The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-26 00:00:00

2IIE ARMY.

By the death of Major-Gen. C. Diggle,
pension for distinguished and meritorious services
is placed at the disposal of his Royal Highness the
Commander-in-Chief. Major-Gen. Diggle was one
of the few remaining officers who served with
the 52d Light Infantry, under General Sir John
Moore, and on the expedition to Gottesburgh.
He subsequently served in the Peninsula, and was
present during the retreat and at the battle of
Corunna ; also in the action of the Coa, Battle of
Busaco, and the retreat upon Torres Vedras. Gen.
Diggle likewise served during the campaign from
1813-15, including the attack on Merxheim, where
he commanded the 2d battalion in the advance
upon Antwerp for the bombardment of the French
fleet. He was also present at the battle of Water-
loo, where, during the brave repulse of the French
Imperial Guard, he was severely wounded. The
dates of the deceased General's commissions were—
Ensign, Aug. 31,1804; Lieutenant, Feb. 14, 1805 ;
Captain, May 24, 1810 ; Major, June 18, 1815 ;
Lieutenant-Colonel, Jan. 10, 1837; Colonel, Nov.
11, 1851; and Major-General, Aug. 31, 1855.

Instructions have been forwarded from the office
of the Deputy Adjutant-General to Colonel Har-
ness, C.B , Director of the Royal Engineer estab-
lishment, Chatham, directing a detachment of 22
non-commissioned officers and men who have com-
pleted their curriculum of instruction at the topo-
graphical and drawing schools, Chatham, to be
held in readiness to join the companies of Engi-
neers now engaged upon the Ordnance survey of
Great Britain. The candidates selected will pro-
ceed from headquarters to Southampton on the Ist
of October.

The order from the Horse Guards authorizing
the augmentation of the corps of Royal Engineers
by the formation of two additional companies to
that branch of the service was read to the officers
and troops of the corps at a full-dress parade held
at Brompton-barracks, Chatham, yesterday, under
the command of Lieut.-Col. Browne, C.B. The
augmentation will raise number of companies of
Royal Engineers to 40, six of which will be the
depot companies for the supply of well-trained men
for India and colonial service. The augmentation
of the corps will take effect from the Ist of October,
when the additional companies will be formed at
head-quarters, Capt. R. B. Rimington having been
appointed to the command of the 39th, and Capt.
W. S. Boileau to that of the 40th company

DIPORTAN7 R.XPER ?MEN 7 S AT SHOE-

BURYNESS.

Yesterday morning the experiments, which last
week elicited such startling results with the guns
and shells of Mr. Whitworth, were again resumed
on a larger and more important scale, in the pre-
sence of a number of officers and scientific gentle-
men, at the old practice-ground at Shoeburyness.

It will be in the recollection of our readers that
last week Mr. Whitworth's 12 and 74-pounders
were tried at 200 yards' range, with shell against
iron plates of various thicknesses and sizes, and al-
ways with the most astonishing effect, the 74-poun-
der ehell, with a comparatively very light charge
of powder, being driven through the mass of 4-inch
iron, apparently with the greatest ease. No breach,
however, was made in the target so complete as to
satisfy the Ordnance and Iron Plate Committee that
the same astonishing effects could be obtained with
a larger gun when tried at a greater range than
200 yards, and against a target constructed of the
same strength of the broadside of the renowned
Warrior. It was to set at rest whatever doubts
existed in the minds of those who thus disbelieved
in the powers of Mr. 'Whitworth's gab- and its flat-
fronted shot and shell that the most important of
the trials of yesterday were made in the presence of
Lord Clyde, Sir W. Armstrong, Mr. Whitviurth, a
the members of the Iron Plate Committee, and
very large assembly of artillery and naval officers.
Thel,gun used on this occasion was a gun whichin our
recent notice of these experiments we ventured to
think would be found the most formidable assailant
armour plates have yet had to encounter—namely,
an ordnance muzzle loader, manufactured at Wool-
wich on Sir W. Armstrong's wrought iron coil prin-
ciple, but with the beautiful hexagonal bore of Mr.
Whitwoith's mode of rifling. Its weight was 7 tons
8 cwt., its length about 12 feet, and its calibre a
120-pounder, though, in fact, capable of and quite
equal to thowing shot of at least double that
-weight, with, perfect safety. It was placed on a
platform at a distance of 600 yards from the
e Warrior target, a longer range
section of th
rds than any gun has hitherto been laid
by 400 yards
hoeburyn ess penetrate such a formidable
At a distance of 800 yards
mass of iron and teak.
the great Horsfall or 'Mersey gun was also levelled
at the same target. This gun, it will be remem-
bered, at 200 yards' range sent its shot through the
target, on the last occasion making a huge ragged
hole in the very centre of the plate, and crushing
through all beyond it. The admirers 01 this now
very old-fashioned smooth-bore gun maintained that
what had been done at 200 yards it would do again
lANL4 14t 84Q, Agoardingly, after the

