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

Her Majesty's Ship Minotaur.

The iron frigate Minotaur, 6,621 tons, 1,250
horse power, Master F. Inglis, under the command
pro tern. of Capt. F. A. Herbert, and manned by the
crew of the Royal Sovereign, with supernumeraries
from the Steam Reserve, went out of Portsmouth
harbour yesterday afternoon, and anchored at Spit-
head, where she will take in her ammunition and be
swung to ascertain the deviation of her compass
prior to starting for Portland on her trials of com-
petitive 12-ton broadside gun carriages. The trials
will be under the direction and superintendence of
Capt. A. C. Key, C. 8., commanding the gunnery
ship Excellent. Portland Roads will be made the
anchorage ground on her return from each day's
trial until their conclusion, when she will return to
Spithead and await further orders from the Admi-
ralty. The trials were originally intended to have
been made with four carriages and slides ; but one,
designed by Sir W. Armstrong, not having been yet
received from Elswick, they will be confined to the
following three
.1. The Admiralty wooden pattern carriage and
slide, fitted with eccentric rollers and other improve-
ments suggested by Capt. Key. The training gear is
that of Mr. Cunningham (" Patent topsail Cunning-
ham," as he is termed in the navy), and is precisely
similar in every respect to the training gear fitted
to the 12-ton broadside gun-carriage on board the
Excellent, where it is spoken of as the most simple
and yet efficient means of training heavy guns yet
devised. It consists of a single port chain made
fast on each side of the rear end of the slide, and
leading thence by two single blocks on each side
of the gun and its carriage, by the waterways
to a crab winch fixed on the deck, entirely
out of the way of the guns crew in working their
and also fromits position not
gun in rapid firing,
liable to injury from concussion on the ship's side
being struck by an enemy's shot.
The weight of the carriage is 39 cwt. 2 qrs. 4 lb. ;
the weight of the slide, 38 cwt. 2 qrs. 81b.—total
weight of carriage and slide, 78 cwt. 0 qrs. 12 lb.
The principal, or, perhaps, more correctly speak-
ing, the only recommendation this carriage possesses
is its antiquity. Its objectionable features are the
absence of an easily-worked running in and out
gear, and the presence of all the inherent defects
and weaknesses of a wooden gun-carriage when ap-
plied to mounting ordnance of such exceptional
weight as guns of 13 tons. Captain Key's improve-
ments have, however, so effectually reformed
the
character and power of the carriage and its slide
that it will now act as a most excellent test for com-
parison with the results obtained by the new pattern
iron carriages and their slides.

