The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-06 00:00:00

TEE NA FY.

_ ----v.—
The following nev," class screw steam gunvessels,
to carry five Armst Tong guns, have arrived at
Woolwich from the bui_teing-yard at Millwall, and
satisfaetorily tested their mt:.chinerY of 80 horse-
--lea
power each, on Saturday, at the L.
sured mile, in
Long-reach—namely the Dart, the b:
the Lee,

and the Snipe. ),,the
The Government having decided on having
whole the iron-plated steam floating batteries, n. ovf
in harbour at Chatham and elsewhere, put in a
state of thorough repair, and ready for immediate
service, operations have commenced on several of
that class of vessels' at Chatham dockyard. The
laege floating battery Etna, 16 guns and 200-horse
power, has been taken into the second dock in order
to undergo a thorough repair, and to have any de-
fects made good. The floating battery Thunder,
14, 150-horse power, has undergone very extensive
repairs, and some of her timbers, which were found
to be rotten, made good, Her hull has also been
painted, and her bottom coated with Peacock's
composition to prevent corrosion. This floating
battery having been completed, was undocked at
Chatham a few days since. The Thunderbolt, 16,
200-horse power, another of the floating batteries
at Chatham, will likewise be taken into dock, when
she will be thoroughly surveyed by the officers of
the dockyard, and any repairs required will be at
once effected. The Trusty, 14, 150-horse power,
one of the floating batteries experimented upon
with the Armstrong guns, is also to undergo any
repairs that may be required; and the floating bat-
teries Erebus, 16, 200-horse power, and Meteor, 14,
150-horse power, and the screw mortar-vessel Sea-
horse, 12, 200-horse power, will likewise be docked
and surveyed, in order to discover any defects in
them, with the view of their being made good. The
floating batteries will be fitted for service and
attached to the steam reserve in the Medway, in
readiness for immediate service upon any pants of
the coast.
The experimental practice from the Stork gun-
boat upon Jones's angular target, representi*g his
system of angulated ships' sides plated with iron
or steel, commenced at Portsmouth on Saturday,
under the superintendence of Capt. R. S. Hewlett,
C. 8., commanding her Majesty's ship Excellent,
the gunnery ship at the port. No person was
allowed to witness the practice unless in the pos-
session of an Admiralty order to that effect,
and the only persons who were really
on board the Stork, with the exception
of those officially engaged, were the patentee,
Mr. Josiah Jones, of Liverpool, aad Capt. Cow-
per Coles, R.N., the inventor of the shot-proof
shield. The experiments on Mr. Jones's angulated
system are preliminary to others which will be
tarried out to test Capt. Cowper Cole's system. Mr.
Jones is a practical iron and steel plate shipbuilder
in Liverpool, and in his yard here the target Ns hich
represents his system has been constructed at his
own expense. a very considerable sum, and under
his immediate supervision. It is stated that in
Capt, Cowper Cole's case the Government bear the
expense. Mr. Jones's invention has for its object
the construction of ships of war which are required
to be shot-proof. To attain this object he proposes
the sides of ships should incline outwards from
below the water line until they rise to the water
line, and that from thence they should incline in-
wards at an angle of about 45 deg. This angle may
be altered as experience may suggest. It will be
seen that a vessel constructed on this plan will be
of considerably greater beam at the Water line than
on the upper deck, and will be nearer in form to the
Spartiate and other ships of her class built by the
French many years back, than any modern crea-
tions.. The target experimented upon on Saturday
represented the section of a ship's side constructed
on this principle. Its face measured 13 feet by
nearly 9 feet, and was covered with four armour
plates, placed side by side. No. 1 plate was of
4i-inch soft steel ; No. 2 was of the same material,
but of ; No. 3 and No. 4 plates were of
4k-inch iron of two different manufactures. The
sectional portion of the target which supported the
plates in their position was of great strength, but
is stated to be of only half the actual strength
which would be given in constructing a vessel on
this plan, or as compared with the support given to
her plates by the teak sides of the Warrior. The
target was finally put together in Portsmouth
dockyard by Mr. Jones's workmen, and weighs
altogether nearly twenty tons. The old Arctic brig
Griper, which was ordered to be broken up,
was cut down to her main deck, and on it the
target was secured. On Saturday morning it was
taken up the harbour and moored alongside the
Sirius target ship, the Stork gunboat being also
moored head and stern at 200 yards' distance. Capt.
Hewlett arrived on board the Stork shortly before
high water, and the experimental firing soon
after commenced. The target had been painted
white, and each plate divided into eight equal com-
partments, making 32 in the whole, and numbered
round the margin. The Stork's aftermost 8-inch
smooth-bore gun was the one used with solid 68-
pound shot and a charge of 161 b. of powder, calcu-
lated to penetrate under the same circumstances of
range, &c., 12ft. of oak. The first shot fired struck
the midship iron plate about two thirds of the way
down. The second struck the same plate near its
centre. The third struck the junction of the two
iron plates in a line with the first shot. The fourth
was a miss, as far as the iron plates were concerned,
it striking the heavy balks of timber at the foot of
the target, and sending up a shower of splinters.
The fifth shot struck the upper portion of the mid-
ship iron plate, the shot being shattered and por-
tions of its fragments carrying away the frigate's
rail immeliately over it. Nos. 6,7, 8, and 9 all
struck parts of the same plate, which had been hit
by former shots. There was an evident intention
to test the principle of the target to the very utmost,
seven out of the nine shots fired having been directed
upon one plate, and four out of the seven being a
repetition of blows on the same spot. The result
of this severe test, as far as the iron plates arc con-
cerned, must be of the most satisfactory nature to
the patentee as proving the soundness of the prin-
ciple of his invention. The plates have been indented
to a certain extent, but in no place have they been
pierced or fractured by the shot. This is the true
principle of the target, and what is professed by the
patentee—to cause the shot to glance off without
piercing or fracturing seriously the protecting plate.
The experiments upon that portion of the target
upon which are fixed the steel plates will commence
at 1 p.m. to-day. Saturday's trial is as yet the most
successful instance of the resistance of iron plates
to solid 68-pound shot at so short a range, and
affords a remarkable contrast to the other trials
during the past week on the targets affixed to the
broadside of the Sirius, which were easily pierced
from the same gun that has been used on this tar-
get, and at the same range.
The Supply screw storeship arrived at Spithead
on Saturday from the Miditerranean with returned
stores, and sailed again yesterday morning for
Woolwich.

