The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-30 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

VALL.TTA, Oct. 23.—Her Majesty's iron screw
storesbip SS apply, 2, Staff Commander C. Bowden,
left port on the 18th inst. for Gibraltar and Eng-
land. The Assurance, 4, screw gunvessel, Com-
mander H. B. Woollcombe, arrived on the follow-
ing day Ism a Nisida (Bay of Naples). The Cossack,
20, screw corvette, Capt. R. D. White, arrived on
the 20th. inst., 16 days from Beyrout ; all well on
board. The Cockatrice, 2, gunboat, went round
from the Marsamuscetti Harbour to the Great Har-
bour on the 21st inst., having completed her term of
20 days' quarantine established on arrivals from
Constantinople. A Russian frigate came in from
Cronstadt and Gibraltar, bound for the Piraeus of
Athena. Mr. G. B. Brown, R.N., Lieut. J. Hand-
ley, R.N., and Mr. Knox, 4th Regiment, left on the
19th in the Brenda for London.

Her Majesty's double-turretted screw corvettes
Wivern, Capt. Burgoyne, V.C., and Scorpion, •
Capt. Commerell, V.C., have both arrived at Spit-
head from Portland on the conclusion of their ex-
perimental Channel cruising. Both vessels having
left Spithead, their orders were to make Portland
roads their anchorage ground each night, and, ac-
cording to directions, to steam or sail out to the
southward of Portland Bill, and try their powers.
In accordance with these orders, the Wivern and
Scorpion have been tested fully in all weathers pos-
sible in the Channel, under steam alone, under can-
vas alone, and under steam and canvas conjointly,
the waist bulwarks of each ship being both lowered
and raised on each trial. Under steam alone both
vessels were taken into the terrible " race" of Port-
land during the prevalence of a very stiff gale, and
were laid for some time broadside on to the seas
and the tideway. Under canvas alone, and
also under steam and canvas combined, the Scor-
pion rolled in the same proportionally less
degree than the Wivern, and under all circum-
stances, whether under steam or sail separately
or both combined, the Scorpion maintained a .
speed of three-quarters of a knot per hour in excess •
of the Wivern's rate of going. On or off the wind,
under sail, the result was the same. On one occa- ,
sion, with the wind in the Channel at south, and a
heavy rolling sea setting in on the English land, a
cask was thrown overboard from the Scorpion and
steamed round at fullspeed, withouteasing her helm
or slowing her engines, and snap-shot practice was
made at the cask from the 12-ton smoothbore 150-
pounders in the vessel's turrets. The results were '
highly satisfactory, every shot fired being within a
few feet of the cask's centre, and certain to have 1
struck an ordinary ship's cutter floating in the same
position, notwithstanding the motion given to the
ship by the troubled broken waters. The guns were •
held in perfect control by the winch purchases, and
the results were altogether beyond the warmest ex-
pectations of the advocates of the turret principle of
mounting heavy ordnance for sea service, even with
their knowledge of the extraordinary results ob-
tained from the trials of the Royal Sovereign. Both
vessels, as a matter of course, took seas in liberally
over their low decks amidships, but their lofty bows
(made by their raised topgallant forecastle) kept
both dry when their heads could be kept to the
seas. No water at any time, however, entered their
turrets. The tripod masts of the Wivern have stood
most admirably throughout the trials. Indeed, there
is not a sign of a crack or starting of the paint on
the exterior of the tubes at any of the joints, and no
severer test could possibly be applied than this. The
Wivern was undoubtedly the more uncomfortable
vessel and shipped by far the greater seas of the two,
but it must beremembered thatherturrets are loaded
with 180 tons of iron ballast for her guns, ammuni-
tion, and carriages (not yet ready for her), while
the Scorpion carries herguns, carriages, and ammu-
nition, each in proper distribution. This latter cir-
cumstance will sufficiently account for the difference
experienced in the roll of the vessels between 14 and
24 deg. The difference in the speed of the vessels,
cannot be so easily accounted for. The Scorpion under
all circumstances, of steam or sail together or sepa-
rate, has always exhibited the same superiority in
this respect over the Wivern. They have always,
as now, been tried under the same conditions of
draught of water forward and aft, and the same
supposed displacement, and the pitch and diameter
of their screws (of this, however, we have no posi-
tive certainty) are supposed to be the same. Both
vessels were built from one set of drawings, their
engines were made from one set of patterns, and
both were built alongside each other in Birkenhead
Docks. If the difference in speed had existed only
under sail, then the failure of the Wivern in that
respect might have been attributed to the resistance
which might possibly be supposed to be offered by
the tripod masts ; but as the same difference exists
under steam as under sail, the tripod masts are
clearly not to blame, and the fault can only be laid
to a positive difference in the form of each vessel's
bottom, notwithstanding they were built from one
set of drawings. This result cannot be at all sur-
prising if we consider that both vessels were built
in a great hurry, and certainly not for her Majesty's
Navy, or to meet after-trials at the hands of the
Admiralty officials and professional critics. The
rig of both vessels was arranged since their purchase
from Messrs. Laird by the Admiralty. The Wivern's
rig, with her tripods and royal yards, owing to some
unnecessary complication aloft, which can be easily
remedied, has been found during the recent trials
to be inferior in handiness to that of the Scorpion,
which has a double topsail yard and upper Cun-
ningham topsail. The vessels, for their tonnage,
may be considered to have worked admirably under
steam or sail, and to have proved themselves to be
good vessels. They have most certainly not been
tried in summer weather, but have been tested in
every possible way during the past fortnight in
all weathers, from the strongest Channel gale to
the wind at a force of 7 (and the wind has never
been lower during the trials), off the storm-
beaten Head of Portland and in the broken
waters of its tideway or " race." Each vessel has
been found to steer well so long as the screw was kept
revolving, but with the screw at rest and under
sail alone they steered "anywhere." This is naturally
and reasonably enough attributed to the fact of the
screws being fixed and three-bladed, two of the
blades being thus always at right angles to the vessel's
course. With atwo-bladed Griffiths' screw the blades
could be set vertically when the vessel if under sail,
and thus no depreciating effect could be produced by
them upon the vessel's steering or upon her speed.
The Scorpion has carried away the crossshead guide
of her shafting, and will require the necessary re-
pairs. Both :vessels are, however, ordered into
Portsmouth harbour, and will require some three
week's time there to make good their alterationsand
fittings for service. Both are at present exceedingly
ill-ventilated, damp 'tween decks, and altogether
uncomfortable to both officers and men. They were
sufficiently well arranged, perhaps, byMessrs. Laird
for a special purpose, but now that they belong to
her Majesty's Navy some thousands of pounds must
be expended upon them to make them both the ves-
sels they would necessarily have been had they been
built and fitted for the Royal Navy.
The drawings and plans for the new ironclad
frigate Hercules, intended to be built at Chatham
Dockyard, have been received at that establishment
from the department of the Controller-General of
the Navy, and are in the hands of the draughtsmen
and designers of the yard, who are preparing the
necessary plans for the immediate commencement
of the frigate. In the meantime, large stores of
plate, angle, and other kindsof iron required for the
construction of the Hercules are being accumulated
at Chatham Dockyard, the supplies being obtained
chiefly from the establishment of Messrs. Cheney
and Co., of the Old Park, Ironworks, Salop, the
firm from which the greater portion of the iron re-
quired to be used in the construction of the fri,ate
will be drawn. The broadside armour-plates which
will encase the sides of the Hercules will be of the
extraordinary thickness of 9 inches, or exactly
double the thickness of those of the Warrior and
the Achilles, and Sin. thicker than the battery plates
of the Bellerophon, the last of the ironclads con-
structed at Chatham. None of the armour-plates
for the Hercules have yet been received
at the dockyard, but it is understood they will be
supplied by the firm of Messrs. Brown and Co., of
the Atlas Works, Sheffield, who have succeeded in
rolling the thickest plates yet produced, several hun-
dred tons of armour-plates 13in. in thickness having

