The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, 0 SATURDAY EVENING, MARCH 1, 1862.

i'IJBLICATIONS.

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By Captain 11. A. KENNEDY.
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THE ART-WORLD.---No.. I. ! TEN DAY.
'32 pages, price Plyepence, stamped Sixpence.
Contents :—The Nat icituil GailerY again: in:Danger - The
Copyright in Works ( Art-Th'e Wafer. Colour Societies
Picture Dealers and C -- ollectors Art-Manufactures—The
State of the Drama—The Art Designs Department (Class
38a) ,in the International Exhibition. Photography in the
International Exhibition —Dante—Architectural Metal-work
in Lichfield Cathedral—The International Exhibition Build-
ing:.--Musicz7The Theatres—Miscellaneous Notices, &c„ ,
• • r With 13 Illustrations.
Putnished by S., H.' Lindley; at tlw.Office, ,19,,,Catherine-
street, Strand ; and by Kent andCo.i 23, Paternoster-row,
London,

pARis ELEGANT,. JOURNAL 'OF
FASHION (IN ENG LISH), for MARCH, contains
the newest Paris Fashions, beautifully illustrated in Colours ;
also it Hunting. Scena on the celebrated Air, " Vive Henry
1V.," composed by Paul Wagner • with .Original Articles by
the Countess Dash, Parisian Chit,hat,' &c.—Sold by-all
Booksellers and ,News Agents. Price 25.-, or post free for 26
stamps. -
Vir..:Thonlas, Publisher, 26, Brydgei•street, Coventrgarden.

PRESENT DISTRESS IN TRADE
1, fully explained in J. GEON3MITH'S • .
" GOVERNMENT UPON FIRST, PRINCIPLES."
The cause is there. predicated of the monetary difficiaties,ex-
perienced in 1860. The Crisis in .at hand.'% Anxiety in busi-
ness has ndw become the grim torture.. Purity of motive.
intelligently exercised, must animate all Governments, or all
is lost, All denominations of Constitutions are carefully
examined in J.:Grossmith's "Government upon First Prin-
ciples."
- - • -

summer 2,000 men have been at work there, and
next summer we anticipate an immigration of at
least 10,000, perhaps more. I visited that country
in June, July, and A ugust of this year, accompanied
by the Rev. C. Knipe, who, by' the way, is a great
acquisition to our body, and who remained at
Cariboo two or three months.

Resolutions in favour of the mission having been
carried,

On the motion of the Rev. T. J. Rowsell, rector
of St. Margaret's, Lothbut y, seconded by Mr. A.
'Colville a director of the Hudson's Bay Company,
a vote of thanks was accorded to the Lord Mayor,
and with that the meeting separated.

ner represented he was travelling for did not know
anything about him.
Sergeant Maveety said on searching the priso-
ner's house he found bills in the prisoner's name
relating to silks and other articles amounting in
value to over £2,000.
Mr. Wakeling, solicitor, said the prisoner had
obtained some goods from a client of his, and he
had brought an action against him for the amount,
which was set down for hearing on Tuesday next.
Mr. D'Eyncourt remanded the prisoner until
Thursday next, and refused to take bail.

T.H.E TRIAL OF 7HE DEFENCE.

This ship, of 600-horse power (nominal), 3,668

tons, and mounting 18 guns, commanded by Capt

Richard A, Powell, C. 8., made her official trial

of speed at the measured mile in Stokes Bay, Ports-

mouth, yesterday. The ship was cast off from the

dockyard at 9 45 a.m., and left the harbour under
half steam, in charge of Capt. H. Broadhead, com-
manding her Majesty's ship Asia and the Steam
Reserve at the port ; Mr. Murdoch, inspector of

machinery afloat, and Mr. Miller, assistant engineer

to her Majesty's dockyard, superintending the trial
on behalf of the Admiralty; the machinery being
in charge of Mr. Halliday, representing the con-

:ractors, Messrs. Penn and Son. A strong breeze,

at a force from 5 to 6, from E.N.E. was blowing as

the ship left the harbour at half speed, and a turn

was taken to the eastward of the anchorage to give
time for consultation with regard to the weather.
The breeze, however, increased rather.thardessepe4.
in-fofee; inert was deti3iinitied

the vessel on the trial ground, as, should the trial

prove unsatisfactory, as might naturally be expected

from the state of the weather, it could be repeated

on a more favourable occasion. The result, how-

ever, will show that the speed of the ship under

steam is perfectly satisfactory. At the same time,
it must be remembered that the Defence, like the
Warrior, is the pioneer of her class, and therefore
both ships, so far as relates to comparative merits,

should be tried under precisely similar circum-
stances. Those circumstances are, that the War-
rior had nearly a calm and perfectly smooth water
in her trial. The Defence, on the contrary, had a
heavy breeze from E.N.E., and troubled water.

