The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-05 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

We have received the following letter from a
Malta correspondent, dated Valetta, May 31 :
" Rear-Admiral H. R. Yelverton, unexpect- 1
edly arrived here yesterday evening by the Penin-
sular and Oriental packet Valetta, from Marseilles.
He hoisted his flag on the following morning on
board the Revenge, 73, under the usual salute.
Major- General Wood and Mrs. Wood, who left this
island in the Magicienne, 16, Capt. W. Armytage,
with Sir W. F. Martin, returned in the Valetta,
which vessel also had on board as passengers Major
Thursby and Commander Seymour, RN. Admiral
Yelverton was received on landing this afternoon
at the Customhouse-wharf by a guard of honour of
the 25th Regiment, and a salute of 11 guns from
the saluting battery. The Commander-in-Chief,
Vice• Admiral R. Smart, K.H., intends leaving in a
day or two with the squadron for a cruise. He has
bed a slight attack of fever, which confined him to
his ship for a few days, but is now quite rEcovtred.
Her Majesty's gunboat Cockatrice, 2, Lieut.-Com-
mander Gillson, returned from Bengazi yesterday.
She conveyed to that place from Malta Mr. Saun-
ders, electrician, and Mr. Schaefer, mechanician, of
the firm of Messrs. Glass, Elliot, and Co. The
Cockatrice, after undergoing some repairs, will re
same her post on the Danube. The Icarus, 11, Com-
meatier N. Salmon, V.C., has gone up to the Piraeus
to relieve the Pelican. A letter from the Piraeus of
23d inst. states that her Majesty's ship Qaeen, 76,
Capt. F. C. Hillyar, and the Pelican were there at
that date. The Foxhound, 4, Commander Ander-
son, had left to carry a telegram to Syra, and was
to return to the Ph mus immediately after deliver-
ing the message. The foreign men•of-war at the
Piraeus on the 233 inst. were as follows :—French
—The Zenobie, 38 guns; the Mouette, 4 ; and the
Gorgone, 4. Italian—Re Galantuomo, 80, and
a despatch boat. Austrian—The Novara.
46; the Seahound, 4; and the Pylades, sailing brig.
Russian—The Asliabe, 51. Turkish—The Broussa,
51. Greek—The Hellas, 28. The Austrian gunboat
Wall, 4, left the Piraeus on the 21st inst. for Syra,
Nauplia, and Patras, and the Pylades was to leave
on the 23d inst. for Castel Nuovo. The English
men-of-war at Corfu ere the Liffey, 39, Captain G.
Parker, and the Surprise, 4, Commander W. H.
Whyte. The Phoebe, 17, Commander Fortescue, is
at Beyrout, the Psyche, 2, despatch-vessel, at Con-
stantinople, and the Weser, 6, Commander A. H.
Johnstone, on the Danube. The St. George, 86, is
still at Naples, and the Trident, 6, Commander C.
J. Balfour, and the Piocris, Lieut.. Commander G.
Palmer, are at Gibraltar. The rest of the Mediter-
ranean fleet are in Malta harbour, awaiting sailing
orders. The Sultan's paddlewheel steam yacht the
Fezi-Gihad arrived last week from Constantinople
to be docked, none of the docks in the Horn being
long enough to receive her. It is reported that it
will take six weeks to complete her repairs."
A letter from Madeira states that her Majesty's
steam frigate Valorous, Capt. C. C. Forsyth, was at
that island on the 17th ult. She had made a fine
passage of five and a-half days from England.
The Royal Oak, 35, screw iron-cased ship, 4,056
tons, 800 horse power, Capt. Frederick A. Campbell,
arrived at Sheerness from Folly Point a few days
ago. In taking up her moorings in the harbour she
ran foul of the mooring lighter, and carried away
some of her head gear, but as soon as the damage
had been remedied she was swung for the adjust-
ment of her compasses. Yesterday Vice-Admiral
Sir S. W. Hope Johnstone, Commander-in-Chief at
Sheerness, proceeded with his staff to inspect the
vessel, and expressed himself much gratified with
the admirable state of efficiency to which she had
arrived, and with the zeal and activity displayed by
her officers and crews. It is expected she will
leave this port to-day for Portsmouth to join the
Channel squadron. Mr. Baker, inspector of machin-
ery, and chief engineer of Chatham dockyard, will
proceed round in the vessel from Chatham to Ports-
mouth, by order of the Admiralty, for the purpose
of conducting the trials to be undertaken to test the
working of her machinery.

The Magnet, gunboat, 60 horse power, tender to
the Pembroke, 60, coast guard ship stationed at
Harwich, has been employed during the week in
conveying shot and ammunition to the various coast
gnarl stations on the eastern and south-eastern
coasts, for summer practice.
Letters received at Plymouth from the paddle-
wheel steam frigate Leopard, 18, Capt. Charles T.
Leckie, state that After a very fine passage from the
Cape of Good Hope, having experienced a fair wind
nearly all the way, she arrived, all well, at Singa-
pore, April 14, and expected to leave the next day
for Hongkong. The only other ship of war at Sin-
gapore was the gunboat Janus.
In consequence of a telegram received at Chatham
from the Admiralty the sailing frigate Active, Com.
T. Heard, has been detained at Chatham, but will
leave the harbour this day for Sunderland, where
she is to be stationed, and to which port she will be
navigated by a party of seamen from the steam re-
serve. The Active will be towed to the Nore by
the Adder, when the paddlewheel steamer Medusa
will tow her to Sunderland.

Yesterday the water was admitted into No. 3
dock, at Chatham, in which the Orlando, 41, 1,000
horse power, Captain G. G. Randolph, has been
refitting for some weeks past, and the frigate
floated out at the top of the tide. The repairs
effected in the Orlando since she has been in the
shipwrights' have been very extensive, and will
add materially to the strength of that vessel.
The work has been completed in a very
short time. In addition to the ordinary re-
pairs and alterations some improvements have
been effected in the engineering department, which
will add materially to the efficiency of the Orlando
when under steam. A valuable invention by Mr.
Oliver, the chief engineer, for preventing the screw
from falling after the upper paul is above deck, has
been approved by the Admiralty, and ordered to be
fitted to the Orlando. This invention is likely to
prove of great advantage on board all screw
steamers, and will, doubtless, come into general use.
The " tell-tale," for informing the officials in the
engine-room of the direction of the vessel, also in-
vented by Mr. Oliver, has been fitted in the Orlando.
The screw propeller (Griffiths's) has been repaired,
and new thrust brasses fitted. Yesterday Mr.
Allen, the patentee of the engine-room telegraphs,
was engaged on board in fitting an apparatus for
illuminating the telegraph at night; an additional
telegraph has also been fitted on the forward
bridge. Instructions have been received from the
Admiralty for Gilmore's electric steering apparatus
to be fitted on board. On the Orlando being un-
docked yesterday afternoon she got up steam from
four boilers and proceeded down the harbour under
the guidance of Mr. Blakey, second master, Queen's
pilot at Chatham, accompanied by the Adder and
Otter steamers, to Pinope-reach, where:she took_nepr
her moorings. She will immediately reship
guns, shot, shell, pOwder, cables, and otherdocked, e
andav
her
gone,
stores removed out of her before be
take on board 500 tons of
Admiralty.
, 21,400-horse power,
is to be immediately taken l
coals, after which she
will await orders from the
Tne screw corvette Cadniu.ns
hand and fitted for
m reserve, in
readiness for immediate commission.
diate
the first division of the Chatham stea
Mr. Reed, the chief constructor of the navy,
yesterday resumed his official visit to Woolwich
dockyard, and examined in detail the stacks of
timber adapted for the frames of armour-plated
ships, and especially the stores of mahogany and
teak, with which the dockyard is now encumbered:
It is stated that these inquiries are preliminary to
the construction of a class of swift iron-cased ships
of small dimensions, some of which are to be built
at Woolwich, the frame timbers of the Dartmouth
frigate being made available for the first of them.
After completing his examination of the timber
stores, Mr. Reed was conducted by Mr. Trickett,
civil engineer, superintendent of the factory, and
other officers of the yard, through this factory, where
he examined the various parts of the iron work in
course of preparation for the turrets of the cupola
ship Prince Albert. The inspection occupied the
whole of the dsy, from 10 o'clock a.m., and at eight
o'clock p.m. Mr. Reed again visited the dockyard
school, and inspected the upper boys, with a view
to the establishment of a Government School of
Naval Architecture, in pursuance of a statement