Whit worth experiments were over, this huge and
most unwieldy piece of ordnance (its weir t is no
less than 24 tons) was tried at the same mark, but,
as will be seen, with very different and most un-
satisfactory results.

The target aimed at on this occasio', was, as we
have said, a built-up section representing the War-
rior's side, It was not, however, the original old
Warrior target, which during the course of the last
12 months has been so constantly and unmercifully
battered that it has at last been withdrawn from
active service. It was a new target, specially made
for these experiments, 21 feet long by 15 high, con-
structed on the same principle as the old one—
namely, with 41 inch iron plates, 18 inches of teak
beams laid transversely, and an inner skin of iron
2ths of an inch thick, supported by massive up-
right angle irons, at intervals of 18 inches apart.
It is but fair, however, to state that the 41- inch
armour-plates which covered the powerful combi-
nation of teak and iron were not manufactured by
the Thames Iron Company, and were undoubtedly
inferior in powers of resistance to the splendid
plate with which the first Warrior target was
coated by that company. Some few shots were
also fired from the Whitworth with low charges,
at a wooden target, to get the range, though even
these were not without interest, as illustrating
the wonderful precision with which it threw
its projectiles. The last experimental shot
was fired with a charge of 231 b. of powder and
a solid hexagonal shot weighing 1291 b., the piece
being laid at half a degree of elevation. It struck
the left centre of the target within an inch almost
of the white spot at which it was aimed, and at the
instant of the tremendous concussion of the metals
a bright sheet of flame was emitted, almost as if a
gun had been fired from the target in reply. This
shot passed,completely through the armour plate,
shatteriag the teak beyond into minute splinters,
and fell full upon one of the massive vertical angle
lines we have mentioned, which it tore in half as if
it had been paper, sending its screw bolts and rivets
in all directions. The shot, however, did not pass
through the target, but remained buried in the teak
with its flat head resting against the broken angle
iron. But the fracture it made was much worse
than a mere penetration. It was a smash, not a
hole, and the inner skin of the ship was bulged and
torn wide in many places, so that in the case of an
actual vessel such a shot striking on the water line
would have made a leak which nothing could have
stopped. As regarded the effect of these flat-fronted
shot on iron ships, the experiment was conclusive.
Such a missile against a wooden ship would have
gone through both sides, making a clean hole and
doing little damage, but the iron, without protect-
ing, offered only sufficient resistance to make the
fracture, if below the water-line, an irremediable
mischief. The next experiment was with a live
shell, loaded with 31b. Boz. of powder. The total
weight of this projectile was 1311 b., and it was
fired at the same range and elevation with a 251 b.
charge of powder. The effect of this shot astounded
every oue. The previous solid shot, at 600 yards,
was for Whitworth nothing very extraordinary,
but to get a shell through the target at the same
range was regarded as almost an impossibility. Yet
the shell went completely through everything,
bursting apparently when it encountered the last
resistance of the inner skin, which the explosion
blew completely away, lighting for a moment the
timbers at the back which supported the target,
and sending the bits of shell onward and over what,
had it been the Warrior, would have been her
maindeck, and, therefore, right in the midst of her
crew.

