The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-07 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.
The officers of the steam reserve at Devonport
entertained their chief, Capt. A. Cooper Key, C. 8.,
on board the Indus in Hamoaze last week, on the
occasion of the conclusion of his command at that

port.
The Russian sloop of war Possadnick and the two
gunboats Naysdwick and Rasboiwick, from China,
which have been for some time in Plymouth Sound,

left on Saturday for Cronstadt.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Sphynx, 6, Com-
mander J. W. Jones, from Portsmouth, recently
returned from the China station, arrived on Satur-

day morning at Plymouth, where her crew will be
paid off. She will be placed in the 3d division of

the steam reserve in Hamoaze.

The paddlewheel steam sloop Geyser, 6, Com-
mander Mark R. Pechell, from Kingston, with

supernumeraries for the receiving ship, arrived a

Plymouth on Saturday afternoon.

Leteers received at Plymouth from the paddle-
wheel steam frigate Leopard, 18, Capt. Charles

Leckie, dated Hongkong, May 10, state that the only

other ship of war there was the Princess Charlotte,
12, Capt. Matthew S. Nolloth. The screw steam
sloop Perseus, 17, Commander Augustus J. King-
ston, left on the 16th May for the fleet at Japan, and
the Leopard was expected to follow immediately
after the arrival of the next mail from England.

Her master's assistant, Mr. Meesom, was drowned
on the 29th April.
The Renard, 4, screw steam gunvessel, 680 tons
200 horse-power, Commander Charles J. Rowley,
was paid off at Sheerness dockyard yesterday under
the superintendence of Capt._Charles Wise, A.D.C.,

superintendent of the yard. Commander Rowley
was complimented by the Capt.-Superintendent on
the very creditable manner in which the paying off
had been accomplished through the good conduct of
the men, the time occupied being less than a quarter
of an hour. The Renard will be placed in the third
division of the Sheerness steam reserve.

Mr. E. J. Reed paid a hurried visit to Portsmouth
Dockyard and 11,M.5. Warrior yesterday from the
Admiralty.
Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, G.C.8., the
Naval Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, has
placed the Pigmy steam tender at the disposal of the
officers of the United States frigate Macedonian dur-
ing the stay of that vessel at Spithead. Yesterday the
officers and cadets landed from the vessel, and accom-
panied by the American Vice-Consul at Portsmouth,
Mr. James Garratt, visited the dockyard, and dis •

played great interest in the inspection of the ropery,
the turret ship Royal Sovereign, the iron frigate
Hector, the ironcased ship Royal Alfred, the Hector,
nearly ready for commission, and the Sovereign and
Alfred, converting. To-day the Warrior iron fri-
gate, St. Vincent training ship, Victory flag ship,
and the Royal Clarance Victualling-yard will be
visited. To-morrow or Thursday, as may best suit

Captain Luce and his officers, Vice-Admiral Sir M.
Seymour will give an entertainment in their honour
at the Admiralty House.
The Hector, 32, iron frigate, has been placed in
the Warrior dock at Portsmouth, to have her bilge
pieces or keels bolted on, and to be otherwise pre-
pared for her official trial prior to being finally re-
ceived by the Admiralty from the hands of the con-
tractors, Messrs. Napier and Sons, Glasgow.
An important code of regulations for the guid-
ance of the officials and others engaged in bending

and preparing the slabs of iron used in armour-plat-
ing the iron frigate Achilles, 50, and the other ves-
sels under construction at Chatham dockyard, has
been promulgated by order of the Lords of the Ad-
miralty, and is to be strictly adhered to. The regu-
lations are drawn tip from thereportof the Armour-

plate Committee appointed by the Admiralty, o,
which Capt. Sir John C. D. Hay was the chairman,
The committee included a number of scientific offi-
cers belonging to both branches of the service. The
committee, in their report to the Admiralty, state
that they have examined the various processes
adopted in bending the iron plates, and are of opi-
nion that the plates need not suffer deterioration in
quality from any reasonable degree of bending, pro-
vided the process is properly performed. It is the
nature of wrought iron to admit of such changes of
shape without injury. The most essential prepara-
tion for the process of bending is that the plate
should be sufficiently heated, for it is only under this
condition that it will acquire the ductility and soft-
ness and freedom from elasticity necessary to admit
freely the change of shape. The committee consider
that a good red heat is probably the minimum that
will suffice ; " blood red" or " cherry red" is hardly
sufficient. The committee, however, deem it neces-
sary that certain precautions should be taken in the
process of heating the plates--Ist. That the heat be
not carried to such an extent as to injure the iron ;
2d. That the heating i
be done gradually, 50 as t°
heat the large mass uniformly throughout fs
sub-
stance ; and 3d. To have the heating furnace
currents
so arranged as to prevent fierce
a fire
eor sharp
from impinging on the ed-es damage
arrisses of the plate,
from -arid, provided
which
good red to
would be done. Probably by
brightest red are the safest limits;
there is reason to
the proper precautions be taken
will be rather
believe that the quality of the
plateotherwise, as if the
iron by the heating than
will
be
iron happens to be hard the
process the metal equiva-
lentadopted at Portsmouth in
to annealing, and will render softer.
The process of heating
the presence of the committee appears to comply
with the required conditions, and the committee be- I
lieve the quality of the plates so bent
to be well re-
The mode of bending the
re-
twined. heated plates is
a matter which the committee conceive may be
safely left to the mechanical advisers of the
Admi-
ralty. The wedge and tap process, )as adopted at
Portsmouth, has the advantage of
the committee think it would be bettersimplicity ; but
if the change
of shape could be effected by dead
draulic, for example—instead pressure—hy-
of by
committee consider it highly blows. The
inexpedient
thick plates cold, or only to bend
y slightly heated, as there
are very few kinds
of
iron sufficiently ductile to
bend cold, even in small bars, without injury to the
structure
of the metal,
tempt must be injuriousescape injurytheproduce process will inevitably
undue internal
the strains, very detrimental to
powers of ' resistance under the blows of shot.
The follov.inc• appointments 6 were made at the Admiralty
yesterday
Richard Slee afternoon
:
Sphinx, man, chief engineer, to the Indus, for the
T. Stead, assistant engineer, to the Asia, as supernu.
merary.
J. T. Ch
annon, engineer, to the Fisgard, as supernu •
merary.
W. R. Leeson, -
eeson, acting engineer, to the Indus, for the
Ripple.
J. C. Walsh, surgeon, to the Pembroke.
R. llumphry, assistant surgeon, to the Maunder.
Thos. L. Bickford, assistant surgeon, to the Fisgard.