2. The Woolwich Arsenal, or Colonel Shaw's
iron carriage and slide. The carriage bas single
sides, strengthened with its iron framing. The com-
pressor is a large iron clamp athwart the bottom of
the carriage, and grasping the flanges of the slide.
The gun's running in and out gear is a flat endless
chain, working over tooth-wheels at each end of the
slide, worked by small hand-wheel levers at the
rear of the slide. The slide is constructed of double
T-iron. The training gear has been fitted under
the superintendence of Mr. W. Lynn, assistant to
Mr. Murray, the Superintending Engineer of Ports-
mouth dockyard. It consists of a cast-iron bracket
fitted with a chain pinion, and fixed on the ship's
Bide midway between the gunports. Upon the
under side of the deck, directly below this bracket,
between the ship's beams, a traverse piece of shaft-
ing is fixed, having a chain wheel on one end
and a bevil wheel on the other, the motion to
the shafting being given by means of an end-
less chain between the chain wheels on the bracket
on the gun-deck and the similar wheel on the
transverse shafting below. The bevil wheel at
the other or inner end of the transverse shafting
gears with a similar wheel upon a short upright
spindle which passes through the deck, and there is
capped by a small chain wheel. Round this wheel
an endless chain passes, attached to the slide of the
gun-carriage, and to a single block on the opposite
side of the carriage. The weight of the carriage is
34 cwt. 0 qrs. 21b. ; the weight of the slide, 43 cwt.
3 qrs. 181 b. ; total weight, 77 cwt. 3 qrs. 201 b. The
main features of recommendation of this carriage
and slide are lightness combined with strength, the
acknowledzed correctness of the principle on which
it has beenbuilt, and the ease with which all its parts
eon be got at and repaired in the event of temporary
injury during action without the delay of dismount-
ing the gen. Its features of weakness arc—a pos-
sible too great lightness of metal to stand without
damage the shock from the discharge of a 12-ton
rifled gun, a faulty application of the compressors,
and an absolute want of leverage power over the
running in and out gear from a want of larger
pinions and lever wheels. All this would be reme-
dial in another carriage built on the same principle.
3. Iron carriage and slide designed by and made
under the superintendence of Commander Scott, her
Majesty's ship Research. This carriage has double, ,
or box girder, sides of immense strength, and is
filled in with wood to absorb the vibration of the
iron if struck by the enemy's shot. The gun is run
in and out by endless chains, similar to Colonel
Shaw's carriage, worked by powerful pinions and
band-wheel levers, holding great control over the
gun. The compressors are composed of three tapered
balks of timber lying parallel with each other in the
bed of the slide. From the bottom of the carriage
four iron plates descend and fit in between these
balks ; through the sides of the carriage and through
the upper edges of these plates are fixed right and
left-handed screw levers, worked by wheel levers
on each side, the whole forming a fourfold com-
pressor of tremendous power. The slide is of equal
strength and massiveness with the carriage. It is
built on the box-girder principle, and traverses
on raised metal racers, with hollow-soled trucks
on Colonel Colquhoun's plan. The training gear
forms part of the carriage and slide ; a longitudinal
shaft running under the slide is fitted with pinions
at either end, and works in a rack- way upon the
deck next the fore-and-after racers. The gun runs
in and out and trains, apparently, with great faci-
lity. Another means of training is fitted to this
gun, which, however, is only a copy of Mr. Cun-
ningham's plan. The weight of the carriage is 2
tons G cwt., and of the slide 3 tons 12 cwt., giving
a total weight of 5 tons 18 cwt.
The chief apparent recommendations of Comman-
der Scott's carriage and slide are the ease with which
all its parts can be worked, and its evident ability
to carry
its gun and withstand the shock of its dis-
charge. Its objectionable features inwitesipgret of sen t form
are its evident cost of manufacture, weight
metal,
and the objectionable metal rackway laid down on
the ship's deck next to the raised metal races. All
these objections arc, of course, removable in any
second carriage and slide made on the same plan.
The forthcoming trials on board the Minotaur are
of the highest importance. If our ironclads can, by
the mechanical aid of improved carriages carry guns
of 12-tons' weight on their broadsides, they will not
only do what the ships of no other naval Power
have yet attempted, but also what some of the most
distinguished officers in the American navy have
lust declared, as the result of theirrecent experience,
to be altogether impracticable. In the " Report of
the Secretary of the United States Navy in relation
to Armoured Vessels," printed by order of Con-
gress, and containing all the official reports and
documents on the subject received by Mr. Gideon
Welles up to March 30,1861, Rear-Admiral Golds-
worthy, the officer quoted, says in his " Opinion of
Ironclads," sent to Mr. Secretary Welles, and dated
March 24, 1864

" According to my impressions, a gun of
12,0001 b., fired with a normal charge of 211 b of pow-
der, is about the heaviest that can be used to advan-
tage in the broadside part of any vessel whatever."
After recommending that a gun of this weight
should be made and fully tested and reported on,
the Rear-Admiral adds :
....

