The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-03 00:00:00

Her Majesty's ironclad frigate Bellerophon, 16,
1,000-horse power, fitting at Chatham, will, in ac-
cordance with orders received from the Admiralty,
be at once prepared for the first division of the Steam
Reserve. She has commenced shipping the heavy
portions of her engines, machinery, and boilers,
manufactured for her by Messrs. John Penn and
Sons, and in the course of two or three weeks will
be taken into one of the vacant docks at Chatham
to have the remainder of hat= armour bolted to her
sides, and to be equipped for sea.
The Windsor Castle, East Indiaman, Commander
Pryce (one of Messrs. Green's fleet), arrived at
Spithead yesterday morning from Calcutta, with
military invalids and time-expired men on board
from various regiments serving in India, in the fol-
lowing strength.—Officers accompanying the troops
—Lieut. Kemp, lst Battalion 4th Infantry ; Ensign
Wither, 28th Battalion; Capt. Graham, 33d Battalion;
Lieut. Walsh, 44th Battalion ; and Surg. Ekin,
Medical Staff Corps. Invalided men for the Royal
Victoria Military Hospital at Netley, 113, with 4
women and 10 children. Time-expired men to join
the depots of their respective regiments, 141, with 6
women and 10 children. The troops will be disem-
barked from the Windsor Castle at Spithead by
Government steamers this morning, and the shipwill
afterwards resume her voyage to London.
The Tartar, 20, screw, corvette, Capt. John M.
Hayes, C. 8., the arrival of which at Spithead, from
China and Japan, was reported in The Sun yester-
day, sailed again from Spithead last evening for
Sheerness, where she is ordered to dismantle and
pay out of commission. Capt. Hayes took com-
mand of her at Sheerness on August 13, 1860.
The turret-ship question enters upon a new phase
this week in the assembling of a commission of naval
officers to inspect and report upon, for the informa-
tion of the Lords of the Admiralty, a set of draw-
ings for a seagoing turret Vessel that have been pre-
pared by the chief draughtsman of Portsmouth
dockyard, Mr. Scullard, by order of the Admiralty,
and under the supervision of Capt. C. P. Coles,R. N.
in order to meet the views of that officer on the re-
quirements of a sea-going turreted ironclad. A
short time since it was stated in The Sun that
Capt. Coles officially handed these drawings in to
the Admiralty some time during the first week in
April last. The appointment of the present com-
mission is therefore the second decisive step taken in
the matter by the Admiralty since the order was
given to their draughtsman at Portsmouth to pre-
pare the drawings. The commission is composed of
the following members :—Vice-Admiral the Earl of
Lauderdale, K.C.8., chairman ; Rear-Admiral H.
R. Yelverton, C. 8., Capt. H. Caldwell, C. 8., Capt.
J. J. Kennedy, C. 8., Capt. H. B. Phillimore, with
Mr. Arthur Price, paymaster, R.N., and attached
to her Majesty'sship Fisgard at Woolwich, for " re-
vision of dockyard instructions," as secretary. The
duties of the commission are to report upon the
" stowage," " accommodation for officers and crew,"
" rig," " armament," and other essential points in
the designs for the ship. In fixing upon the size of
the ship both Capt. Coles and the Admiralty appear
to have selected Mr. Reed's Pallas as the compara-
tive ship, and to have assimilated her general di-
mensions as nearly as may be possible to the lines of
the turret-ship, the dimensions and character of
both being as follows :

PALLAS. T URRZT-
SHIP.

Length between perpendiculars 251 0 ... 225 0
Ditto, keel for tonnage
Extreme breadth 5O 0 ... 49 0
Ditto, for tonnage
Ditto, moulded 4B 1 ... 48 1
Depth in hold l6 5 ... 20 2
Draught of water 24 3 ... 22 6
Burden in tons (builder's measure-
ment) 2,372 ... 2,409
Thickness of armour 4iin. ... 6in.

- Armaments.
Four 100 prs. Two 600
Weight of broadsides
3101 b.
The Pallas carries her guns in a central square
armoured tower. The turret-ship is designed to
carry her two guns in one turret, the base of the
turret being protected by a square armoured box.
Both vessels carry an armour belt at the water line,
the Pallas completely round, but that of the turret-
ship to terminate at 25ft. abaft her stem, but run-
ning round her stern and protecting her rudder
head. At the termination of the belt line, 25ft.
from her stem, a 'thwart-ship armoured bulkhead
will be run across and connect the ends of the belt
forward, while at the same time the ship's bows,
where there is no belt, will be so subdivided and
interlaced that no shot passing through can inflict
any serious injury. In fact, they will be much safer
without armour at all than if coated with thin plating
such as it is now the custom to plate the bows of
our ironclads with. The armour-plating and its
backing of the turret-ship are designed to be of
equal strength to those of the Bellerophon, and her
deck will have an underlie of 1-inch iron, in lieu
of the usual 1-inch plating beneath her wooden
planking. The turret-ship is to be propelled by en-
gines of 600-horse power—the same power as those
of the Pallas—and her estimated speed is 13.8 knots.
We are not quite certain what rate of estimated
speed is given to the Pallas. 2,409 tons appears
but a small tonnage for a seagoing turret-ship, and
we are informed a vessel of one-half more tonnage,
with a proportionate increase in her engine power,
would two turrets, each with two 600-pounder
guns, and would attain a speed of 14.3 knots. In
the composition of the committee to investigate
report upon the plans of the turret-ship n
friends,
fault
. a t
can be found by Capt. Coles or any of his
o dy,
bbut to the committee collectivelyeraised as a
per-
haps, the objection mayin
thatb
it has
been nominated by the Admiralty alone, and
is solely composed of naval officers. Had Captain
Coles been allowed to nominate such a man
as Mr. Laird to represent him in the committee
it would have been a gracious act on the part of the
Admiralty, and possibly might have silenced any
after murmurs from the advocates of the turret prin-
ciple. We very much regret to learn that Captain
confined to his room at his residence at
VCo elnets is confined
by illness, and will therefore be unable
to attend the committee to explain any portion of
the drawings connected with the turret and guns.
Mr. Scullard, the designer of the ship, is, however,
quite competent to do this, and if Capt. Colesis well
advised he will for the present rest from his labours
and recruit his health, as a first consideration, leav-
ing to the Admiralty the responsibility for the ship,
the drawings for which have just bee-a placed before
them, and which are now undergoing consideration
at the hands of the committee.

A letter received at Plymouth from a naval officer
at Lisbon confirms the statement that the Achilles,
on her passage out, rolled less than any of the