recently been manufactured by that firm for the
Russian Government, to be used in covering the sea
face of the works at Cronstadt. Although the Ad-
miralty have decided on coating our future ironclads
with armour-plates 9in. in thickness, other Conti-
nental Powers are having constructel in this country
ironclad vessels equally formidable. Within the last
few weeks the Turkish Government have sent over
an order for the construction of a powerful ironclad
frigate, designed equally for offensive or defensive
purposes. This vessel, the designs for which have,
it is understood, been prepared, at the request of
the Sultan, and with the permission of the Admi-
ralty, by Mr. Reed, the Chief Constructor of the
Navy, is intended to be plated, not only along her
broadside battery, but from stem to stern, with
plates Bin. in thickness. Some idea of her size and
tonnage may be formed when it is stated that she is
intended to carry an armament of 33 of the largest
guns, while her machinery, which will be of a mini-
mum of 1,500 horse power (nominal), will propel
her through the water at a mean speed of 15 knots
per hour. The Turkish Government is in treaty
with the Thames Iron Shipbuilding Company for
the construction of the vessel, which will embody all
the structural improvements introduced in the Mino-
taur, Bellerophon, and others of our ironclad ships,
rendering her, in fact, the most powerful ironclad
vessel in the world. Some weeks will necessarily
elapse before the keel of the Hercules can be laid
down at Chatham, as the dock in which the frigate
is intended to be built is now occupied by the armour-
cased wooden frigate Lord Warden, which is being
plated. From the progress made in the work, how-
ever, a very short time only will elapse before that
vessel is fit to be undocked, a considerable portion of
her armour-plates, as well as her engines and ma-
chinery, haying been fitted.