" I am fully aware that the New Ironsides has
now on board still heavier guns and of larger calibre,
carried broadside-wise—guns of 16,0001 b. in weight
and 11 inches in calibre—but I am not aware that
either they or their carriages, which occupy una-
voidably so much space, have been subjected con-
tinuously, in action or at sea, to the effect of the
use of solid shot, with charges of powder approach-
ing one-fourth the weight of the projectiles. The
test, no doubt, would prove palpably excessive in

many respects. In all the actions of. this vessel off
Charleston, the rule with her, as I understand, was
loaded shells with corresponding charges ; and if
she ever has resorted to solid shot with a large in-
crease of charge, I am uninformed of the fact."
Our own opinion on this subject is very well ex-
pressed by Capt. A. C. Key, in his official Report to
the Admiralty on the smooth water trials conducted
by him of the turrets and guns of the Royal Sove-
reign, and dated July 11, 1865. Capt. Key says,
at page 3 of his Report :

No practical reasons exist why a heavy gun
should not be worked on a broadside with the same
security as in a turret, and I am satisfied that there
is no difference in this respect."
Captain Key at the time was writing of 12-ton
guns, and he here appears to accept this as the maxi-
mum weight of the gun to be fought through a ship's
broadside port—that is a gun weighing 26,8801 b.,
in contradistinction to Admiral Goldsworthy's opi-
nion that 12,0001 b. must be the maximum weight.
The American Admtral, no doubt, meant his gun
to be fought under extreme conditions of weather
and the ship's motion, and, unless the Minotaur be,
subjected to these conditions during her trials of
these new iron carriages, her cruise will prove value-
less, and American opinion, in the main, be found
correct. Whatever may be the final results of the
apparently interminable "Battle of the Guns," the
Admiralty by their selection of the 12-ton coil-built
gun have made that weapon, for the present, the
maximum of size and calibre for the broadside
armament of the ironclad ships of her Majesty's
navy, should the Minotaur cruise prove the sound-
ness of Capt. Key's opinion. In their incomplete
state, as smoothbores of 10 5-inch calibre, five of
these guns have been now for some time in the tur-
rets of the Royal Sovereign, four in those of the Scor-
pion, three on board the Minotaur for trials of car-
riages, and there are also understood to be some-
where about 200 more at Woolwich waiting the
9-inch rifled steel tubes with which it has been de-
termined to fit them. One rifled gun of the same
weight, imperfect however in some part of its bore,
is also on board the gunnery ship Excellent for drill
purposes. When a sufficient number of the guns at
Woolwich have received their steel tubes they will
be exchanged for their smoothbore brethren at pre-
sent on board the Royal Sovereign, Scorpion, and
Minotaur, and the formal entry of the gun as part
armament of her Majesty's navy may then be con-
sidered to have been effected. Turret ships, such as
we have even at present, can certainly carry and
work a much heavier gun than one of 12 tons, and
will doubtless receive them when we can procure
them. Our present difficulty lies in providing car-
riages fitted withsuch mechanical aids as shall enable
us to mount and fight such guns efficiently through
broadside ports, and to meet this several inventors
have come forward with carriages and their slides,
and gear for running the gun in and out under suf-
ficient control and all the conditions of the ship's
movements at sea, for training quickly and steadily
to any given angle, and for elevation, depression, &c.
Preliminary trials have been made with both iron
and modern carriages on board the Research and
Minotaur, and valuable data have been deduced ;
but the first of a series of really comprehensive, com-
petitive trials will commence on board the Minotaur,
under Capt. Key's direction, during the present week,
in the generally rough waters off the Bill of Portland.

The Insurrection in Jamaica.

MEETING AT LIVERPOOL.

