The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-23 00:00:00

Naval and

Ltelligence.

The hired sailing transport Theresa, Commander
Batty, belonging to Messrs. Teighe and Smith, Fen-
church-street, arrived at Spithead at midnight on
Thursday from Madras and the Cape of Good Hope.
She has brought 45 time-expired soldiers, 16 inva-
lided soldiers, 3 women, and 2 children, from regi-
ments serving in India, together with 7 naval invalids
and 3 military convicts. Capt. Rogers, 102 d Regi-
ment, came home in military charge of the troops ;
the surgeon of the ship, late of the 2d battalion 10th
Regiment, was in medical charge. The troops will
disembark this morning and be forwarded to the
Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley or their regimen-
tal depots. One death only occurred during the pas-
sage home. The Theresa embarked the troops at
Madras on Aug. Ist, and called in at Table Bay,
Cape of Good Hope, Oct. 27. Since the 12th inst.
she has had to contend with continuous easterly winds.
The boys under training for the navy on board
her Majesty's training ship St. Vincent, Commander
Greville, at Portsmouth, landed from their ship
yesterday morning, and headed by their band marched
to the railway station at Landport, whence they
were despatched to their different homes for their
Christmas holidays.
Hir Excellency Shibata Hiongana, Commissioner
from the Japanese Government, accompanied by his
suite and by Major Brine, R.E., arrived at Ports-
mouth yesterday from London, and in the afternoon
paid a visit to the dockyard. After calling upon
the authorities his Excellency went on board the
iron cased ship Royal Alfred and other vessels in the
basins of the yard. He will resume his inspection of
the dockyard and her Majesty's ships to-day.
The ship Rob Roy, 823 tons, Capt. J. C. Sangster,
73 days from Auckland, New Zealand, arrived in the
Sound this afternoon. She sailed on the evening of
Oct. 8, made a direct and successful course to Cape
Horn, which was rounded Nov. 1, found the S.E.
trades on the 13th, crossed the line on the 24th ; she
picked up' the. N.E. trades and was clear of them
Dec. 3, making an average of nearly 200 miles a
day. 'Subsequently adverse and baffling winds were
encountered. The Rob Roy brings a detachment of
the 65th Regiment, 246 men, women, and children,
under command of Capt. Bulkley,with Capt.White-
bread ; Lieuts. Rixon, Murray, Byam, Croft, Hay-
len, and Spille ; Ensigns .De la Pour, Holroyd, and
Fyfe ; and Dr. Stratford, of Auckland, in medical
charge. Under the line one man was reported miss-
ing, supposed to have fallen overboard. The health
of the troops has been remarkably good, only a few
cases of influenza occurred during the voyage.
In addition to the iron-clad frigate Hercules, or-
dered to be built at Chatham dockyard, the Lords
of the Admiralty have decided on the construction
there of the first of an entirely new kind of turret
ship, combining all the latest improvements in that
particular principle of construction. The preparation
of the designs for the new vessel has been intrusted
by the Admiralty to Mr. Reed, the chief constructor
of the navy, from whose plans and under whorie Su-
perintendence the new turret ship will be built. She
is intended to carry two turrets, each plated- with
armour of enormous thickness, and sufficiently
powerful to mount the 600-pounder Armstrong
guns. In the drawings and plans for the Hercules,
now in course of preparation at Chatham dockyard,
Mr. Reed originally designed that vessel as combin-
ing the broadside and turret principles in the same
ship; but, in consequence of the decision of the
Lords of the Admiralty, just determined upon, to
have an experimental vessel built entirely On the
turret principle, the turrets intended to be placed in
the Hercules will be dispensed with, and she
will accordingly be constructed as a broadside ship,
with armour-plates exactly double the thickness of
those of the Achilles and Warrior. The new turret-
will be built simultaneously with the Hercules.
The whole of the naval extablishments and dock-
yard at Chatham will be closed, by Admiralty order,
from 4 o'clock this afternoon, until Wednesday
morning next, for the Christmas holidays, the addi-
tional time given the workmen being made up by
the whole of the hands working extra hours during
the next week.