Than this experiment nothing could possibly have
been more conclusive. Not only was the armour-
plate pierced, but the piece opposed to the actual
stroke of the flat-headed shell was driven through
teak and inner lining, and, in truth, became another
shot of some 301 b. weight. In fact, this last shell
might have destroyed the whole of one side of the
target had the shell been only capable of contain-
ing an adequate bursting charge—say 101 b. or 121 b.
of powder. This latter most important requisite,
however, the Whitworth shell, from its peculiar con-
struction, is at yet unable to accomplish, and until
it is brought about nearly all the advantages gained
by its enormous powers of penetration will, com-
paratively speaking, be in a manner lost against
iron frigates. Once, however, that the shell is
made to hold a. powerful charge of bib, of fine pow-
der, iron vessels will become, we believe, almost as
much at the mercy of these ordnance as wooden
ones now are to the terrible shells of Armstrong.
This experiment with the shell was, therefore,
considered so far satisfactory as to its penetrating
powers that no further attempts were made with it,
and the trials were continued with the Horsfall
gun at 800 yards against the uninjured plates of the
same target. The immense difference between
the powers of a smooth bore and a rifled gun,
both as to accuracy and force of its projectile,
then at once became apparent. The first shot
fired from the Horsfall with 741 b. of powder and a
2751 b. round shot struck in front of and some ten
or twelve feet to the left of the target, which it
missed altogether. The gun was relaid again, and
again the shot struck the ground about 40 feet
in front of the mark, ricochetting with a slight
rise, and striking full on an uninjured plate. In
this case it smashed an immense hole, shattered
the teak, and fractured the inner skin, leaving all
the elements of a fearful leak, as Mr. Whitworth's
first shot had done, but, like that also, not going
quite through. The third shot again missed the
target entirely, striking wide of the mark ; and
the fourth, and last, only just saved the now
sadly diminished reputation of the gun by hit-
ting the extreme uppermost corner of the tar-
get, the metal of which it smashed. The
failure of this gun at this range was there-
fore as satisfactorily settled as the success of Mr.
Whitworth's, and the trials were discontinued. It
was next intended to proceed with the 12-pounder
Whitworth against a plate of no less than fuur
inches in thickness, but as at each end of the shots
we huve described the spectators had to retire long
distances from the targets to the shelter of the
splinter proofs," many hours had been consumed
and the day was waning fast. It was therefore de-
cided o give up further trials, except to test if the
armour
plates which had been fired at were up to
the proper standard of resistance. This trial test
was made at 200 yards with the old smooth-bore
68-pounder,
and the depth of the indent made by
this
n resisting power to those which
covered the old Warrior target. The metal was by
means equal showed
i at once that the plates were
ex-
ceedingly brittle.
brought
With these so far satisfactory efforts, pro and eon,
some much
the experiments of the day were to a close,
to be, no doubt, renewed
again with
thicker and stouter kind of target, which in its turn
may perhaps gain a short-lived victory over the
t.-
guns. Thus, from week to week public opinion,
and even the opinion of our scientific authorities, is
kept vacillating between the comparative merits of
the resistance of plate and the
result
t
penetration of shot.
What, it may be asked, is to be the practical
of all these experiments ? Are we a last to deve-
lope a really good gun which can
send its shot
through any armour, or is armour to gain the day?
h difficulties.
The iron
The whole of this question is beset wit
men believe that they can so coat a ship
' as
to practically render her invulnerable to any shot ;
while, on
the other hand, artillerists aro as firmly
of opinion thatthey can make guns which shall also
be practically equal to crippling any iron frigate
that ever floated. who is to decide this disagree-
ment of the doctors, especially when the results of
these S hoeburyness experiments vary every week,
and are almost equally strong
alike for ships and
guns In our humble j udgment
• P we venture to think
that, in the end, guns must carry the day, for,
while there is no limit to the size and Weight of the
ordnance which fortifications or even ship% can carry,
there is a most decided limit to the weight of
armour
which seagoing frigates will support--a limit
we
have fully reached, if indeed we have not overpassed,
in the 51in. armour vessels now building. As fee Iv,
regards this blacksmith's method of defending ships
is concerned, we have not much advanced upon the
unwieldy floating batteries that atteeked Kinburn,
or these still more hideous " of the Glutton
and " Trusty" class, which were with difficulty kept
from feunderiug as they were towed with chain
eablee iip the Baltic. The Russian
.32-potindera