Under these circumstances the trial was commenced

and concluded, the pilotage of the ship being in

he hands of Mr. Jones, the veteran Queen's pilot

of the port, than whom, it is allowed by all, none

more efficient at his duties can be found. The fol-

[owing are the six runs made, and their results :
Lst Run.— Mean time, 3 min. 47 see.; speed in

knots, 12.543; revolutions of engines, 67k. 2d Run.
—Mean time, 6 min. 15 sec. ; speed in knot, 9.600 ;
revolutions of engines, 651. 3d Run.—Mean time,

4 min. 33 sec.; speed in knots, 13.1.86; revo-
lutions of engines, 671. 4th Run.—Mean
time, 6 min: 1.24 sec. ; speed in knots, 9.375 ;

revolutions of engines, 68. sth Run.—Mean
time, 4 min. 25 sec. ; speed in knots, 13 584 ; re-

volutions of engines, 67. 6th Run.—Mean time,

6 min. 24 sec. ; speed in knots, 9.375 ; revolutions
of engines, 68. First means :-11.071, 11.393,
11.282, 11.480, 11.479. Second means :-11.232,
11.338, 11.381, 11.480. True mean speed, in knots,
11.357.
At the close of the runs at the measured mile the

ship was laid fair for Spithead, and, when in a fit
position, the helm was put hard a-port and a com-
plete circle made in 6 minutes 30 seconds, and, with
the helm the contrary way, in 7 minutes 6 seconds,

the time being taken in both instances not before
the ship felt her helm. The speed of the ship while

making the circles, with the helm hard over, was,

9 knots. The draught of water of the ship was—

aft, 25ft 4in ; forward, 24ft 4in.

The pressure of

steam was 201 b ; vacuum, 24in. The propeller was
an improved Griffiths, with a diameter of 18ft and
a pitch of 21ft. The engines were stopped dead
from the time of moving the engine-room telegraph
in 6 seconds, started ahead again in 7 seconds, and
turned from that position astern in 13 seconds. In
turning at the measured mile, the position of the
ship, as taken from the shore in Stokes Bay, was
altered as follows :—From the time the masts were
in one, the ship's stern being to the shore, until
they were in the opposite position, was 21 minutes,
and from the time they were in one from aft for-
ward (in the first-named position) until they were
fairly broadside on with the shore was 1 minute 40
seconds.

At the conclusion of the experiments the ship's
head was laid for the harbour, and in passing along
the harbour channel, in line with Southsea beach,
an accident occurred which might have been, but
fortunately was not, attended with very serious
consequences. It had been observed, with no small
alarm, that on the ship completing her first run at
the mile, in taking a sweep to the eastward along
the edge of the Sturbridge shoal to bring her head
round again for a second run to the westward,
she for some time took no notice whate'rer of

her helm after being put hard over, and ran in

dangerous vicinity to shoal water; but just in
time she came up to her helm, and escaped, most

probably, a disaster. The same uncertainty was
found in putting her at the circle, and, in fact, her
time in completing the circle was not taken until
she fully felt and answered her helm. In entering
the harbour channel, in line with the beach of

Southsea, the speed was slackened from full to
three-quarter at about its narrowest part, when the

