The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-01 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Rinaldo, screw, Commander lion. Maurice
H. Nelson, was yesterday officially inspected at Spit-
head, on her return to England from foreign service,
by Capt. F. Scott, C. 8., and Aide-de-Camp to the
Queen, flag captain to the Commander-in-Chief at
Portsmouth, Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, G.C.B.
After the inspection the Rinaldo weighed her anchor
and steamed into Portsmouth harbour, where she is
ordered to be dismantled and paid out of commission.
The Helicon, paddlewheel despatch vessel, of 835
tons and 250 nominal horse power of engines,will be
launched from No. 1 slip of Portsmouth dockyard at
noon to-day.

The Himalaya, iron screw troopship, in the Warrior
dock at Portsmouth, has had her bottom and the
preservative anti-fouling compositions (Peacock and
Buchan's) with which it is coated officially examined
and reported upon to the Admiralty by the dock-
yard officials, who have recommended that a re-
newed coating should be given with the same de-
scription of compositions, after a clean scrub down,
and without any disturbance of the old compositions,
which are unusually well preserved. It is nine
months nearly since the Himalaya received her old
coatings of the Peacock and Buchan compositions in
dock at Keyham, and upwards of three months of

the latter part of that time the ship has lain at
moorings in Portsmouth harbour, giving the compo-
sitions a greater chance, therefore, of fouling than
they could have undergone had the ship been kept
moving under steam on her ordinary troop duties.
On the examination being made of the vessel's bot-
tom in dock, however, there was only found adher-
ing to the composition tufts of short weed and slime,
the greater part, no doubt, deposited by the waters
of Portsmouth harbour while the ship has been lying
still at her moorings. There were no other adhesions
of any kind, nor was there found any appearance of
rust.

On Sunday last, on board her Majesty's ship
Victory at Portsmouth, W. J. Hamill, a boy
belonging to her Majesty's training brig Ferret,
tender to the training ship Boscawen in South-
ampton water, was presented, in the presence
of the ship's company and the officers assem-
bled on the quarter-deck, with the Humane Society's
medal. It was bestowed on him for jumping over-
board from the brig off Southampton, while a fresh
breeze was blowing and a strong ebb tide running,
and saving the life of a boy and fellow shipmate,
Bayley, who had fallen overboard. Capt.
Scott, of the Victory, in handing the medal to
Hamill, addressed him in a kind and encouraging
manner, praising him for his gallant conduct in
saving the life of his shipmate, and expressing his
best wishes for his success in a career which had
been so honourably distinguished at its commence-
ment. Hamill is 16 years of age.
The paddlewheel surveying vessel Asp is fitting at
Devonport as a tender to the guardship of Steam
Reserve Indus, Capt. William Edmonstone, C.B.
The paddlewheel steam atoreship Dee, 1, Master-
Commander George Raymond, left Plymouth on
Saturday with boiler and engine gear for the iron
steamship Lord Clyde, 24, at Pembroke. The Dee
then proceeds to Liverpool.
Orders have been received at Devonport to fit
the old sailing ship Hindostan, 78, as an auxiliary
for the Britannia, 8, training ship for naval cadets,
at Dartmouth.
The lighter Hamoaze, J. Paddon, master, left
Devonport yesterday with stores for Pembroke
dockyard.
In accordance with orders to that effect received

at the head-quarters of the Royal Engineer estab-
lishment, Chatham, the Bth Company of Royal
Engineers, which has recently arrived from China,
has been augmented to its proper strength from the
depot companies at Brompton Barracks, the com-
pany having returned to England numbering only
about half its proper complement.
The hired sailing transport Royal Dane has arrived
at Spithead from Melbourne, with a number of
wounded and invalided officers and men on board
from her Majesty's naval and military force in New
Zealand, forwarded from Auckland, New Zealand,
to Melbourne, and embarked at the latter on board
the
Royal Dane on Nov. 8, 1864, the ship sailing
on the following day for England. The naval por-
tion
Alexander,
of the Royal Dane's freight consists of Capt.
ot . t.he latter R.N. (wounded), and five seamen, one
ha •
yi
mander-Gen.—Commissariat Staff Corps—Com-
.
who are
following co
; Staff Assist.-
Sorg
women, ng lost a leg. The soldiers onboard,
wounded
suro esGton ;
more or less severely, are from the
R u
and
sge.hildroode;
Ist battalion 12th-
-2d battalion 18th—Capt. Army Hospital Corps—
Royal Artillery-5 men,
5 men' 2 women, and 5 children;
en ; Military Train-5 men ;
1 woman, and 1 child ;
2d battalion 14th-5
apt. Kemp, u men, 2 women,

and 1 child ; 40th Regiment--9 men ; 43d Regiment

—Capt. Sargent, 26 men, 4 women, and 8 children ;
50th Regiment--Lieut. Goldsmith and 20 men; 57th

