The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-25 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Megmra, screw troopship, Capt. M. B. Dunn,
arrived at Spithead yesterday morning from Gibral-
tar. She sailed from Gibraltar on the 18th inst.,
and experienced fine weather throughout the voyage.
The ship's machinery worked very satisfactorily
during the voyage out and homeward. Her passen-
ger and troop list comprises Capt. Percival, Rifles ;
Lieut. Savage, 9th Regiment, and Mr. Sendy, civil
service, home on leave ; Mrs. and Miss Prevost,
wife and daughter of Capt. Prevost, R.N., Naval
Superintendent at Gibraltar ; 25 military invalids,
and several time-expired soldiers, with two women
and seven children, in charge of Lieut. Wilson, 15th
Regiment, and a number of naval invalids. Fourteen
convicts were also brought to England from Gibral-
tar in the ship, and were transferred yesterday to
the convict prison at Portsea. The troops and
seamen were also landed yesterday from the ship,
the seamen being transferred to the Victory guard-
ship, and the troops quartered in Portsmouth garri-
son for the night, to be sent on to the Royal Vic-
toria Hospital at Nettey this morning. The Megra
but as her cranes and
awaits orders at Spithead,
some other of her fittings are lying at Devonport
dockyard, it is expected that she will proceed to that
port.

Orders from the Admiralty were received yester-
day afternoon on board the Prince Consort, 35,
amoaze, to despatch
Capt.
G.
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the paddlewheel steam-
erd, Ireland, to the
Departmentassist-
an steamship Lord Pan-
Moore, which is ashore there.
vma ne
usc sre ee
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aa
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She left Woolwich on Saturday last with four 600-
pounders for the armament of the Scorpion, fitting
out at Birkenhead. The Medusa may leave this

morning.

The sum of nearly £lOO,OOO has been taken by
the Admiralty in the Navy Estimates for 1865-6 for
the new works to be executed during the year for
enlargement and improvement of Chatham dockyard,
as well as for the other undertakings connected
with the extension of that establishment. Of this
amount the sum of £700,000 will be required this
year for the construction of the additional docks
and basins and the other works for the enlargement
of the dockyard. The original estimate for the ex-
tension of the dockyard by throwing into the estab-
lishment the whole of St. Mary's Island, containing
between 300 and 400 acres, was £943,876, a further
sum of £306,124 being required for additional work
now proposed to be executed by contract, making
the total estimated outlay £1,250,000. The sum
already expended on the works is -£130,868, which
leaves about £1,026 to complete them. Hitherto
the whole of the works have been executed by con-
victs, some 800 or 900 of whom have been daily
employed on the undertaking for some years past,
but the Admiralty have decided on supplementing
their efforts by the employment of skilled labour, at
an additional outlay of £300,000. Among the other
works proposed to be carried outat Chatham Dock-
yard during the present year is the enlargenient of
the smithery, at a cost of about £4,000, this work
being rendered necessary from the increasing de-
mands made on that establishment consequent on
the Admiralty having decided on making Chatham
an almost exclusively iron shipbuilding yard. The
sum of £10,240 will also be taken for new ma-
chinery, and a further sum of £2,500 for preparing
the foundations for the new machines proposed to
be erected, together with £5,600 for the repairs of
existing plant. The present surgery having proved
altogether inadequate, it is proposed to erect a new
one in the dockyard at a cost of £1,090. The other
works proposed include the erection of a new angle-
iron smithery and other necessary buildings, at an
estimated outlay of about £2,000. With regard to
the staff of Chatham Dockyard, the Estimates show
that several important alterations are proposed. The
offices of store receiver, master sailmaker, foreman
of painters, and measurers are all abolished—a new
appointment, that of cashier, with a salary of £5OO
per annum, together with an inspector of stores, at
£350 per annum, being made. The salary of the
principal converter of timber is reduced from £275
to £l5O, and that of the foreman of riggers increased
from £l5O to £l9O per annum. There is also pro-
vision made for a foreman of sailmakers at £l6O
per annum.

Admiral Fitzroy's drum, indicating dangerous
gales, was hoisted at noon yesterday at Plymouth.
The French gunboat Cuvier left on Thursday after-
noon for Falmouth.

Five hundred men belonging to the 2d Regiment