ship's bow inclined towards the shore, and all the
exertions of the pilot and the men at the wheel had
no effect—the ship's bow had taken the ground.
" Astern full speed" was the order instantly given,
and off she came ; but she had got so far on the
shoals that of necessity the stern next took the
ground. and for some minutes so hung. Head sails
loosed and engines going ahead at full speed, how-
ever, again extricated the ship from her perilous
position, and shortly afterwards she was safely
berthed alongside the dockyard. This deficiency of
command over the ship in the steering power is de-
veloped in the Defence to a greater extent than in
th© Warrior; but the Warrior under slow speed,
and especially with the wind abaft, also possesses
this very undesirable quality to an alarming extent,
or at least she did when undergoing her trials of
spud as the Defence has done. One most remark-
able quality of the Defence's steering, and one that
may possibly lead to the discovery of the defect as
regards it is, that although she may be under full
steam, and the order is given " hard a-starboard" or
" a-port" as may be required, it will take some 45
or 50 seconds before she gives any token of feeling
the effects of the alteration of her helm. Yet, once
she pays off, no ship can do so more readily ; that
is, taking into consideration her length, as the time
given in making her circles, &c., will fully prove.
Whether rising floors, no keels, doable bilge-
pieces, and small rudders have anything, if not all,
to do with this defective steering, we must leave
scientific men to decide; always bearing in mind
that the first moments lost in a ship's answering
her helm are the very moments on which, some
day, may depend her safety or destruction.
The ship's outer appearance, in both hull and
rig, is certainly anything but pleasing to the eye,
or in accordance with our previously understood
notions of beauty or grace in marine architecture.
Her straight line of bulwark fore and aft, with-
out the slightest spring—in fact, depressing, if
anything, at either end—her queer-looking stem,
with her anchors hanging as near to it as possible,
and her light bowsprit projecting from it almost
below the level of her upper deck—all this gives
her an uncanny, almost weird-like appearance; but
when to these points is combined the appearance of
her rig aloft, her short fore and main topmasts (she
is bark rigged), and long mastheads with double
topsail yards stowed polacre-wise, with no topgal-
lant masts, then the picture is complete, and the
11 oldest seaman who looks upon her can but acknow-
ledge that, to say the least, ho never saw the like
before. The celebrated yacht Alarm, the pride of
English yacht clubs, if she had her bow and stern

PRICE..... -..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

chopped off, and a couple of coal barges' masts stuck
up in her in lieu of her own noble spars, would not
present so wonderful a metamorphosis as does the
Defence, judging her by comparison with such fri-
gates as the Galatea_ or Ariadne. No amount of
reasoning can excuse the want of sheer, or spring,
in the fore and after bodies of vessels like the De-
fence, carrying, 'is they do, an immense weight
along their line of keelson and on their topsides
amidships, and necessarily requiring a form of hull
to assist them in carrying such a weight and lifting
with buoyancy to the motion of the sea. With the i
fig of the ship, however, argument goes against
mere beauty of appearance. The Defence's rig was
designed to be the simplest possible arrangement
consistent with a sufficient quantity of sail power.
With this view the ship carries nothing above her
topmasts, the lower mastheads being very long from
the tops to the caps, to each of the latter being at-
tached a topsailyard, as a fixture, the sail dewing
up. Above this, working on the topmast is a Cun-
ningham topsail yard, which rolls up to the foot,
and has its claws lashed to the lower topsail-yard.
Both yards spread large topsails. Sail can thus be
set and taken in with the chain topsail tie, the
crew doing the work from the main deck in safety
and protection. Another important advantage is,
that from the sail being rolled up. tightly on the
yard and wetted it is much less likely to be set
on fire in action than an ordinary topsail would
be. There is also, of a necessity _ a great ae-
crease in the weight aloft,l and, what is, perhaps
ei triate.r-
fogeilier, there is alniost a comp et c
ning gear above the deck, and consequently the
danger of fouling the screw in the event of a spar
being carried over the side in action is very greatly
decreased. The Admiralty have done well in taking
this first step towards a revision and alteration of
the arrangements aloft of our screw ships of war, as
the great weight they haVe carried aloft, combined
with the weight of their boilers and machinery,
along their keelsons, have doubtless tended greatly
to cause that uneasiness of motion and straining of
their hulls at sea of which we have of late heard so
much. Internally the ship's decks are roomy, her
fighting deck being similar in arrangement to those
of the Warrior and Black Prince, and with excel-
lent quarters for the men at their guns. On her
main deck she carries 10 95cwt. 68 pounders and
four 100 pounder Armstrongs. On her upper deck
she has one 100 pounder Armstrong pivot gun for-
ward and aft, two broadside 45cwt. 32 pounders,
besides two light Armstrongs and boat guns. In
consequence, however, of her build—teak lining
upon iron—she can only give her guns, like the
Warrior, some 29 degrees of training on her main
deck. Her lower masts and bowsprit are of iron,
and a small jibboom, only extending beyond the
latter, gives her a light appearance forward, and
the arrangement is such that it must tend to greatly
assist the ship in rising to a sea. Her sloping bow,
however, is open to serious objections. All our steam
ships raise a large wave under their bows when at
full steam, and in the case of the Defence the na-
tural result of this is that the wave of, say some 60
tons, has an inclination to rush up the slope.