The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-22 00:00:00

The Royal Sovereign.

The Royal Sovereign, turret ship, is filling up
coals and stores in Portsmouth harbour, and other-
wise preparing for her ordered course of gunnery and
other trials outside the Isle of Wight, under the
direction of Captain Astley C. Key, C. 8., of her
Majesty's ship Excellent. Her short cruise outside
the Isle of Wight with several of the Lords of the
Admiralty on board, on the 17th inst., sufficiently
demonstrated, by the time occupied in working the
turrets and the slowness of fire from her guns, as
compared with her efficiency when under Captain
Osborn's command, the necessity of always keeping
a full crew on board a ship whose gun drill differs
so essentially from that at present practised on board
all other ships of her Majesty's navy. Their lordships
saw the turrets and guns all worked with great ease,
making allowance for their ponderousness ; and the
time occupied in traversing the turrets, and in re-
loading and firing the guns might have passed
without any further comment were it not for the
recollection of the much greater rapidity with which
the turrets were revolved and fire delivered
from their guns during her experimental
shot practice in August last in St. Helen's
roadstead, under Capt. Osborn's command, and the
working of her old crew. It was certainly not to be
expected that the ship's turrets should be nearly so
rapidly revolved or so rapid a fire delivered from
her guns by a crew mainly composed of men sent
on board, at an hour's notice, from the Excellent—
men who neither could have understood the work-
ing of the turrets nor the sighting of their guns as
was done with her old and trained crew ; but this
very fact is the strongest argument which can be
used in favour of always keeping a full crew on
board, and it also bears testimony to the zeal with
which Capt. Sherard Osborn, his officers, and crew
must have entered into their work to bring the
Royal Sovereign to the very efficient state she
had attained by the time her captain officially
ceased to command her. When the ship is
carrying on her experiments under Captain
Key she will, of course, be fully manned, so far
as the working of her guns are concerned, from
her Majesty's ship Excellent, but it will also, we
think, be admitted that it is requisite to keep her
manned after the experiments are completed until
she is again commissioned, even if she be kept nomi-
nally as a tender to the Excellent. Capt. Osborn's
senior lieutenant still retains his position on board
the ship. Many improvements in matters of detail
relating to the fittings of the ship and turrets have
been effected since the period of Captain Osborn's
commission; but one important recommendation of
Captain Osborn on his " Final Report of the Ship's
Capabilities," that " a winch should be fitted to run
the guns in and out with, instead of the old-fashioned
tackle," has not yet been carried into effect. This is
rather extraordinary, and must be owing to some
oversight on the part of the authorities, as winchers
are understood to be fitted for this purpose on board
the Scorpion and Wyvern. It is urged that if we
wish to keep our place in this race of reconstruction
for the supremacy of the seas we must have big guns
with power to work them, great speed to our ships
under steam, minimum tonnage, or rather draught
of water, and twin screws. With twin screws the
Royal Sovereign's present powers of manoeuvring
would be more than doubled, and with her present
12-ton guns rifled her powers of offence would also
be doubled.

As the opinions of Captain Sherard Osborn on
the Royal Sovereign, her turrets, and her guns,
cannot be otherwise than highly interesting, we take
the present opportunity of appending a copy of his
final report on the ship's capabilities to the Com-
mander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, Admiral Sir M.
Seymour, G.C.8., at the close of his services as her
captain :

" Her Majesty's ship Royal Sovereign,
Portsmouth, Oct. 15, 1864.

"Sir,—As her Majesty's ship Royal Sovereign is now
paid off, I do myself the honour of forwarding to you a re-
port, dealing generally with my observations upon the ship,
guns, and turrets.

"2. Between the 28th of August and the 17th of Septem-
ber I was on ten different days under way in the Channel,
and tested the vessel in weather ranging, from a perfect
calm, with heavy swell, to a double-reefed topsail breeze and
a smart sea. On one occasion I put her into the broken water
of the Race of Portland just as a heavy gale had broken.
" 3. On all occasions the ship behaved remarkably well.
She is more buoyant than I should have anticipated ; very
fast, considering how coarse a bow she has, and not wetter
than might be expected for a vessel purposely cut down for
harbour defence only.
" 4. Her extreme rolls have only been 11 deg. each way.
She has done this about 10 times in a minute ; about the
same rate, I may observe, as the Albion rolled during her
first experimental cruise.
" 5. The great width of the upper deck is a serious defect,
but that is purely owing to the ship being a converted
vessel.

" No vessel expressly constructed to carry turreis requires
such a deck as we have (some 63 feet in width).
"When rolling in a sea-way so wide a deck as ours,with
a lowbulwark, has an insecure appearance, and when riding
at anchor in bad weather the drift and wet blow along it in
a very trying manner, severely punishing those exposed in
charge of the watch ; fortunately, however, having no
masts or yards, the crew of the Royal Sovereign need be
little exposed to the weather, except for the lead and look-
out.

'• The turrets and guns work admirably. We have now
fired in all 177 rounds, under all conditions. The rolling of
the ship does not affect the evolutions of either turret or
guns.

" 7. The only defects I can observe exist in the carriages
being of wood instead of iron, and the necessity for a winch
to run the guns in and out with instead of the old-fashioned
tackle ; both these defects are in the course of being reme-
died.

" 8: The aperture cut through the upper deck to allow
the turrets to revolve upon the lower deck, instead of upon
the upper deck, as in the American monitors, requires to be
secured or covered in upon a better principle than has yet
been adopted.
" It involves the comfort and health of the crew, owing
to the admission of much wet and damp between decks when
fighting in a sea-way. When not fighting we cover it over
with painted canvas and render it perfectly secure and safe.
It is a mechanical question of a very ordinary character,
and can be easily remedied when set about in earnest.
"'9. To conclude, I am of opinion that the Royal
Sovereign, as she now stands, is the most formidable vessel
of war I have ever been on board of. She would easily
destroy, if her guns were rifled, any of our present iron.
clads, whether of the Warrior, Hector, or Research class.
Her handiness, speed, weight of broadside, and the small
target she offers increase tenfold her powers of assault and
retreat; and I believe I see my way to firing by night from
a turret with as much accuracy as by day, so long as the
enemy is visible,
"10. On the other hand, a vessel raged as she has been
cannot be considered a deep sea cruiser, nor calculated to go
to foreign stations, except in emergencies, or for special
purposes—such, for instance, as when we sent our iron-
cased batteries to the Crimea.

" 11. Vessels like the Royal Sovereign are admirably
calculated for the defence of the coasts, harbours, and road-
steads of Great Britain. With 12 such converted vessels
the fleet might be sent abroad to fight an enemy, and we
could feel secure at home come what might, the more so as
any naval officer would undertake to work and fight these
vessels if manned by artillerymen, with only a dozen sailors
to steer and take the lead.

" 12. I see no limit to the weight of ordnance. which may
be worked upon the turret principle, and there are many
ways in which the revolving platform, apart from the iron-
cased turret, might be applied with the best result to any
of our ordinary cruisers, whether of wood or iron.
"13. I have, in conclusion, to say that as yet we have
not curried away a gun-breeching, nor hurt so much as a
man's finger nail in the working of our guns and turrets,
and the only damage done has been, in my opinion, from
the defective fittings on deck, such as weak cap-scuttles,
&c., and the iniury to the hawse pipe, for which I am alone
to blame, though that would not have occurred if there
was less wood and more iron used in the construction of
our iron-clad ships.

SHERARD OsßonN, Captain.
"To Admiral Sir M. Seymour, G.C.8., Bte.,
Connut %au-in-Chief."