The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-09 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Fire Queen steam tender, Staff-Commander
Paul, was undocked from No. 9 at Portsmouth yes-
terday, after repairs to her machinery. She will
coal, and, after trial, will prepare to convey Admi-
ral Sir M. Seymour and a party on a visit with
the Channel Fleet to Cherbourg.
The troopship Urgent, Capt. S. Henderson, after
coaling, will make a trial of her new screw, and if
all is found correct is ordered to prepare for the use
of a limited number of officers, and accompany the
fleet to Cherbourg on the 14th.
The annexed notification was promulgated from
the Admiralty, Whitehall, yesterday, for the infor-
mation of those officers desirous of being present at
Cherbourg next week :—" A limited number of
naval officers will be received on board her Ma-
jesty's ship Urgent, at Portsmouth, early on the
morning of the 14th inst., for conveyance to Cher-
bourg and back. All applications must be made in
writing to the Secretary to the Admiralty, before
Saturday, the 12th inst. The rate of messing to be
paid by each officer received will be 7s. 6d. a day."
The Admiralty Board meeting at the Keyham
office of the Admiral Superintendent, which as-
sembled on Monday morning, rose shortly after 1
o'clock, when the Duke of Somerset and his col-
leagues passed through the engine factory, smith-
cries, and boiler factory in the great quadrangle to
the north basin, which is being deepened and en-
larged from five to ten acres, and for that purpose
is in the hands of the contractors, whose efforts are
retarded and to some extent suspended in conse-
quence of the terms required by the amalgamated
masons. Instead of 300 Mr. Bisset has only about
170 men, chiefly excavators. The construction of
the sides of the basin is stopped, and the piles of
wrought granite remain as they have been for many
months past undisturbed. The strike of the masons
against all the leading Government contractors and
most of the principal builders here continues. It
was commenced in consequence of the refusal of the
masters to accept a code of rules drawn up by the
Masons' Society in London. Plymouth was selected
as the place where the first attempt should be made
to bring the masters within the pale of the irrespon-
. Bible bodies to which the men belong. At Staddon a
few non-society men are employed on the fortifica-
tions, and briskly pushing on the work. Picklecombe
Fort is at a standstill, and so are Bovisand and
Screasdon Forts. The operations on the long line
of the north-east defences are almost suspended
for want of masons. As far as possible the contrac-
tors are proceeding with their excavations and
earthworks, but they are unable to complete some
portions of their contracts. Four or five old masons
are allowed by the Masons' Society to work at the
Cattedown quarries. 'They are not members, but
are compelled to act in conformity with most of the
rules. After inspecting the excavations in the
north basin at Keyham, and the Greyhound and
Jason in the South basin, the Lords of the Admi-
ralty proceeded round the sea wall, through the
tunnel into Devonport dockyard. Here they in-
spected the north smithery, and went round No. 4
dock, in which is the new steam frigate Amazon,
launched in May last at Pembroke, and now pre-
paring for the first division of the steam reserve ;
she is a wooden ram. They then went on board
the sailing frigate Flora, fitting in the basin for a
receiving ship for the Commodore at Ascension.
After taking luncheon at the house of the Admiralty
Superintendent, the. Lords of the Admiralty pro-
ceeded through the ropehouse and masthouse down
to the south smithery, outside which four hose were
connected with the pipes supplied with salt water
from an elevated iron cistern which is filled from
the mast pond by the engine of the south smithery.
This arrangement is for the purpose of protection
from fire. Four plugs near the ropehouse were also
tested. Several members of the board returned to
their yacht, the Enchantress, while the Duke of So-
merset, Sir Frederick Grey, and Lord Clarence
Paget proceeded to the Chief office of the Admiralty
superintendent, where they received deputations
from the shipwrights, joiners, sailmakers, rope-
makers, and riggers, and from the artisans of the
Keyham factory, on the subject of wages. Depu-
tations from some of the minor branches could
not be received. This duty occupied the First Lord
until six o'clock in the evening.

