The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-06 00:00:00

TLIE NAVY.

Our Malta correspondent, under date of the 31st
December, announces the arrival there the previous
ay of her Majesty's steam sloop Trident, 6, from
Corfu, and the departure, the same afternoon, for
Gibraltar, of her Majesty's screw frigate Doris, 32,
Captain Sir F. L. M'Clintock. The Doris had ar-
rived on the 28th from the coast of Syria, having
received orders to repair to Malta with all possible
despatch. She was immediately taken into dock,
and the artificers and calkers were set to work at
her day and night. The Doris is one of the ships
intended to be sent to the North American and West
Indian station.

The local Council of Government of Malta, at its
first meeting of the session on
.the 30th December,
voted an address of condolence to the Queen, ex-
pressing its deep regret and sympathy for the sad
bereavement suffered by her Majesty in the lamented
death of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort.

Letters from Gibraltar of the 25th December an-
nounce the presence there at that date of the follow-
ing ships of war : English—The Algiers, 89, Capt.
E. B. Rice ; the Queen, 86, Captain C. F. Hillyar ;
the Firebrand, 6, Capt. S. M. Bruce ; the Cuckoo,
3, Lieut, F. Warden, C.B, ; the Procis, 1, Lieut. G,
Palmer. French—the Coligny, 4. Her Majesty's
ships Liffey, 51, Captain G. W. Preedy, C. 8., and
Melpomene, 51, Capt. J. F. Ewart, left on the 22d
for Halifax; and the Amphion, 36, Captain T. F.
Birch, on the same day, for Lisbon, to join Rear-
Admiral Dacres, C.B. The Agamemnon, 89, Capt.
T. Hope, left on the 24th for Bermuda. At Alge-
siras there were the following Spanish men-of-war:
—Two screw frigates, seven paddlewheel sloops,
and two screw gunboats.

A letter from Gibraltar, of the 25th, says ; —The
melancholy intelligence of the demise of his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort reached us on the 17th
inst., and was confirmed on the 20th, on which day
43 minute guns were fired from the forts, and also
from her Majesty's ship Amphion. The officers of
the garrison and fleet have gone into mourning ;
and tb.c flags of the fortress, and pendants and
colours of her Majesty's ships, are hoisted at half-
mast. The French man-of•war, and the merchant
ships of various nations in the port, have also testi-
fied their respect in a similar manner. The desti-
nation of the ships of war here is uncertain.
The Racoon, 22, screw, Capt. W. C. Chamberlain,
arrived at Spithead yesterday morning from the
Mediterranean. She is expected to proceed to an
eastern port to dismantle and be put out of commis-
sion. With the exception of three days under steam,
her passage home has been made under sail, and has
been greatly retarded since leaving Gibraltar by
strong N.E. gales; consequently her news has been
anticipated. She was commissioned in Nov. 1857,
by Capt. J. A. Punter, now commanding the Ex.
mouth, DO, screw. Capt. Chamberlain took com-
mand in May, 1860,
The Warrior, 40, iron frigate, Capt. Hon. A. A.
Cochrane, C. 8., weighed her anchor at Spithead on
Saturday, and steaming through the anchorage to
the westward, took up a fresh position off Osborne,
whore she remains. Among the many contemplated
additions to the ship's fitment, when time and means
can be found to carry them into effect, is an improved
mode of steering by hydraulics or steam, the light-
ing of the ship internally by gas, and the introduc-
tion on board of the electric light.
The Chanticleer, 17, screw, Commander C.Stirling,
arrived at Spithead on Saturday from Osborne on
being relieved by the Warrior. She went into
Portsmouth harbour yesterday for the purpose of
being swung for the adjustment of her compasses.
The Brilliant, 26, 954 tons, sailing ship, used as a
training ship for the Royal Naval Reserve, arrived
at the Little Nore on Saturday, from the Thames,
having been towed from the City canal by the Mon-
key, paddlewheel steamer, Mr. G. Syndercombe,
master commander. She is under orders to proceed
to Dundee, where she will be stationed as tender to
the Castor, 22, training ship for the Naval Coast
Volunteers.

The screw steamer Rosario, 11, 150 horse power,
Master Commander W. L. Southey, having had
some alterations effected in her engines in order to
improve her rate of speed, will proceed this morning
to the measured mile at the Maplin-sands for the
purpose of making her fourth official trial. Her
engines were manufactured at Greenwich, and are
on the direct acting horizontal principle. On the
oecasion of her former trial a speed of only nine
knots an hour was obtained, but it is believed that
the alterations since made in her engines will give
at least another knot.

