The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-04 00:00:00

STAMPED ....bd.

harbour channel. The cost of the construction is
estimated at £450,000 only, and this also includes
the construction of wharfs over the piling 200 ft.
wide, with Enes of railway on the inner and outer
faces, a coaling depot for ships of war on each side
of the apex. of the work, each capable of holiin,r;
50,000 tons, with a lighthouse over each.

In addition to the immense tidal and floating basins
which would thus be added to the resources of Ports-
mouth es a naval arseoal, the adoption of this plan
would have the effect of throwing the inmost circle
of Portsmouth defences from their present position
at the harbour's mouth to the extreme edge of the
outer shoals, the 200 feet outer quay room, or as we
have termed it, wharf room, affording magnificent
space for the erection of any number of guns of the
largest calibre. Tnis measure would effectually ren-
der impossible the holding of Spithead anchorage by
an enemy even supposing such enemy bad forced
successfully the channels of entrance, and for this
cause alone, leaving out of the question its other
advantages, will doubtless receive the serious atten•
tion it deserves at the hands of the authorities.

Whether the fort he eventually erected. on the
Sturbricge or on the Warner it is evident from what
has been hero stated that the shore batteries on the
sea faces of Portsmouth required altering altogether
both in design and in their powers of offence; and
this is now being done at the two extreme points of
the base line of the triangle referred to—Southsea
Castle and Fort Monckton. Southsea Castle had a
short time since erected on either flank two earthen
auxiliary batteries, at a cost of £15,000. These are
now, of course, useless against iron ships, and now
works have been commenced of a very different cha-
racter. They consist of a hag arm connected with the
Castle, extended out on either flank, the Castle being
made the centre of the work, but it will be altered
altogether in its character. These flank works will
be curvilinear in all their outlines, and will be fitted
with platforms to sustain 22-ton or even heavier
guns. They will be iron-faced, and each embrasure
will be of iron on the Thorncroft plan, and shielded,
On the right flank of Fort Moncton is being con-
structed a very extensive mortar battery, which will
be also corvilinear in all its outlines: and a similar
battery is now completing on a low bluff
adjoining the seabeach at Puekpool, a short dis-
tance east of Ryde. What is required now to arm
these two last-named butteries with is an improved
mortar for throwing monster shells, for the vulner-
abl© part of an iron ship is her upper deck, and all
we are as yet endeavouring to do is to smash in her
armour-plated sides.
Mils far we havo endeavoured to describe what
is being actually done, and what has been proposed
for the defence of Spithead from attack by the
south-east channel. There is, however, a side
entrance for iron-clads to reach Spithead existing
in the Need:eo channel, and here measures are being
taken to close, if possible, the passage against them,
and Hurst Castle is the point selected. The
earthern auxiliary batteries which flanked the
Castle in a similar manner to the old flanking sup-
ports of Southsea have been removed, and precisely
similar iron-faced and eanbrasured works to those
Southsea is receiving are being stretched along the beach
from either flank of the Castle, with this addition, that in
the case of Hurst, the guns will all be mounted in bomb
proof casemates, and it will be, therefore, of a stronger and
more extensive character than Southsea. It is certainly
to be hoped that the new work at Hurst may be found
sufficient to close the passage between the main and the
Needles against an enemy. Thousands upon thousands
sterling have been lavished during recent years upon the
Needles passage, and yet the latest, or one of the latest,
works of the Royal Engineers—Fort Victoria—stands a
monument of their folly, a shell-trap at the base of a cliff,
a thing that has bun spoken of with derision by even naval
and military officers, and in the presence, too, of the
Defence Commission: