The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-18 00:00:00

711 E NAVY.

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The woik of couversion•of the Royal Sovereign
shield=ship at Portsmouth Dockyard has been al-
most brought to a stand, chiefly owing to the inde-
cision existing as to the exact ntymber and size of
her shield towers, and the fOrm to be given to her
upper deck. In our last notice the ship it Was
stated that the originally intended number of her
shield towers had teen reduced from five to fOur.
This amended number has again been altered, and
the original number of five reverted to, but they
will be of reduced size, capable, in fact, of carrying
nothing larger than a 110-pounder Armstrong or a
68-pounder smooth bore. Every person must admit
that in reducing a ship's armament from 131 guns
to 10, taking the largest number the Royal Sove-
reign can carry as a shield ship, the disproportion
in the number of guns should-be made up as far as
possible in the, increased calibre and power of the
lesser number. If, then, the converted ship can only
carry guns of the same calibre and power as our
ordinary frigates, she must prove to be, when com-
pleted, a decided failure, as regards her offensive
powers. Again, with reference to her form of
upper deck, it is found that the ship has been cut
down too low amidships, or not low enough on her
sides. To explain this to the reader it will be ne-
cessary to state that the upper deck of the shield-
ship, level with which would be the crowns of her
towers, were intended to be flat, the shields of the
towers resting on the upper deck, and the latter
thus forming the glacis of the floating fortress. It
will be obvious, therefore, that the shot from the
shielded guns could only strike the water at a con-
siderable distance from the ship, and a gunboat or
other small craft once alongside the shield-ship
could batter the pates of the latter, or throw men
upon her decks, and wedge up her towers, with
almost perfect impunity. To remedy this state of
things it is now proposed to give the ship a
raised deck amidships at the • crown of her
towers, and from the towers to the ship's sides
to give the deck a sufficient slope to allow of
the guns being so depressed as to command the
water in her immediate neighbourhood—in other
words, to adopt the plan of angulated sides, from
a certain distance above the water-line to the
shield-towers, proposed by Mr. J. Jones, jun., of
Liverpool, and which offered such a remarkable re-
sistance to 68-pound smooth bore and 110-pound
Armstrong shot in the trials which took place at
Portsmouth under the superintendence of Captain
Hewlett, C. 8., R.N., and several members of the
Iron-Plate Committee. The adoption of this plan
of sloping deck for the ship will, it is stated, reduce
the shield-ship nearly to the form first proposed by
Capt. Coles when he submitted his plans on the last
occasion to the Admiralty. Although it would
render the Admiralty liable to pay a certain royalty
to Mr. Jones for the use of his patent, it would at
the same time render the ship far more effective in
her defensive powers. Battens have been placed
over the ship showing the proposed form of deck,
but no orders have yet been received on the subject.
The lines of rails from the work end of the yard,
where the armour plates will be bent to the re-
quired form and prepared for fixing on the ship,
have been completed to and round the dock in which
the ship lies, and the latter is ready to receive the
plates on her sides. The shed, however, to hold the
machinery for the preparation of the plates is not
yet completed, neither is any of the machinery
erected, and this must therefore prove another
source of delay in the ship's completion. This latter
remark will also apply to the Royal Alfred, now
ready to commence receiving her armour as a 50-
gun plated frigate, in the north building slip of the
same dockyard.

The Himalaya, screw troopship, Capt. S. Sec-
combe, is hourly expected at Spithead, from the
Mediterranean.

The Edgar, 86, screw, Capt. the Hon. F. A.
Foley, recommissioned at Portsmouth for service in
the Mediterranean, was yesterday placed in the
large double dwk, to clean and examine copper,
valves, &c.
The Fox, screw atoreship, Master Commander
Pullen, arrived at Portsmouth yesterday from Wool-
wich, with a cargo of machinery and stores for the
ships fitting at the port.
The Trinculo, 2, screw gunboat, tender to the Re-
venge (flagship of the Channel fleet), was swung
yesterday in Portsmouth harbour,:under the super-
intendence of Mr. Craigie, master of the Victory,
to ascertain the deviation of her compass prior to
her sailing fur the Baltic.
The following appointments were made yester
day at the Admiralty :—Lieut. A. G. T. Drake to
the Severn ; G. S. Alldrickq, master, to the Severn ;
T. Parker, engineer, to the Cumberland, for the
Jaseur ; W. Skeen, engineer, to the Asia, for the
Easnest, confirmed; Pearce Rosewarne, Ist class
assist.-engineer, to the Indus, for the Sparrow;
W. H. Purvis, second master, to the Victory, con-
firmed ; and W. C. N. Gould, naval cadet, to the
Edgar, as supernumerary.