The iron steamer Defence, 18, Capt. Powell,C.B.,
fitting at Chatham, has now received the whole of
her iron lower masts and bowsprit, the operation
of fixing her masts being successfully accomplished
without accident, notwithstanding their immense
weight. Although the mizenmast was only fixed
on Friday, a considerable portion of the ship's
lower wire rigging was got in place by Saturday
afternoon. The unaccountable delays which ap-
pear to have arisen in the fitting of this ship would
seem to have at length aroused the officials at the
dockyard to hasten her completion, and if the exer-
tions now being used by all hands had only been
exhibited from the commencement, she would have
been out of hands and at sea long before this. As
it is there still remains three weeks or a month's
work to be executed on board before she can take
her departure for sea in anything like a satisfactory
condition. She is what is termed bark-rigged, but
it is the universal opinion among nautical men that
a mistake has been made in fitting her with only
three masts instead of four, and doing away with
her bowsprit, the latter, considering she is built also
to be employed as a ram in running a ship
down, being, after all, only an incumbrance to her
free action in that respect. The Admiralty have
C.meted her to be fitted with Cunningham's patent
self-reefing topsails, which are being fitted under
the personal superintendence of the inventor.
The Terrible, 21, paddlewheel steam frigate, 1,850
tons, 800-horse power, Capt. F. H. H. Glasse, C. 8.,
arrived at the Nore, from the Mediterranean, on
Friday night, to be paid off. On Saturday orders
were received from the Admiralty by Vice-Admiral
Johnstone, directing her to tow the Brilliant, 26,
from the Nore to Dundee. The Terrible accordingly
went alongside to the coal depot in the Medway,
and coaled up in readiness to proceed on her spe-
cial duty. She has been in commission three years
and a half.

Thiktportion of the fleet of gunboats fitting at
Devonport which is to be armed with smooth-bored
guns is receiving its armament. The Armstrong
guns for the others are not yet in hand. The ar-
tisans were at work on the gunboats every night
last week
I) to eight o'clock, and on Saturday
night at 10 o'clock.

The paddlewheel steam sloop Devastation, 6,
Commander John D. l‘PCrea, from Portsmouth,
arrived at Plymouth yesterday (Sunday) morning,
and was appointed to embark supernumeraries in
the afternoon, and to sail to-day for South America
en route for her station in the Pacific.
The screw steam sloop Stromboli, 6, Commander
Arthur R. Henry, from Portsmouth, arrived yes-
terday morning at Plymouth, and, after embarking
supernumeraries, will sail for her destination, the
south-east coast of America.

The surveying steamer Sea Gull, Lieutenant AV.
('himmo (tender to the Porcupine), frcm Scotland,
arrived at Plymouth on Saturday.

The surveying vessel Porcupine, 3, Capt. Henry
C. Otter, at Devonport, is ordered to be put out of
commission and placed in the third division of the
Steam Reserve. It is not improbable that after
being repaired she will be recommissioned for the
same service.

A notice was affixed at Chatham dockyard gates
on Saturd4y that a nuraber of smiths, carpenters,
joiners, platers, cutters, rivetters, and other mecha-
nics were required immediately on board the iron
steamer Resistance, 18, 600 horse power, for the
purpose of completing her for sea.
A naval court of inquiry has been assembled on
board the Formidable, 84, flagship of Vice-Admiral
"W. J. Hope Johnstone, commander-in-chief at the
Nore, by order of the Admiralty, in order, it is un-
derstood to investigate some differences which had
arisen, in connection with the service, between

apt. c.
—rise, superintendent of Sheerness dock-
yard, and A.D.C. to the Queen, and Capt. C. F.
superintendent Of the Chatham steam

reserve. The court sat with closed doors, and the
proceedings were not allowed to be made public.
A full report of the whole case has been id before
the Admiralty for their Lordships' decision. Various
rumours are current respecting the inquiry, to
which, however, we forbear givicg publicity.
The following appointments were rr ade on Satur-
day at the Admiralty :—William Hewlett, master,
to the Amphion ; George M. Loch, midshipman, to
the Stromboli; Stuart H. Rickman and C. T. F.
Hodgkinson, midshipmen, to the Defence; Robert
L. Smart and Harry N. Lowe, naval cadets, to the
Revenge; W. H. Sedgwick, promoted to first-class
assistant-engineer in the Ajax, and R. C. Child,
master's assistant, to the Investigator.