Regiment-3 men ; 65th Regiment—Lieut. Butler

and 3 men ; 68th Regiment-18 men, 1 woman,

and 3 children ; 70th liegiment-11 men, 2 women,

and I child ; and the widow of Capt. Lloyd, with
three widows of soldiers and three orphans. Four

deaths occurred during the voyage home. The
militaryinvalids will be transferred this morning by
a Government steamer to the Royal Victoria Mili-
tary Hospital at Netley ; the naval invalids were
transferred yesterday to her Majesty's ship Victory
and the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar. If the
weather proves moderate the transport of the sol-

diers between the Government steamer when she

arrives in Southampton Water and the hospi6l at
Netley will be effected without much difficulty by
the steamer arriving there at high-water. With
any force of wind, however, very considerable dis-
comfort is experienced by the sick soldiers in walk-
ing up the open-planked staging, or mud roadway,
which now has to do duty as a pier between the
steam-vessel and the hospital grounds. The want
of a properly constructed pier near the Royal Vic-
toria Military Hospital at Netley at which to land

the sick and wounded soldiers, now received there

from all parts of the world, is much felt. The
Royal Dane has 2,012 ounces of gold on board on
freight. She is expected to sail from Spithead for

London, after discharging her invalids, about noon
to-day.

In The Sun of the 22d inst. it was stated that
Commander Hope Johnstone, of her Majesty's ship

Virago, was severely reprimanded by court-martial
at Bermuda. We are requested to contradict this

statement.
We have to record the death of Lieut.-Col. Fre-
derick Harvey Fuller, at Bear-hill, Twyford, Berks,
on the 25th inst. The deceased, who had attained
the age of 70 years, entered the army January 21,
1804, and became lieutenant April 4, 1805. He
proceeded to the Peninsula in 1808, and was pre-

sent with the 53d Regiment at the capture of
Oporto and in the battles of Talavera, Busaco, and
Fuentes d'Onor. He had received the war medals
with two clasps for Talavera and Busaco.

The contract for the construction of the steel
upper masts and yards for the ironclad screw fri-
gate Bellerophon, 14, 1,000 horse power, building
at Chatham dockyard, has been taken by the firm
of Messrs. Jackson and Watkins for the sum of

£1,030. The Bellerophon is the first of our vessels
of war which will carry masts and yards of steel.
Those who advocate its adoption for this purpose
have little doubt that it will in future be used in all
the iron vessels to be constructed for the navy. The
lower masts for the Bellerophon are of plate iron,

and these are now being manufactured by the Wood•

side Iron Company, whose tender for the work was
£1,445. In accordance with instructions received
from the Admiralty the whole of the hands employed
on the Bellerophon have discontinued working be-
yond the usual time, as they have done during the
last summer and present winter. This order has
been given, not from any fear on the part of the
Admiralty that the Bellerophon will be completed
by too early a period, but solely, it would appear,
from the circumstance that the additional sum taken
in the last year's estimate for extra wages is nearly
exhausted. A similar order has been given to dis-
continue working extra hours on board the iron-
cased frigate Lord Warden, likewise building at
Chatham, which will result in the completion of
both those vessels being delayed a considerable time
beyond that originally named.
The paddlewheel steamer Terrible, 21, 1,850 tons,
800 horse power, which was docked at Chatham on
Monday, underwent a thorough inspection yester-
day at the hands of the officials connected with the
master shipwright's staff, to ascertain the extent of
injury she sustained from getting aground during
the late gale. Beyond some slight defects, which
an hour or two's work on the part of the shipwrights
would make good, there were no injuries apparent,
her forefoot being unhurt, and only a few streaks of
copper rubbed off her keel, while her valves and
cocks were uninjured. She was floated out of dock
at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon.

