The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-28 00:00:00

IHE NAVY.

VALETTA, July 23.—Her Majesty's screw gun
vessel Foxhound, Commander the Hon. A. C. Ho-
bart, which left Malta on the 15th inst., with mails
for the Commander-in-Chief, returned on the 21st,
two days from Zante. On her passage to Corfu
she met the Marlborough, 131, Captain W. H.
Stewart, C.B. (bearing Admiral Martin's flag), and
the Amphion, 36, Captain A. C. Gordon, cruizing
outside, and took the former vessel in tow as far as
Zante, the Amphion following. On the 29th, when
100 miles from Malta, she met the screw line-of-
battle ship Algiers, 89, Captain E. B. Price, which
left this island on the 19th. This ship, with the
screw frigate Doris, 32, Captain Sir F. L. Clin-
tock, which left Malta on the 16th ult., was to
join the flagship on her return to Corfu, in the
vicinity of which island the Admiral intended to
exercise the ships immediately under his orders in
those waters. Fresh orders had been received
by the Commander-in-Chief from England to con-
tinue in the neighbourhood of Greece, as notwith-
standing that country remains quiet, apprehensions
exist for the future. The only English man-of-
war now at Athens is the screw line-of-battle ship
Exmouth, 86, Capt. J. A. Paynter ; but it is thought
not improbable that this force may be shortly in-
creased. Some anxiety has also lately been shown
to add to our naval force on the coast of Syria, and
the gun vessels Wanderer, 4, Commander M. C.
Seymour, and the Surprise, 4, Commander W. H.
Whyte, are being got ready with all possible
dispatch for that important station. The paddle-
wheel steam-frigate Magicienne, Capt. his Serene
Highness the Prince of Leiningen, returned to
Malta on the 22d inst. from conveying invalids to
Gibraltar for passage home in the iron screw troop-
ship Himalaya, Capt. J. Seccombe. By her we learn
that his Excellency Lieut.-Uen. Sir W. Codrington,
Governor of that fortress, embarked on board the
Himalaya from England, on short leave of absence.
Major-Gen. Sir R. Walpole assumed the command
of Gibraltar on the departure of Gen. Codrington.
The Scylla, 22, Capt. R. Lambert, was hourly ex-
pecting to be relieved by the screw sloop Malacca,
17, Capt, G. I. Napier, from Malta. The Alacrity,

4, screw gun vessel, Commander K. E. Baird, left
Malta for Corfu after the receipt of the last over-
land mail from England with despatches for the
Admiral and a mail. The Trident, 3, Commander

C. J. Balfour, is having her engines repaired, and
it is expected will be ready for sea about the
4th proximo. The Medina, surveying ship, Capt.
T. A. Sprat, C. 8., is engaged in examining a
coral bed lately discovered in the vicinity of
Gozo, from which in the course of two or three
days several hundred pounds' worth of the coral
of commerce was extracted by a single boat. It
is not yet knows whether the quantity of coral
to be obtained in these waters will come up to
the expectations formed by the public from the
great success of the first operations. She will leave
shortly to resume her surveying duties in the East.
Major Young, 22d Regiment, Lieut. Bourchier, and
Archdeacon Lemesurier, for many years chaplain
to the forces, but now on the retired list, left Malta
by the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Delta ; and Surg. Lawlor, Lieut. Cuff, and Captain
Maul arrived here by the Pera from Southampton.
The Pera on her way from Gibraltar passed two
Russian frigates, one of them the Gramoboi, sailing
in an easterly direction."

The Shannon, screw frigate, Capt. Oliver J.Jones,
sailed from Spithead on Saturday afternoon, on a
eruise, pending the casting of the blades for the ex-
perimental Griffits trial, for the purpose of fully
testing the merits and demerits of the four-bladed
Mangin (French screw), in the various positions and
circumstances in which a ship would be placed
under both steam and sail,separately and combined,
during sea service. This screw, which is of the
same pattern as the one now in use in the French
Imperial navy, has its four blades set in parallel
pairs, and was tried by the Shannon on the second
of her recent series of experimental trials on the
17th of May last, when it gave the ship a speed of
11.328 knots, w th an indicated horse-power of en-
gines of 2,030.72. The mean pitch of the screw is
25ft., its diameter 18ft, and its iength 31t. The area
of one blade is 19. ft. ; the four blades, 78ft. The
weight is 7 tons 7 cwt. 3 qrs. From its peculiar
form it requires but a narrow aperture as a " lift-
ing" screw for the screw well in the ship's stern.
It has in consequence been looked upon with much
favour. Its blades, however, from being set close
together lock the water between them in the screw's
revolutions, and, with a peculiar and violent beat
in the water, the working of the screw transmits
an extraordinary amount of perpendicular motion
to the ship's hull, which must always prevent its
adoption in the English navy in its present form.
So great was this movement on board the Shannon
that the bell of the captain's cabin was kept
ing by it during the trial—an unprecedented cir-
cumstance. On the Shannon's return from her
cruise with the " Mangin" she will commence her
trials with the ' Griffits" with two, three, and four
blades.
The Osborne, paddle yacht, Master Commander 1
George R. Bowers, sailed from Portsmouth on
Sa-
turday for the eastward, to convey the Lords
Com-
missioners of the Admiralty, on their annual visit
of insr
Islands.eeti°ll, to the western ports and the Channel

The Warrior 40, iron screw frigate, Capt. the
Hon. A. A. Cochrane, C. 8., is expected to sail from
Spithead to-morrow on a cruise westward.