi-
cers, the barracks of the men, their recreation room,
library, &c. From Plymouth the Secretary of War
will, it is said, proceed to Falmouth, and possibly
to Pembroke.

The new cavalry barracks at Colchester are now
nearly completed. The greatest advance has been
made in the officers' quarters, which ore lrlndsome
and well arranged, and stand out in strong coutratz
to the accommodation afforded to the camp. 'The
officers' quarters form an extensive quadrangle; and

lit is stated that e mess establishment will be supe-
haveb oe
e rior to any other in the kingdom. The mess-room
itself is 50ft. long by 241 t. wide, and 16fr. high,
and is elegantly fitted up. The first and
the
k horses
second floors comprise the v
officers, ,
each f various rooms of
with
iltlhaveg
room, 171 r. by 14ft., and a bedroom adjoin.
n devised
ing, 10ft. by Bft. Ttie stables, especially those for
sic
the floors are all paved with vitrified bricks, which
theliquid
have the advantage of not retaining
manure, which always has a tendency to accu-
mulate under other circumstances. The ven-
tilation has also been very carefully attended to.
It is intended to commence the erection of a second
block of buildings adjacent to those now nearly
completed. The contract has been taken by the
same builders, Messrs. Lucas Brothers.
The new battery on Drake's Island mounts 2Y'
guns; its level is 35ft. above high water mark. The
front piers are constructed of granite blocks, 11 to
4 tons each in weight, and the dimensions of the
shell recesses sunk in the rear of these piles are
3ft. x2x 2. The openings between the piles are
12ft. wide by Bft. high; wrought iron shields 10in.
thick will be fitted here, so as to leave openings of
only 3ft. by 2ft. for the muzzles of the guns. The
battery sweeps round from east to south, and south
west, so as to command the whole of the Sound ;
on this curve the length from centre to centre of the
openings is 24ft. 6in., and on the straight 24ft.
The rear piers are built of rubble masonry with
wrought limestone groins; they are 10ft. long, 4ft.
wide, and oft. llin. above the level of the flog.
Brick arches spring from the top of the rear piers,
sft. llin. above the floor. Concrete, 3ft. thick, is
laid on the top of the arches. The battery walls
are 7ft. 3in. above the floor level ; this concrete
is covered with asphalts lin. thick, put on in
two layers, each half an inch thick. The dis-
tance of the walls from front to rear is 34ft. ;
the piers are 12ft. thick; the distance to
the rear is 12ft., and to the rubble wall 10ft.
The narrowest part of the roadway at the rear of
the battery is 15ft.

The drawings and models for the new iron frigate
Bellerophon, ordered to be constructed at Chatham
Dockyard from Mr. Reed's plan, are being prepared
at the dockyard under the superintendence of one
of the officials sent down from the Admiralty for
that purpose. The Bellerophon is to be exactly
300 ft. in length, with a breadth of beam of 57ft. ;
her draught of water will not, it is expected, exceed
26ft. In order to arrive at the greatest strength of
material to serve es a guide in the construction of
the Bellerophon, and especially in the matter of her
shot resisting surface, orders have been received at
the dockyard for the construction of a target to be
used in a series of experiments at Shoeburyness, to
test the strength of the manner in which it is pro-
posed to construct her sides. This target is now
being put together at the Millwall Ironworks, and
will shortly be ready to be operated upon. The
target is to be constructed of 10-inch iron frames,
placed about two feet apart, on which will be first
laid a covering of iron plates of about two inches
is thickness. This will serve as the " skin " of the
target, preparatory to a backing of 12-inch teak
planking, The target will then be finally covered
with iron armour-plates, of from sin. to 7in. in
thickness, but the exact thickness has not yet been
decided upon. From the results of experiments
already made on various descriptions of targets at
Shoeburyness it is confidently expected that this
construction will exceed in shot-resisting strength
every other description of plating hitherto adopted
in this country, and if the arrangement is found to
succeed the same mode of construction will be fol-
lowed in building the Bellerophon.
The launch of the Research, 4, 1,250 tons, iron-
cased frigate, the first of the vessels constructed on
Mr. Reed's plan, took place at Pembroke on Satur-
day evening. The ceremony of "christening" the
ship was performed by Miss Kerr,daughter of Capt.
Lord F. H. Kerr, of the Blenheim, 60, 400-horse
power, flag-ship at Pembroke. The vessel's mean
draught of water after launching was found to be
only 8 feet, or nearly a foot less than was calculated
upon by the dockyard authorities. As she lay on
the stocks there was but one opinion as to her ugli-
ness, but on getting afloat she was pronounced a
rather stylish craft. She is intended to carry only
four heavy guns, but will be entirely encased with
from 4to 4!--inch armour-glates. At present she
has only four plates bolted to her sides, but the re-
mainder are to be put on as speedily as possible,
after which the Research will be sent to Devonport
to be fitted for commission.
The troop ship Orontes, Capt. H. W. Hire, from
the eastward, arrived in Plymouth Sound, yester-
day (Monday) morning, en route for the Medi-

terranean.
The John Banfield, hired sailing transport, has
commenced shipping, in the Docks,4oo tons of Arm-
strong shells for Hong Kong, from Woolwich
Arsenal. A number of 20-pounder naval guns, 40
pounders, and 110-pounders are in readiness for
embarcation at Woolwich for Simon'3 Town, and
also for Auckland, New Zealand ; A 8 well
ounder
as 13-
inch mortars, 8-inch iron howitzers, and 24-p
guns for Quetec, and commissariat stores for the
Mauritius, the whole of which aro awaiting ton-
nage for shipment.
The hired transport Marian goore,having shipped
cargo of wire for the Indian line of
electric'stele-
ay factory at North Woolwich,
graph, at Henl
sailed yesterday from the Thames.
The following appointments were yesterday at
the Admiralty :—Robert W. Clarke, staff surgeon,
to the Saturn; John T. Farwell, assistant pay_
master, to the Asia ; and Daniel Wishart,
in the
Brisk,
promoted to the rank of acting first-class
assistant-engineer.