The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-19 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

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The Minotaur, iron frigate, received the sec d
of her 12-ton 10.5-inch smoothbore guns, with) its
carriage and slide, on Saturday, alongside Ports-
mouth dockyard, and is expected to jpakitlier two
days' experimental cruise under Captain Astley C.
Key's direction, outside the Isle of Wight, in the
middle of this week. The object of the cruise is to
test the working of these guns mounted on a ship's
broadside, in as much motion, or roll, as can be got
out of the Minotaur in so limited a cruise and at
this season, when the Channel in nine days out of
ten is as smooth as a millpond. Both the guns are
mounted on wooden carriages and slides, one being
from Woolwich and the other from her Majesty's
gunnery ship Excellent. The latter had been pre-
viously on board the Excellent, where it has mounted
one of the 12-ton guns sent down to that ship for
practice and drill purposes. Both carriages are
alike in their principal features. The one from
Woolwich, however, traverses the rear racer by
means of a pair of metal rollers fixed one cn each
side by the slide. The Excellent's carriage has a
single roller for the purpose fixed in the centre of
the slide in its after part, which is brought down on
the racer and made to take the weight of the slide
by a lever with an eccentric motion. This has been
fitted in accordance with the suggestions of Capt.
A. C. Key, C. 8., commanding H.M.S. Excellent.
The carriages are necessarily weak, as well as com-
plicated, as all wooden carriages must be, when car-
rying guns of such an exceptional weight as 12 tons;
nor are they fitted with any mechanical means for
running the gun out when loaded. Supposing the
gun in this latter case to be in on the slide, and wait-
ing to be run out to re-commence firing, with the
ship at the same time rolling 25 degrees each way ;
all the gun's crew can do is to watch the roll of the
ship and ease the gun out by carefully slacking the
compressors. The successful accomplishment of such
a movement is a problem remaining to be solved, and
and which Capt. Key, it is to be hoped, will bring
to the test before he closes the Minotaur's cruise.
There is one most important feature in the Mino-
ta.ur, and also in all our other ironclads, including
the Bellerophon class, which deserves special notice.
None of our broadside ships have been designed to
carry 12-ton guns, with their massive carriages and
slides, in the broadside ports of their maindeck. If
a judgment may be correctly formed on the subject
from a visit to the Minotaur and a careful inspec-
tion of her decks, it will be a matter of impossibi-
lity, we may almost presume, that vessels can be
built to carry and work effectively at sea such mon-
ster ordnance as we are now engaged in introducing
on the decks of our armoured ships. The Minotaur's
main deck has but two of these 12-ton guns placed
upon it for her trial cruise (carrying no other guns
of any kind), and yet the effect produced by these
two guns—one on the starboard and the other on
the port side amidships—is such as to demonstrate
that the ship, with her vast tonnage and strength,
is incapable of carrying and withstanding the pres-
sure from the working and fire of masses of metal
she was never originally intended to carry. Any
casual visitor to the ship will at once observe an
apparent deflection in the plane of the deck on
which the guns stand. The amount of deflection is
certainly not much, but it is just sufficient to give a
feeling of uneasiness asto the possibility of working
the guns at sea without driving through the deck,
even if they did not go through by their own
weight, when the ship is working in a breeze. Still
entertaining this feeling of an existing disproportion
between the strength of the deck and the weight of
the guns it has to carry, and descending to the deck
below, immediately under the place where the guns
are mounted, it will be found that the feeling en-
gendered by the apparent weakness of the deck, or
rather excessive weight of the guns, is not without
reason. Three timber props of immense strength,.
each being circular and of the diameter of a
brig's mainmast, are fixed as supports on.
each side to those parts of the deck above ea
which the guns rest. If, therefore, a deflection of
the gun deck really exists, as it certainly-
appears to do, it must be shared by the cick.
below, and the whole structure of the ship must be iu
reality too weak for carrying and working 12-ton
guns on the broadside. The possibility of working
such guns at all on the broadsides of ships, as at pre-
sent constructed, might be enlarged upon here at
much greater length ; but as the solution of that
question is Capt. Key's task in the forthcoming
cruise of the Minotaur we shall forbear saying any-
thing further in relation to that part of the subject
at present, confining our conclusions now to ibe
one important fact that, undoubtedly, our broadside
gunships are, judging by the Minotaur, not calcu-
lated by their design and build to carry and work-
ordnance through their ports of the weight of 1-3
tons.