The Pelican, new three-masted screw schooner,
arrived at Spithead yesterday, under canvass, from
Pembroke. She will go into Portsmouth harbour
this morning, and be taken into the basin to be fitted
with her machery, &c.
Mr. Cunningham's brig yacht Alfred was placed
in the dockyard Camber at Portsmouth on Satur-
day, to give the officers of the dockyard and the
ships in harbour an opportunity of making them-
selves practically acquainted with the working of
the Cunningham system of reefing from the deck.
c:ripe Excellent three-decker, Capt. R. S. Hewlett,
has commenced masting alongside the dock-
yardat Portsmouth, and will be ready in a short
time to be placed at her moorings in the harbour as
the gunnery ship at the.p ort.
The Tribune, 31, Screw,
Capt. G. P. Hornby, is
stripping along
sidePortsrnouth dockyard, prepara-
tory to paying off her Crew and being put out of

commission.

r7e north wall
The Hornet, 1 . 7
, screw, Commander
Elphinstone,
is receiving her guns, Sze, alongside
of the steam basin in Portsmouth ya
ungdo been
k
The Plover, 5, screw gun-vessel, hav-Lu
completed at Chatham Dockyard, has been
and attached to the second division of the steamee
re,
serve at that port.
The polddlewheel steamer Adder, Mr. J. Minchin

master, has has been taken into dock at Cb.atham to 1
have her defects made good.
A new despatch screw gun-vessel, intended to
carry si% guns, has been commenced in No. 6 slip
at Chatham Dockyard, and is to be completed with
all despatch.
' Tops were put over the mastheads of the screw
steam corvette Jason, 21, at Devonport, on Friday
by the men attached to the ships in ordinary.
The paddle-wheel steam storeship Dee, 4,
3Saster-
Con'-
T. C. Fallen, having received a cargo
of provb.:lons at the Royal William Victualling-
,
-,nbarked supernumerary officers and
yard, and e.
—tout hon Friday for Cork.