plumped against the 4-inch iron sides of these ill
built craft, but did no manner of damage. The Ad-
miralty, quite content with having so far ascer-
tained the value of iron, took no further notice of
the matter, and would have taken none to this day
had not Napoleon proceeded to utilize the discovery
by constructing an iron navy. Since then we have
made a small iron squadron, two of which, the
Warrior and Black Prince, are really magnificent
frigates ; the others are mere compromises. built as
rams, but left without speed; intended for frigates,
but almost as unmanageable in a sea-way as the old
helpless batteries, very properly called "floating,"
for they could neither steam, steer, nor sail. Well,
the Warrior build, with its 41- inches of iron and
18 inches of teak backing, has been tried and re-
mained for a long time, not only practically but li-
terally invulnerable against all the salvoes of our
heaviest ordnance, and it was not till a special an-
tagonist, the 150-pounder smoothbore muzzle-
loader of Sir William Armstrong, was brought
against it that it at last succumbed. But the vic-
tory was not left entirely with the artillery on this
occasion, for the gun itself was destroyed by the
heavy charges of powder used to enable it to destroy
the target. Since then the Horsfall 300-pounder
smooth-bore has sent its shot as easily through a
similar target as if it was so much canvass. The
Whitworth 12-pounder has sent shells through iron
which until now no shells have ever affected, and the
70-pounder shells through 4in. of iron and 4in. of
oak; and, to crown all, yesterday it sent shells even
through the Warrior target itself, This result is
most important, and, properly viewed, should be
most gratifying to the country, to whose naval su-
periority nothing could be inure disastrous if
it were true that vessels could be so plated as to be
utterly invulnerable to shot and shell of every kind.
Fortunately for ourselves, we seem now to be on the
right track and in a fair way of getting guns which
will penetrate any thickness of armour that can be
got to float. Thus, for the last three months or
more the experiments at Shoeburyness have vir-
tually changed their whole character. They have
ceased to be experiments on the resistance of iron
plates, and have really, though not nominally, be-
come efforts to discover what gun or what combi-
nations of the best points of the best guns will
pierce them.
But the new frigates of the Minotaur class build-
ing at London and Birkenhead are not to be par-
tially coated like the Warrior, but completely cased
from stem to stern with armour of 51 inches thick
instead of 41. It is yet to be seen how they will
bear this enormous mass of metal, and the result of
the experiment in a sea-way is looked forward to
with no little anxiety and even apprehension. The
Warrior, it is said, is in a sea-way a rolling ship in
the fullest and most unmanageable sense of the
term, and against a head wind plunges heavily. It
is, therefore, only reasonable to conclude that the
new ships, which carry heavier armour and more of
it, are, to say the least, not likely to be more handy
under similar conditions. The limit, therefore, to
which we can safely go with the thickness of ar-
mour for sea-going frigates has been reached, yet
the Whitworth gun is not unlikely to turn out
an overmatch for all.

As a general principle these ships, however, are
invulnerable against the guns of other navies. The
rifled canon raye of the French has no more effect
upon them than our own Armstrong, while the
cumbersome American Dahlgren gun only throws
spherical shell, which are useless against iron sides.
But we know from yesterday's experience that a gun
can be made to pierce any iron ship, and the question
now is, which is the best for this purpose? The Arm-
strong is out of the question. The enormous range,
great accuracy, and terribly destructive effects of its
shell must, till a better gun in these respects is in-
vented, always make this weapon one of the main
defences of our fleets and forts, and above all our
best gun for land service. But against iron ships it
is simply useless. Its low velocity is against it ;
the conical form of the shot hitherto used, which
always shatters when it strikes the target, is still
more against it. What is wanted is a wrought-iron
gun—a mnzzle-loader of course—capable of thr win g
a shot to smash any armour plates, or else such a
fiat-headed shell as Mr. Whitworth uses, which can
penetrate the plate and burst inside it. For the
first purpose a wrought-iron muzzle-loading gun
could, we think, easily be made capable of throwing
100 lb. shot, yet weighing 25cwt. less than the pre-
sent naval 68-pounder. Such a gun would be both
lighter and stronger than any east ordnance, an d
from their calibre and the heavy charges that
might be safely used with them, would at short
ranges be tolerably destructive to any iron frigate.
For the second purpose only Whitworth's flat-
fronted shells appear as yet to have any chance.