A town's meeting was held in St. George's Hall,
Liverpool, yesterday, convened by the mayor in ac-
cordance with a requisition, to express the opinion of
the inhabitants with regard to the recent negro in-
surrection in Jamaica, and the conduct of Governor
Eyre. The Mayor (Mr. J. Farnworth) presided.
The CHAIRMAN said the requisition which the
meeting had heard read spoke for itself. He was
quite aware that upon this subject a great diversity
of opinion existed ; and, perhaps, if he had been
allowed to have his own way, that meeting would
not have been called. (Hear, hear.) He himself
would not express an opinion on this important
subject. Representations had been made to the
Government, and the Government had already
stated that the most strict and searching inquiry,
not only as to the rebellion itself, but as to the man-
ner in which it was suppressed, would be instituted,
and he was sure that any discussion which might
arise would be of the most moderate and Christian-
like descrif.tion. They must all admit that a great
rebellion—a rebellion which seemed to have been
promoted by great malice—had broken out in Ja-
maica, and that a great number of lives had been
lost. (Interruption.) The Government had stated
that an inquiry of the most strict character would
be instituted as to the means taken to suppress the
outbreak, and he thought they would all agree with
him that what might be done that day should he
done more with the intention of assisting the Go-
vernment than of complaining of what had been al-
ready done. They were met neither on the one
hand to condemn the Government of Jamaica, nor
to say on the other hand that the rebellion had
been brought about without sufficient cause.

The Rev.. Canon APNEILE moved the following
resolution :—" That we, the inhabitants of Liver-
pool, in public meeting assembled for the purpose of
urging upon her Majesty's Government the ap-
pointment of a commission to inquire into the
causes of the late insurrection in the eastern part
of Jamaica, and whether the means by which it has
been suppresped have or have not been in violation
of the constitution, have heard with much satisfac-
tion that such a commission has been appointed,
and trust that its investigations will prove
searching and effective." Their object in view from
the first, in calling this meeting, had been a mode-
rate one—not to prejudge, but to inquire. (Hear.)
The reason which the mayor had assigned for not
approving of the meeting was one of the reasons
which he (Canon M'Neile) thought to be good for
approving of it, namely, that there existed a great
variety of opinion. It was difficult even to state
the case without exciting that diversity of opinion,
but he believed that something had occurred which
they all agreed in thinking and feeling to be very
distressing. A collision had taken place between
the inhabitants of a district in Jamaica and the go-
verning authorities of the island ; extreme violence
had been used ; many valuable lives lost ; martial
law proclaimed ; and military executions had fol-
lowed. This much was admitted, and this much
seemed to him quite sufficient to justify them in en-
deavouring to ascertain, as far and as accurately as
possible, what had led to these disastrous events.
He had been asked why an inquiry should take
place in this case any more than in the Indian
mutiny. But the cases were not parallel. In the
Indian mutiny they were kept on self-defence for a
long time by an open declaration of war against
retaliation the authorities, and before the tide turned so that
cn could o
iunl
tde
ltliagkeen pc
el a. c e
nthey e were
oth ienr p
case e s s
ti oh n
of uui
e
offence and the
retaliation were reported by the
same mail. The locality, too,
of Jamaica was pecu-
liar; there were no special. " newspaper correspon-
dents" there when the disturbances occurred ; and
in the absence of reliable info •
rmation we naturally
turned to our own Government, who had the power
of ascertaining, by a grave judicial - •
inquiry, what
actually had taken place. The statements as to
the origin of the rebellion were extremely contra-
dictory. One authority, for instance, had said that
for the last eight years, all had been going to ruin
on the island ; while another stated that, in 1862,
the governor found 456,000 negroes in full pros-
perity. (Hear, hear.) Hence the necessity for in-
quiry. Perhaps, if they went back a littlefurther into
the antecedents of the island they might find some of
the roots of the causes that had led to the pre-
sent outbreak. When this great country broke the
chain of slavery in the West Indian colonies, and
paid the money for compensation, she thought she
had done all, and she did no more. The prophets of
the evils that would result from emancipation took
no step to prevent the evils which they had foretold,
and the prophets of good took no adequate steps to
secure the benefits which they anticipated, and,
therefore, both were to
blame. (Hear, hear.) Ile felt
persuaded that meeting would unite with him in the
declaration that no d a equate steps were taken by
either party to render liberty a real blessing to the
negro.. (Cheers.) Further still, the greater part of
the proprietors of West India plantations were deeply