Mr. E. J. Reed, the Chief Constructor of the
Navy, has returned to the Admiralty from a visit of
inspection to the steel works at Hoerde Essen, and
other parts of Prussia, where he has been engaged
on an inquiry into the system of manufacture of
steel armour-plates, with a view to their more ex-
tensive introduction into the armour-clad vessels
built by the Admiralty at the Royal dockyards.
An improved hydraulic apparatus for bending tlio
large description of armour-plates, patented by the
inventors, Sir C. Fox and Son, of Spring-gardens,
having been submitted to the Admiralty, a trial of
the invention is ordered to be made at Chatham
dockyard. A trial is also to be made at Chatham of
a valuable invention for boring armour-plated ships
for scuttle-tubes, valves, &c., submitted to the Ad-.
miralty by Mr. Ord, one of the officials of Malta
dockyard. The ordinary system of boring the large
holes in armour plates is attended with great loss of
time, and is altogether most tedious, each hole taking
from 10 to 14 days to complete. The machine in-
vented by Mr. Ord will effect a considerable saving
of time, as each hole can be bored to the exact size
required in 30 hours, including the fixing of the
machine, which can be worked, if needed, by four
labourers, or a small steam engine. The invention
is strongly recommended to the Admiral Superin-
tendent of Malta dockyard, and the trials to be made
with it will be attended with considerable interest.
The summer examination of candidates for al-
mission to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,
under the regulations dated " Horse Guards, Jan.
1, 1864," will commence at Chelsea Hospital this
morning, under the direction of Major-General F.
W. Hamilton, C. 8., vice-president, and the mem-
bers of the Council of Military Education. The
examination will occupy the whole week.
The following naval officers, studying at the Royal
Naval College, Portsmouth, have taken steam certi-
ficates aliithe quarterly examination of the present
month.—Commanders T. K. Mackenzie, and E. S.
Adeane, and Capt. H. P. de Kantzow.
The following officers also qualified at the College
for lieutenants and masters, R.N. For Lieutenants :
—A. C. Elwes, C. V. Anson, W. M'C. F. Castle,
G. W. Hill, T. H. Dickson, P. B. Aitkins, A. S. F.
Fitz George, H. Lefevre Ryder, and E. R. Foster.
For Masters.—F. C. Corbett, W. R. Stevens, R. 11.
C. Hebden, E. R. J. Williams, J. Proctor, and 11.
T. Gimson.

For the competitive examinations for Assistant-
Clerkships R.N., held on board her Majesty's ship
Victory, 22 candidates presented themselves, of
whom the following passed successfully :—A. Wool-
ward, J. P. Pearce, H. Bedingfield, H. A. Edwards,
T. Guard, H. A. Minley, J. W. Chaster, T. Kaiwz,
J. Taylor, and J. T. K. Belem.
The following appointments were made on Sat ur-
day at the Admiralty :—Lieut. John L. Gilby, to
the Octavia; Benjamin B. Stuart, master, to the
Fisgard, for the Fox ; Sub-Lieut. Lambton, L. L.
Bevan, to the Octavia; George R. C. Eyres and
Henry T. S. Dorrien, midshipmen, to the Racoon ;
and Charles Sproule, surgeon, to the Liffey.

THE DARLINGS.—Many will be glad to hear that
Grace Darling's brother now fills the situation once
occupied by her father. Tho lighthouse is a marvel of
cleanliness and neatness. After climbing from the boat up
an ascent of rocks covered with seaweed, through which
Mr. Darling has cleared a precipitous path, the pebble-paved
and enclosed yard of the lighthouse, where everything that
is not painted red is painted white, appears strikingly
different from terra-firma objects. The spiral staircase con-
ducts the visitor past room after room, all scrupulously neat,
and decorated with marine curiosities, till it terminates iu
the glass chamber containing the revolving lights.—Builder.