The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-26 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

The Royal Sovereign, shield ship, was placed in
No. 3 dock at Portsmouth yesterday, to complete
her conversion by the Shipwright Department. She
has her outer planking off to within one streak of
her lower deck port-sills. One streak below the
sills is as far as it is ordered to be taken off at pre-
sent. Her new outer planking will be bolted on
her sides diagonally. The ship has opened up re-
markably well, not a particle of unsound timber or
a sign of decay having been met with during the
whole process of pulling 11,r to pieces. The expense
of the Royal Sovereign by the time she is completed
as a shield-ship carrying 12 guns, and taking her
entire cost from the preparation of her drawings as
a 131 gun three-decker, will be somewhat startling.
The outlay for labour alone in setting her frame up
in position amounted to close upon £2,500.
The Java target ship has been brought down to
Portsmouth harbour from Porchester-creek and
berthed alongside the dockyard to have some sample
armour-plates from the Lancefield works, Glasgow,
affixed to her side for the purpose of being tested
by the smooth-bore 68-pounder of the Stork gun-
boat. The Java has a cellular plate belted on her
starboard side for trial, which is expected to furnish
important data relative to the future plating of our
armour ships.

The Defence, 18, iron frigate, Capt. R. A. Powell,
C. 8., in No. 10 dock at Portsmouth, is having her
bows lined externally with 75,--inch iron-plate, in a
similar manner to the bows of the Black Prince, to
preserve her bow plates proper from chafing by the
swing of her anchors from her cat and fish heads.
3lodels have also been got out for two fish-heads, to
enable her to carry her bower anchors further aft
at sea. They are of a similar nature to those sup-
plied to the Black Prince, but less massive in their
form of construction.

The first general discharge of hired workmen
from Portsmouth dockyard will take place to-day
in the following number of trades:-20 shipwrights,
15 joiners, 2 coppersmiths, 10 smiths, awl 10 mill-
wrights. The next discharge will take place in
about a week as follows : 31 shipwrights, 20 joiners,
9 smiths, and 4 millwrights.
The substitution of. the Armstrong 110-pounder
gun for the smooth-bore has commenced along the
most salient points of the sea face of Portsmouth
fortifications and the sea approaches to Spithead,
many of the works having aleady received their
guns. Without entering into any detailed account
of the exact positions in which these formidable
engines of warfare will be placed, it may be men-
tioned that 41 of them will be distributed as fol-
lows :—Freshwater Battery, 2 ; Cliff-end Fort, to
replace lower tier of 68 pounders, 7 ; Fort Victoria,
lower salient battery and adjoining guns, 3; Brown-
down auxiliary west battery, 3 (the Browndown
auxiliary east battery, recently constructed is now
to be pulled down) ; the auxiliary battery to Fort
Moncton, 2; Southsea Castle auxiliary batteries, 8;
Lumps Forts, three cavalier bastions and three
intermediate, 6 ; Fort Cumberland, 3 ; Portsmouth
old lines, 2; Blockhouse Fort, 2.

The following appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—Commander C. J. Balfour
to the Eagle, commissioned ; Lieut. T. M. M. Wyn-
yard to the Colossus ; R. C. Dyer, master, to the
Royal Adelaide, for the Princess Alice; W. J.
llooper, second master, to the Shannon ; C. E, Bell
naval cadet, to the Defence; David Lyall, surgeon
additional, to the Fisgard ; E. B. Bogg, acting-
assist.-surgeon, to the Devastation ; S. Jefferson,
assist.-surgeon, to the Doris; William Edney, assist..
surgeon, to Greenwich Hospital ; James Farrelly,
assist-surgeon, to the Excellent ; Thos. G. Wilson,
assist.-surgeon, to Bermuda Hospital; James Mid-
dleton, acting assist.-surgeon, to the Marlborough ;
W. D. Smyth, H. G. Reily, and John M. Bateson,
to the Victory, for Hasler Hospital ; John Simpson,
acting first-class assist.-engineer, to the Royal
Adelaide, for the Princess Alice; John Hayward,
paymaster, to the Eagle ; Thos. N. Moore, assist.-
paymaster, to the Royal Adelaide; James S. Croker,
assist.-paymaster, to the Adventure; W. H. Haswell,
assist.-paymaster to the Dauntless ; Wm. Adams,
clerk, to the Adventure; James E. Barber, Henry
C. Mills, and Chas. F, Goolden, master's-assistants,
to the Adventure; Benjamin Sims, master's assistant,
to the Revenge; Thomas E. Cocker, master's as.
vistant, to the Trafalgar; Henry Backler, master's
assistant, to the Virago; Wm. L. Spain, master's
assistant, to the Victory : George S. Brodie, master's
assistant, to the Earylaus ; and Philip D. Onless,
master's assistant, to the Defence.