seamen, left Pip,.
A Malta letter, dal—
" Her Majesty's steam A
24th inst., for Beyrout, with sl.' ,
she is to proceed under canvas, 1.21 ,
nomy of coal. Her MMesty's line-of-o.. 1"
Jean d'Acre and Cressy arrived to-day from-
.4.,.s
which port they left on the 21st inst. Her Majes.,
gunboat Intrepid also came in to-day from Naples
ana Messina, with dates from the former place to
the 26.04
and from the latter to the 27th inst. One
of the ti:
ree Dutch steam frigates, lately arrived
here from Tu:lb) the Admiral Van Wassanaer, Capt.
C. R. Van Voss, left here on the 27th inst. for
Beyrout. The Grt.
-4ek Government steamer Le Roi
Othou arrived on tht7 23d jug-, prom London and
Gibraltar, and left on ttl-.9 following day for Syra.
Another Greek Government s'.
teamer, the Byzantien,
arrived on the 27th, from Glasew,
ay
to Syra, and left on the following „. also on her
or her desti-
way
7 f
nation. The English screw steamers -.Prompt and
Admiral Kanaris arrived from London 621 the 24th
inst., the former for the lonian Islands tt:'d the
latter for Constantinople ; both vessels have left for
their respective destinations. The English screw
steamer Alice arrived on the 27th, from Middles-
borough, Falmouth, and Gibraltar, and left shortly
afterwards for Alexandria. The Euphrate, which
proceeded on her way to Alexandria at 1 p.m. the
same day, brought the first detachment of the ex-
peditionary army, which it is now known the
French Government have determined upon de-
spatching to Syria for the protection of the Chris-
tian populations in that country. The troops on
I board this vessel consisted of a general officer and
staff and 29 non-commissioned officers and soldiers
of the Intendance. The Amerique and Gange,
French steamers, were embarking at Marseilles
some 1,500 or 2,000 troops and materiel when the
Euphrate was leaving, and orders have been re-
ceived by the French Consulate here to have a sup-
ply of coal in readiness for them in case they should
touch at Malta. It had not been quite decided
whether the expedition should take the Malta or
the Messina route. The Messina way would have
been preferred, but owing to the present unsettled
state of things at that port, Malta will probably be
elected as the place of call."
The following transports were on Saturday taken
up by the War Department to ship from the mili-
tary store depot Woolwich, for foreign stations—
namely, the Adventure, the Director, the Persian,
the Western Star, the Skipwith, the Jane, the
Yaratilda, and the steamer Peninsula.
The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty :—J. Moore, paymaster, to the Wel-
lington; J. K. Bell, clerk, to the Diadem ; Lieut.
R. H. D. King, tothe Orion ; E. Harris, paymaster
additional, to the Impregnable ; J. N. Harvey, as-
sistant-paymaster, to the Royal Adelaide ; Lieut.
G. Powys to the Royal Albert ; Lieut. J. E. M.
Wilson to the Conqueror; Lieut. C. Le Mesurier to
to the Orion ; Lieut. J. A. Hodgskin to the Daunt-
less, additional for the Coastguard ; R. B. Lambert,
mate, to the Marlborough, for disposal ; E. L. B.
Williams, master, to the Indus, for the Desperate ;
J. Waye, master, to the Indus, for the Jason ; C. P.
Mulbany, W. E. Dillon, and F. Egan, acting assis-
tant-surgeons, to the Victory, for service at Haslar
Hospital ; G. Muir, G. V. Hart, and C. L. Cunning-
ham, acting assistant-surgeons, to the Impregnable,
for service at Plymouth Hospital ; and R. Borrows,
acting assistant-surgeon, to the Royal Adelaide.

1..t1 July 29, says :
frigate Racoon left on the
`‘res for the squadron ;
the sake of eco-
-4-tle ships St.
Zante,