THE IVRECK STATIST ICS AND CHART

FOR 1861.

Shakespeare compares England to a fortress, and
the Channel to a moat, but if he saw the leviathan
steamers now coming up that Channel, he would be
the first to acknowledge that the comparison did
not hold good in the present day. We do not now
look upon the sea as itself giving us a defence ; it
is only our chief medium of defence. But it is
now, as in the days of Drake, our great commercial
highway and source of our strength, girding us, if
it does not guard us, and bearing into our havens
all the products of the known globe. All who
leave us or approach us must do so by this great
highway, which carries on its bosom in the course
of one year alone, to and from our own ports no
less than 267,770 ships, including repeated voyages,
and which ships have probably been manned by
1,600,000 souls.

Such is the field of operations over which these dry
statistics of the Board of Trade carry us. As usual,
they have been most ably drawn up and collated in
every possible form. Yet on nearly every page of
this register these startling facts, in admonitory
terms, face us, that 1,494 shipwrecks occurred on
British shores last year, from which 884 people are
known to have perished.

The number of wrecks last year has unfortunately
exceeded the number during any of the preceding
nine years, and it is 260 in excess of the annual
average of the last six years.

It is a lamentable fact that shipwrecks on our
coasts have been of late years on the increase. Thus
during the last seven years we find the following
account :—ln 1855,1,141 ; 1856, 1,153 ; 1857, 1,143;
1858, 1,170 ; 1859, 1,416 ; 1860, 1,379 ; 1861, 1,494.
The wreck chart, whica accompanies the register,
clearly shows the spot where each casualty occurred,
and the number of lives lost by.it.
We are told that this great increase of disasters
in 1861 was owing to the fearful gales of January,
February, and November of that year, when 842
wrecks took place, principally among our rotten
collier Class of vessels. Gales, even of a moderate
character, are always destructive to these ships ; or,
in other
andrwords, they are doomed to certain destruc •
tion under circumstances in which a ship if sea-
worthy,be able to keep
the properlyse
am.
a nne
The b
d andest
harboursfound,
t rto
o.
fuge in the worlda i 8
avisot
eurlsd,
Wn ohti,c
htherefore, 1
nparteevl
ye n t
too a
otifttheen eocfeuthrewsehere neither the lifeboat nor the rocket
apparatus is available to succour their unfortunate
crewlires.regret to find that the number of collisions is
also on the increase. No calamity is more fearful
than that of a collision at sea during a dark stormy
egairtahter
es
18
night. Its destructive effects are instantaneous,
and frequently a large number of persons go down
With either ship. I:ehmeicirolkliitsbiloensiniur llrta ish
to w
es
69, 349 ; in 1860, 29
were in 8 ; and in 1861, 323.
But what is
fearful i collisions is the feet that, during the past
ix years, collisions have taken place in clear
and fineeathei, 378 flora bad look out, 264
from neglect of rule of road at sea, and 61 from ac-
tual want of seamanship. The gross total of colli-
sions s
six years having
increase of vesselshavingbeenlB64.
A natural duringthesequence
pastof the
wrecked is the increase of precious lives
lost. The
number
om.
berof persons who thus lost their lives in 1861
Was, as previously stated, 884, while in 1860 it was

This, let it be remembered, is not a casual loss;
it is a continual if not an ever-increasing ono- The
drain on our sailors and fishermen goes on year after
year, notwithstanding all the benevolent and stn.