The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-25 00:00:00

711 E NAVY.

A trial, by order of the Lords of the Admiralty,
is now being made on board the St. Vincent, train-
ing ship, at Portsmouth, of a plan introduced to the
notice of their Lordships by Mr. Phipson, C.E., of
London, for ventilating the 'tween decks of her Ma-1
jesty's ships of war. The apparatus consists of an
air shaft or cylinder, 4ft. 3in. in diameter, continued
in lengths from the upper to the lower decks. The
first length from the upper deck, being made of
sheet iron, contains the fan, at a level with the ceil-
ing of the main deck, and the remainder of the
lengths between each deck are of sail-cloth, so as to
admit the whole being removed at any time to work
the guns or for any other reason. The fan is worked
from the main deck by a small two-horse power
vertical engine. The fan consists of two blades, set
at an angle of about 50 deg., regulated by a spring
placed on the spindle. Above the fan is placed a dial
to indicate at any time the amount of air supplied
to the decks below. The amount supplied by the
apparatus on board the St. Vincent is 508,000 cubic
feet per hour. There is no perceptible draught pro-
duced, the inlet of pure, cold air below displacing
and driving out the hot impure air floating above.
So far the experiment on board the St. Vincent ap-
pears to have been perfectly successful, but the St.
Vincent is not a seagoing or even one of our efficient
war ships, being merely a training ship, with a free
communication fore and aft her lower deck, without
the machinery, stockholes, and compartments below
of our iron ships. As we have said, so far the ex-
periment appears to have been perfectly successful,
but, if only on account of this very success, it should
be tried on board one of our iron ships. In these
vessels, which are divided into compartments below,
the engine-rooms and stokeholes, when the machi-
nery is worked up to full power, become intolerably
hot. As the Defence is now in dock at Portsmouth,
she offers a capital opportunity for testing the new
apparatus.
Orders were received yesterday at Plymouth to
commission, store, and provision the screw steam
sloop Perseus, 17, now in the first division of the
steam reserve in Hamoaze ; she will have a comple-
ment of 175 officers and men.

The screw steam frigate Phoebe, 51, just commis-
sioned at Devonport by Capt. Fortescue, received
her detachment of Royal Marines yesterday. It is
now reported that she may be sent to China.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Argus, 6, which
arrived from Sheerness at Plymouth on Tuesday
morning, is now in the Sound filling up with coal.
She will convey to Japan a detachment of Royal
Marines to do duty as a bodyguard for the British
Legation.
His Prussian Majesty's screw steam corvette Ar-
cona, 26, Capt. Sundewall, having been repaired at
Devonport Dockyard, is now in Plymouth Sound,
receiving her powder preparatory to her return
home.

The screw steam gunvessel Mohawk, 6, purchased
by Capt. Osborn for the Chinese Government, has
been removed from Hamoaze into the basin at Key-
ham Steam-yard, for the purpose of having her ma-
chinery examined and overhauled.
The iron-cased frigate Royal Oak, 50, 1,000 horse
power, was removed from Chatham harbour into
No. 3 dock yesterday afternoon, for the purpose of
having the remainder of her armour plates bolted to
her sides. At the time of her launch the Royal
Oak drew about 19ft. aft and 13ft. forward, but
since she has been lying in the harbour she has
shipped her iron masts and bowsprit, together with
her six boilers, condensers, and other heavy
portions of her machinery, amounting in the whole
to several hundred tons, which has brought her
down considerably more than a foot. To enable
her to enter the dock the height of the blocks on
the floor was considerably reduced, and a few
minutes before 1 o'clock she was successfully floated,
the depth of water being between three and four
feet between her keel and the bottom of the dock.
The projecting granite sides of the dock had also
been cut away, allowing the frigate just sufficient
room. During afternoon the the Royal Oak
was shored up on the blocks, and last evening the
operation of pumping out the dock was commenced.
Every exertion will be used to complete the vessel
for sea, to accomplish which some 300 hands will be
daily employed on her for several months to come.
About '7O of the iron armour plates have already
been bolted to her sides, leaving between 200 and
300 more still to be fixed. Most of these, however,
have already been annealed, bent, drilled, and
otherwise prepared, so that as little time as pos-
sible will be lost in the operation of plating her,
the Admiralty being desirous that no time should
be lost in having one of the squadron of the new
armour-plated frigates actually at sea.
The short supply of coals at Portland, recently
alluded to in The Sun, will soon be remedied, Mr.
Leather, the contractor, having ordered large sup-
plies to be immediately forwarded to that port for
the use of her Majesty's ships.
The undermentioned gentlemen have been nomi-
nated to naval cadetships:—R. W. Okes, Voysey,
S. H. Kay, A. Haggard, and C. J. Naylor.
The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Capt. W. M. Dowell, to the
Barrosa ; Commander A. J. Kingston, to the Per-
seus ; Commander R. C. Mayne, to the Eclipse ; R.
Coen, master, to the Barrosa ; R. Gilpin, master, to
the Perseus; A. J. A. Parks, master, to the Eclipse;
B. Gregory, assist.-surg., to the Sntlej ; T. H.
Atkinson, acting assist. -Burg., to the Sutlej ; H. J.
R. Miall, paymaster to the Barrosa ; C. G. Smith,
paymaster, to the Perseus; C. E. Phillips, pay-
master to the Eclipse ; A. Hughes, assist-pay-
master, to the Perseus ; W. J. C. Row, assist.-
paymaster, to the Barrosa ; F. A. Keogh, assist.-
paymaster, to the Cornwallis ; John N. Colborne,
assist.-paymaster, to the Hawke ; J. Roffey, chief
engineer, to the Sutlej ; J. Sumner, engineer, to the
Sutlej ; J. Orchard, first class assist.-engineer, to
the Asia, for the Savage; D. Langlands, first class
assist.-engineer, to the Asia, for the Foam ; R. H.
Dobney, H. R. Wills, and T. Gray, first class assist.-
engineers, to the Sutlej ; J. G. Taylor, first class
assist.-engineer, to the Phcebe ; G. W. Robins, first
class assist.-engineer, to the Indus, for the Delight ;
A. S. Reeve, second class assist.-engineer, to the
Sutlej ; H. Rigby, acting second class assist,-engi•
neer, to the Sutlej ; A. Le B. Corrie, clerk, to the
Eclipse ; F. J. Mould, clerk, to the Barrosa ; H. C.
Jenkins, clerk, to the Pembroke; E. R. Nettleton,
clerk, to the Russell ; R. C. Webb, clerk, to the
Blenheim; and C. M. F. Zorr, assist.-clerk, to the
Revenge.