The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-31 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

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V-AIETTA, March 25.—The only movement of
me' a -of-war in that port since my last is the arrircl
on the 2d inst. of her Majesty's screw frigate Am-
pi' Lion, 36, Captain C. A. Gordon (vice Birch, inva-
lided), from Gibraltar. She performed the passage
in. 12 days under canvass. H.M.S. London, Scylla,
Tx.trepid, and Procris were at Gibraltar at the latest
elates. The three line-of-battle ships now lying
`in Malta harbour are the Marlborough (flagship),
Neptune, and Exmouth. The sickness on board the
last mentioned vessel has entirely disappeared. Be-
sides the above mentioned liners we have here the
following ships of war of the fleet :—Amphion, 36;
Icarus, 11 ; Firefly, 4 ; Medina, 4 ; Boxer, 3 ;
Growler, 3; and Hibernia, receiving ship (bearing
-the flag of Rear-Admiral of H. J. Codrington, C. 8.,
Admiral-Superintendent of her Majesty's Naval
Arsenal, •

The Diadem, 32, screw frigate, Captain Scott, ar-
rived at Spithead on Saturday evening from Ply-
mouth Sound and Bermuda. Yesterday, at 8 a.m.,
she exchaLged the customary honorary salutes with
the Victory, flagship of the Commander-in-Chief,
Vice-Admiral Sir H. W. Bruce.

Orders have been received at Portsmouth to post-
pone for the present the fitting of the hydraulic
steering apparatus to the Black Prince, screw iron
frigate, as it would interfere materially with other
work being carried out at the stern of the ship.
The apparatus will in the meantime be completed
so as to be ready for shipment by the contractor.
The screw steam corvette Africa, was launched
from No. 2 slip in the Devonport dockyard on Sa-
turday. Her dimensions are, length between per-
pendiculars, 160 ft; length of keel for tonnage, 139 ft
81in; breadth extreme, 30ft 4in; breadth for ton-
nage, 30ft; breadth moulded, 29ft 6in ; depth in
hole, loft 10in ; burden in tons, 688 16-94 ; horse
power, 150. The armament originally intended
for the Africa was ten 32-pounders, 30cwt, each 6ft
4in in length; and one 32-pounder, 58cwt, 9ft
6in in length. It was, however, subsequently
determined to supply her with four Arm-
strong guns only. This will probably be altered.
If the Africa had four Armstrongs and superior
steam power, so as to keep her own distance from
an opposing corvette, she would, all other things
being equal, no doubt become the victor; but if her
opponent had equal steam power and the ordinary
armament of 11 guns, and were ranged up along-
side, the opposite result would as certainly follow.
It is considered that for defence against boarders
the Africa would not be so efficient with four Arm-
strongs as with the old armament. It is therefore
very possible that the corvette with be supplied with
four ordinary guns and four Armstrongs.
The screw steam sloop Chanticleer, with the two
gunboats Sandfiy and Griper, left Plymouth on Sa-
turday, all three under steam, for Queenstown. •
The iron-cased screw steam corvette Defence, re-
cently returnedrte Plymouth from an experimental
cruise in the Channel, will make good defects at
Portsmouth.

The Warrior, 40, at Devonport, will probably be
out of the hands of the dockyard artisans about the
16th of May. The EnPFalus may be completed by
April 1 and the St. George by the 21st.
At Plymouth there are now 13 ships in the first di-
-vision of the steam reserve and 7 in the second,

r toil. A large number of the articles have already
been forwarded, and now lie in cases at the Exhi-
bition, and the remainder are packed for transmis-
sion. Upwards of 500 mechanics and labourers
were on Friday dismissed from the Arsenal, hav-
ing received 14 days' previous notice, and a simi-
lar number were furnished with notice to leave
on the 12th proximo, 245 of those who left
on Saturday consisted of carpenters, wheelwrights,
smiths, saddlers, collar and harness makers, tinmen
and zinc workers, from the Royal carriage square,
from which department about 300 of the same class
form a part of the second batch. Many of these
men are advanced in years, and have been employed
in the establishment for a long period, The machi-
nery throughout the departments was on Saturday
at a standstill in order that nothing should inter-
fere with the business of taking stock. The ser-
vices of the great majority of those usually em-
ployed were therefore dispensed with for that day.

ENGLISH AND FRENCII IRON-CASED

SHIPS.

An important discussion upon the qualities of the
iron-cased frigate Warrior took place at the con-
cluding meeting of the Institution of Naval Archi-
tects on Saturday last, in which the President, Sir
I. S. Pakington, late First Lord of the Admiralty,
took part.

A paper having been read by Mr. N. S. RUSSELL,
upon the American Stevens' Battery, -which Con-
gress has just determined to complete,
Captain E. P. HALSTED, RN., rose and entered
upon a general discussion of the merits of the
Warrior and other ships of her class. lie said
that he not only took exception to some of the pro-
minent features of the Warrior's construction,
but unhesitatingly pronounced her altogether unfit
to go into action, and unworthy the name of a man-
of-war. The chief reason which he assigned for
these strong assertions was the absence of armour
from the bow and the stern of the ship, in conse-
quence of which, he alleged, the men at the guns
which are unprotected would be exposed to speedy
destruction, and all control of the ship would pro-
bably be lost by the steering apparatus being shot
away. He also contended that the accident which
lately befel the Defence at Spithead, when a gun-
boat got foul of her, and caused the anchor to fall
from the cathead and penetrate the bow just above
the water, proved the dangerous weakness of such
vessels at the extremities, and showed how liable
they would be to injury of the most serious nature
when subjected to the fire of an enemy in action.
On all these grounds, and also on account of the
nearness of her ports to the water, taken in conjunc-
tion with her great length, he (Captain Halsted)
strongly condemned the design of the ship, and
considered her unworthy to be called a warship at
all. He further complained, in reference to the new
shield ship which is to be built on Captain Coles's
plans, of the opposition which the Admiralty con-
structors had shown to the introduction of sloping
armour, and produced a drawing showing the re-
sults of actual experiments, in which a 51in. up-
right plate had sustained greater damage under fire
than a 41in. plate sloped at an angle of 50 deg. from
the upright.