The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-24 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.
Rear-Admiral F. Bullock has been making a series of ex.

perimental trials on board the paddlewheel steamer Vivid,
Commander W. IL Allen, which has been placed at his
disposal by the Admiralty, at the measured mile, Maplin
Sands, near Chatham, for the purpose of enabling him to
form correct tables and lay down a code of rules and regu-
lations for the use of his newly-invented permanent ship-
log, which is about to be introduced into the service. The
Lords of the Admiralty are so well satisfied of the import-•

ante of the invention that orders have been received al

Chatham for the new log to be fitted on board the Liver

pool, 39, 600 horse power, Capt. R. Lambert, belonging to
the Channel squadron—and also the paddlewheel steamer
Geyser, 6, 280 horse power, Commander M. R. Pechell.
The condemnation of the old class of wooden gunboats at
Haslar, and the certainty that iron alone will be used in the
construction of this class of vessel in future, has liberated
Haslar yard to a great extent from the duties it has hitherto
performed as an appendage of Portsmouth dockyard, and
raised the all-important question, " What shall we do with
it ?" To consider this question it will be necessary here to
state the present extent and position of the yard, the
amount of plant it contains, and the advantages it offers
while remaining still an adjunct to the yard at Portsmouth.
Haslar yard stands on the south side of a narrow creek
bearing the same name at the entrance to Portsmouth har-
bour, and is 2,610 ft. in length and 816 ft. in width within
the boundary walls ; it has a water frontage throughout its
entire length. On the side opposite to its water frontage
stand a line of galvanised iron covered sheds for 50 gunboats,
divided by five brick walls into as many divisions, the en-
tire length of the shod line being 1,900 ft. In front of and
parallel with these sheds are lines of rail exceeding in their
collective width the length of the largest of the gunboats.
Over these travels the transporting frame and cradl?., pro-
pelled by a powerful locomotive engine, which conveys the
gunboat to or from the launching and hauling up slipway
or the sheds as required. Between this line of sheds and
the south boundary wall of the yard is established the
nucleus of an engineering range of workshops with the
necessary forges, lathes, &c., employing about 30 junior
naval engineers and 40 stokers, the latter working at their
trades as boiler makers, moulders, coppersmiths, carpenters,
&c., or fitting the machinery of the gunboats (which will
become available for the ironboats to be constructed) with
condensers, and doing, in fact, all the work required for the
alteration and repair of machinery, except heavy iron cast-
ings, which are supplied from the iron foundry at Ports-
mouth dockyard. About a score of shipwrights are em-
ployed on four new wooden gunboats, which have now been
building there some time, and a gang of hands from the
steam factory of Portsmouth dockyard is employed in tak-
ing the boilers and engines out of the condemned gunboats.
A few iron and wooden mortar vessels stand on their blocas
in one part of the yard, but as they can only be looked upon
as waste material and not as plant, they may be dismissed
from all further consideration. The enclosing wall of the
yard is of brick, and substantially built, as may be ima-
gined, with brick sentry boxes at the angle. At the
entrance is h spacious guard-house, police-station,
and an official residence, now occupied by an acting
master shipwright. Such is the present' extent and position
of Haslar gunboat yard and slipway. The advantages Has-
lar yard offers as an adjunct to the main yard at Portsmouth
are many, and are not likely to be set aside even by the
comprehensive scheme for the extension of Portsmouth
dockyard which is about to be carried out under the direc-
tion of Mr. Stamp, C.E., Deputy-Director of Works to the
Admiralty. In the first place the yard may be appropriated
as a boat building, repairing, and storing yard, and thus
become wholly attached to the department of the master
shipwright; secondly, it may be handed over to the chief
engineer of Portsmouth yard, and become a part of the fac-
tory establishment ; thirdly, it may be handed over entirely
to the naval engineers in commission afloat, and thus be-
come the headquarters of the steam reserve ; and, fourthly,
it may remain as it is, attached in part to all, and a source
of continual disputes. It is evident that, as we are to have
iron gunboats, Haslar yard, with all its costly plant of
covered berthing, high and dry, for 50 boats, its transport-
ing lines of rails, and launching and hauling up slipway,

will be retained as their headquarters. This at once nar-
rows the question as to the retention and future use of the
yard. As a yard for the storage, repair, and building, if
necessary, of iron gunboats, it would come under the ma-

nagement of the steam reserve more than any other depart-
ment, and if the steam reserve is to be continued as a dis-
tinct department of our chief naval port, then the iron
gunboat yard at Haslar appears to offer unusual and ex-
traordinary advantages as the officially appointed head-
quarters of the force. We have already said that the nucleus
of a naval engineering establishment exists at Hasler,
and there is plenty of space to extend the workshops en
the present line of ground, so as to afford full employ-
ment for all the naval engineers and stokers on the books
of the reserve in the port, who would thus have the ad-
vantage of being employed in the shops upon work they
might be called upon to do on an emergency at sea. With
the captain of the steam reserve in residence on the esta-
blishment, and the "factory" system of work and accounts
introduced (as now arranged in her Majesty's dockyards,
and than which nothing can well be more efficient), Haslar,
as the head-quarters of the Portsmouth steam reserve,
would become a most important and economical esta-
blishment. There is abundance of room at Haslar to
build as well as store 50 gunboats, whether they were
built by private contract or not, and there is also abun-
dance of room—and this is a most important considera-
tion—for the erection of a building at the southern ex-
tremity of the yard, which would contain the necessary
barrack accommodation for the stokers, quarters for the
officers of the establishment, including the naval engi-
neers on duty in port, and the school and lecture rooms
Sze., which would form a necessary part of such an csta-
blishffient.
Admiralty orders have been received by the authorities
at Sheerness dockyard that her Majesty's screw steam
-b ship
p Conqueror, 78 guns, 2,845 tons, 500
hin charge John C. Salfleet, belonging
line
-of
powereffirastttdlei Mastervision of the Sheerness steam reserve, is to be
immediately got ready for sea as a troopship. Her main
deck guns are to be removed and the ports closed. When
ready she will have a complement of 480 men, and be em-
ployed on the China station. She will take out 600 marines
and supernumeraries.
The Bombay, 67, screw steam line-of-battle ship, 2,872
tons, 400 horse power, belonging to the second division of
the Sheerness steam reserve, was removed yesterday from