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.
It 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-

stance the Prir.ce Consort will ba placed in the
hands of 100 men selected, with their officers, from
the Steam Reserve, who will moor her every even-

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

hies 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. 3ain. ; breadth extreme, 58ft. sin. ; do. for
tonnage, 57ft. 2in. ; do. moulded, 56ft. 4in. ; depth
of hold, 1911. 10in.; tonnage, 4,045 26.94 tons;
do. Board of Trade, 3,521.34 tons; tonnage of en.

gine room, 1,913.71 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
draught, when launched, was 12ft. llin. forward,
and l6ft. 10in. aft; mean draught, 14ft. 10in.
It is intended on the trial to make her draw 23 feet
Sin. forward, and 25 feet Sin. aft. Her iron masts
are stepped, and the guns are on board; there will
also b© 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. bin. long; foremast, 109 ft. bin. ;
mizen, 82ft. Bin.; 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 aft-35 in
all. The engines collectively of 1,000 horse-power
(nominal) are from the manufactory of Messrs.
Maudslay, Sons, and Field, and aro 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 hare a 4ft. stroke.
pne 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 aiso in the engine-room two small mud-.
Nary engines of 12in. diameter.
Each of these is
fitted with a pump for filling boilers from the sea ;
the requisite
together they are capable of supplying
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 in each, 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 21 inner diame-
ter. By the foie boilers the power of 600 horses
(nominal) can be obtained, and by the other 400
horses, calculated at jibs. effective pressure per
square inch. The fore chimney is Bft. Sin. diame-
ter, the after 6ft. Gin. 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 151 tons, 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 influx of the sea can be
prevented in case of an accident similar to that of
the Royal Albert in 1856, When the water rose to
her ash-pans, and her commander was obliged to run
her 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 slotted holes for the reception of the
screws which fasten it to the boss. The blades
are twisted slightly, and become much thinned
towards the outer ends. The engines and
machinery weigh 750 tons; the cost is about
£50,500, and the manufacturer obtains in ad-
dition £1 rer horse power (X1,U00) for placing them