The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-12 00:00:00

many respects. In all the actions of this vessel off
Charleston, the rule with her, as I understand, was
loaded shells with corresponding charges ; and if
she ever has resorted to solid shot with a large in-
crease of charge, I am uninformed of the fact."
Our own opinion on this subject is very well ex-
pressed by Capt. A. C. Key, in his official Report to
the Admiralty on the smooth water trials conducted
by him of the turrets and gins of the Royal Sove-
reign, and dated July 11, 1865. Capt. Key says,
at page 3 of his Report :
"No practical reasons; exist why a heavy gun
should not be worked on a broadside with the same
security as in a turret, and I am satisfied that there
is no difference in this respect."
Captain Key at the time was writing of 12-ton
guns, and he here appears to accept this as the maxi-
mum weight of the gun to be fought through a ship's
broadside port—that is a gun weighing 26,8801 b.,
in contradistinction to Admiral Goldsworthy's opi-
nion that 12,0001 b. must be the maximum weight.
The American Admtral, no doubt, meant his gun
to be fought under extreme conditions of weather
and the ship's motion, and, unless the Minotaur be
subjected to these conditions during her trials of
these new iron carriages, her cruise will prove value-
less, and American opinion, in the main, be found
correct. Whatever may be the final results of the
apparently interminable " Battle of the Guns," the
Admiralty by their selection of the 12-ton coil-built
gun have made that weapon, for the present, the
maximum of size and calibre for the broadside
armament of the ironclad ships of her Majesty's
navy, should the Minotaur cruise prove the sound-
ness of Capt. Key's opinion. In their incomplete
state, as smoothbores of 10 5-inch calibre, five of
these guns have been now for some time in the tur-
rets of the Royal Sovereign, four in those of the Scor-
pion, three on board the Minotaur for trials of car-
riages, and there are also understood to be some-
where about 200 more at Woolwich waiting the
9-inch rifled steel tubes with which it has been de-
termined to fit them. One rifled gun of the same
weight, imperfect however in some part of its bore,
is also on board the gunnery ship Excellent for drill
purposes. When a sufficient number of the guns at
Woolwich have received their steel tubes they will
be exchanged for their smoothbore brethren at pre-
sent on board the Royal Sovereign, Scorpion, and
Minotaur, and the formal entry of the gun as part
armament of her Majesty's navy may then be con-
sidered to have been effected. Turret ships, such as
we have even at present, can certainly carry and
work a much heavier gun than one of 12 tons, and
will doubtless receive them when we can procure
them. Our present difficulty lies in providing car-
riages fitted with such mechanical aids as shall enable
us to mount and fight such guns efficiently through
broadside ports, and to meet this several inventors
have come forward with carriages and their slides,
and gear for running the gun in and out under suf-
ficient control and all the conditions of the ship's
movements at sea, for training quickly and steadily
to any given angle, and for elevation, depression, &c.
Preliminary trials have been made with both iron
and modern carriages on board the Research and
Minotaur, and valuable data have been deduced ;
but the first of a series of really comprehensive, com-
petitive trials will commence on board the Minotaur,
under Capt. Key's direction, during the present week,
in the generally rough waters off the Bill of Portland.