The newly invented machinery for working the
12 ton 300 pounder Armstrong guns, with which
her Majesty's ironclad frigate Bellerophon, 16, 1,000
horse power, preparing for sea at Chatham, will be
armed, having been completed, the first of the ex-
perimental trials took place at Chatham on Satur-
day. There were present Captain Stewart, C. 8.,
superintendent of the dockyard ; Capt. Tatham, of
the Bellerophon ; Mr. Thornton, principal master
shipbuilder ; Mr. Baker, chief inspector of machi-
nery, who conducted the trials, and other officials.
The importance of such an invention becomes appa-
rent when it is stated that each of the 300 pounder
guns which the Bellerophon will carry in her bat-
tery weighs, with its slides, carriages, &c., no less
than 17 tons. To cast loose, manoeuvre, and train
guns of this class while the vessel is pitching and
rolling in a beam sea, by the ordinary appliances of
manual labour, would be simply impossible.
The machinery invented by Mr. Reed, the Chief
Constructor of the Navy, and tested for the first
time on Saturday, promises to effect a complete re-
volution in the system hitherto adopted of handling
and training guns on board our ships of war, the
trials made proving that by the adoption of the
machinery proposed some three or four men will be
sufficient for working guns of the largesb size pos-
sible to be placed on board our ironclad vessels. At
the same time it should be bserved that the object
of the invention is not merely to enable the 12 ton,
or even a larger, gun to be trained with facility, but
also to put it under complete control when the ship
is pitching and rolling in a seaway. To accomplish
the first of these objects it is only necessary to mount
the gun-slides upon rollers at front and rear, and
then apply the training force by means of a tackle
in the usual way, or by means of the winches
adopted in the invention of Captain Astley Cooper
Key, C. 8., in the Minotaur, or in the more com-
plicated plan proposed by Commander Scott,
of a toothed wheel and rack on the deck, as
fitted in his experimental slide now introduced into
one of the vessels of the navy. It is obvious, how-
ever, that the facility with which a heavy gun,
mounted on rollers at both ends, can be trained at
a broadside port, in smooth water, would make it
dangerously liable to break loose in a seaway, unless
placed under the control of machinery. To insure this,
under all circumstances, even in the event of the
officerin charge being killed during action, Mr. Reed
aPnears to have devised his machinery on a wholly
novel, but, at the same, time, perfectly practical
principle. Any Complicated mechanism to be worked
by sailors in the hu ra.rn ya f a general engagement would
be sure to fail
consequently the machinery
fitted on board thel3elllon
i. is exceedingly simple.
On the gun-deck itseli ingwhatever is visible
excepting an ordinary double wheel of metal, between
four and five feet in diameter, formed exactly like
a steering
wheel, and supported on a hollow standard
containing the gearing-wheels that give motion to
the machinery
below. Even this wheel itself may be
dispensed with, for an exactly similar wheel is fitted
on the lower deck underneath the battery, in which
case, as would obviously be most desirable, the
whole of the machinery for working the gun would
be entirely away and out of the reach of injury,
while the orders of ' those in charge of the gun
could be transmitted by means of an ordinary voice
tube of gutta percha. The object of fitting the
gniding-wheels on both decks of the Bellerophon
is to enable them to be worked separately, in order
that the Lords of the Admiralty, on the occasion
of their inspecting the machinery in the course of
a few days, may determine which shall be retained,
or whether both may be desirable, the one being
used as supplementary to the other. Fitted below
the beams of the gun-deck is a shaft turned by
the wheels described, on which is a powerful worm,
or screw-thread, gearing into a worm-wheel.
The latter is keyed on a short vertical shaft of con-
siderable strength, which passes up through the
floors of the main deck, and is furnished with a
strong flat lever lying along the deck and underneath
the slide, the vertical shaft and horizontal lever ex-
actly resembling the rudder-head and tiller of a
ship. The lever is firmly connected with the slide

by means of a very strong connecting' pin, or bolt,
working in a slot. This completes the machinery,
which, as will be seen, contains but few parts, and
those of the simplest and best-known kind. The
trials on Saturday showed the advantage of mount-
ing a slide on rollers on both sides, as in order to
train it it was only necessary to turn the wheel
placed on either deck, when the gun and carriage
moved with the utmost readiness and precision. The
instant the wheel was stopped the gun was brought
to afitandstill, just as in the case of guns mounted in
a revolving turret, so that the nicest accuracy of
aim may be obtained. On the whole being released,
the gun is locked by the worm and worm-wheel, the
" pitch" of which is so nicely adjusted that, while
the slightest motion of the machinery will move the
gun, no amount of rolling about can cause the gun
to " fetch away," and set the machinery in motion.
Obviously it is in a seaway only that mechanism of
this nature can be put to a satisfactory test, but,
judging from the obvious strength of the machinery
employed in the Bellerophon, there can be but little
doubt that it will be perfectly practicable by this
system to train even a much heavier gun than one
of 12 tons at a broadside port with complete security
at sea. It should be observed that it is scarcely pos-
sible for the discharge of the gun to affect the train-
ing machinery—an important consideration, as the
play of the slide upon the bolt of the lever is per-
fectly free. It only remains to be stated that the
trials made on Saturday were perfectly successful,
and demonstrated the perfect practicability of the in-
vention. With four men at the wheel the gun was
manoeuvred and trained with the utmost freedom
and facility, a period of exactly one minute being
all that was required to bring the gun over to a
complete arc of a circle, although from some altera-
tions in the drawings the lever prevented it being
trained to the extreme angle. The machinery will
remain fitted to the gun to await inspection by the
Lords of the Admiralty.
The screw steam sloop Peterel, 11, Commander
Edward Maddox, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, ar-
rived in Plymouth Sound yesterday afternoon.

The Edwin Fox was inspected yesterday by the
military authorities, and the troops, 26th Camero-
nians, and detachments of other regiments from
Aldershott, will embark to-day.

The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Lieut:Walter W. Poynder, to
the Scorpion ; Sub-Lieut. Henry A. Street and Sub-
Lieut. George H. Hill, to the Scorpion ; Alexander
M'Donald, assist.-surg., to the Linnet ; and Wm.
B. Fletcher, assist.-surg., to the Research.