Her Majesty's ship Steady, 5, Acting Commander
A. G. Bogle, was at Bolivar, up the Orinoco, on the
Ist of January, 1865. All on board were well, and
the weather was fine. The water in the river was
low, and the vessel could not proceed higher up.
She ascended the river in three days. The Steady
was to go to Demerara at the end of January.
The launch of the improved paddlewheel despatch
vessel Helicon was successfully effected yesterday
from No. 1 slipway of Portsmouth dockyard, a
few minutes before high water. The ceremony of
naming the vessel and releasing her from the dog-
shores which held her on the " ways" was per-
formed by Miss Elliot, the eldest daughter of Rear-
Admiral Superintendent George Elliot, the Admiral
Superintendent of the yard. The Helicon in all
probability is the last wooden vessel that will be
launched from Portsmouth dockyard. For the duties
of a vessel attached to a squadron of ironclads the
Helicon will be admirably adapted, for, from her
graceful lines and power of engines as compared to her
tonnage, she will undoubtedly prove the fastest craft
of her size in her Majesty's navy. Her draught of
water was found yesterday to be 6ft. aft and 4ft. 2in.
forward. The following are the Helicon's principal
dimensions :—Length between perpendiculars, 220 ft ;
length of keel for tonnage, 200 ft. liin. ; breadth
extreme, 28ft. 2in. ; breadth for tonnage, 28ft. ;
breadth moulded, 27ft. 2in. ; depth in hold to top of
floor, 14ft. 6in. ; burden in tons, 834 53-94ths. She
was launched, of course, as a mere shell, and her
machinery has yet to be placed on board. This will
consist of a pair of oscillating cylinder engines, driv-
ing feathering float paddlewheels of the collective
power of 250 horse-nominal. Messrs. Ravenhill, Sal-
keld, and Co., are the makers. The Helicon was
originallylaid down from the same lines as the Admi-
ralty paddle-yacht Enchantress, and the Pysche and
the Salamis despatch-vessels. These vessels, however,
proved on their trials under steam to be either over-
done with engine power in proportion to their ton-
nage, or faulty in their lines forward, the tendency
of all three vessels under full steam being to bury
their bows in the water, and thus absorb a conside-
rable amount of their propelling power in overcom-
ing the resistance of this wall of water raised in
their path, aptly described by seamen as " a bone in
her teeth." On the accession of Mr. E. J. Reed as
Chief Constructor of the Navy that gentleman ap-
pears to have marked down the Helicon as too
valuable a vessel with which to repeat the mistakes
—if a mistake had been committed—in the Enchan-
tress, Psyche, and Salamis. He accordingly directed
that the vessel's framing, from her midships section to
forward, should be taken down and reconstructed on
an entirely different plan. The original lines of the
vessel forward were carried out with the established
(Admiralty) lean hollow-bow, with an overhanging
and depressing mass of stem, cutwater, rails, figure
head, &c., round the ship's stem. The present
forebody of the Helicon has been constructed
OR Mr. Reed's well-known theory by which the
V-shaped form of the midship section is carried well
forward, gradually decreasing to a true wedge with-
out the " hollow" bow, while the steamhead is
thrown back and inboard, and has no outer " fix-
ings" of any kind, not even a bowsprit, much less
the projecting cutwater, rails, .figure-head, &c.
The stem of the vessel is elongated below the water-
line, and thus possesses the swan breast form in
common with the Defence and others of her Ma-,
jesty's ships constructed as " rams." In the Heli-
con's case this projection has not been given her as
nfhnfooi
when feeling
eaferu
hl stemfig ottha
et oof nno
aintopower
anodw to
or
ea"nme lift"me means off
taos
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e ant
hel nee
e by
as r uwo
of her engines. The Helicon will be at once fitted
with her machinery. Her trials at the measured
mile in Stokes Bay will immediately follow. If
her trials are carried out at the same draught of
water and under the same conditions in other re-
spect as were those of the Enchantress—the fastest
of the three vessels named as fortaerly completed__
the results will be most interesting on many points,
in addition to the not unimportant one of proving
thebowportion of Mr. Reed's theory of shipbuilding.
The remainder of the officers and crew of Her
Majesty's late ship Bombay are expected to arrive
at Portsmouth to-day by special train from Liver-
pool, the Herschel steamship, in which they are re-