The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-11 00:00:00

BY A NAVAL OFFICER.

The Merrimac is certainly a fine frigate, although I
consider that an undue amount of praise has bee❑ lavished
upon her by the public papers. On the occasion of my
visit to her they were expecting a visit from "„high naval
officer (the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth, Sir G.
Seymour), and the ship was "got up" for the purpose.
The upper decks were well holystoned, bright work all
well polished, &c. ; but still it did not impress me with
the idea that she was perfect in respect to cleanliness.
There is a great deal of " bright work" about her—large
brass awning or hood stanchions over every hatchway ;
all these were highly polished, together with the brass
guns for the boats, elevating screws of guns, &c.
The appearance of the crow was anything but credit-
able ; although past seven bells, the men were not uni-
formly "clean." We saw several with long boots on,
and their trousers tucked inside, very unlike the appear-
ance of the men on board a British man-of-war. The
bead decidedly was not kept as clean as it should be, the
smell in the forecastle from it was mast offensive.

The guns were nicely polished, and generally appeared
well kept ; they are fitted with elevating screws, the
fitness of which for long guns is questionable. In short
pieces, such as carronades, where the circle described by
the breach in elevating or depressing is not much, the
slow effect of the screw is more sensibly felt than in the
larger circle described by the long gun ; hence the point-
ing of the gun must take longer than with the handspike
and quoin. The carriages are on the French plan,
without trucks on the after part, and worked by roller
handspikes. There is no question but that on this plan
the shock of recoil is more severely felt than when the
gun recedes more easily under its force. The sponges are
made of brush bristles, instead of wool, as in our ships.
This is a great improvement. The locks of the guns are
on the hammer principle, with back-spring action, but
not :so simple as those used in the British navy.
The breechings are fitted with solid or shackle-eye thim-
bles, for drop bolts instead of thimble-eyed thimbles, as
we use. Its maket the breeching stand ep stiffer to its
work. The boats' guns are all of brass, and, for land
service, are mounted on three-wheeled iron hand car-
riages. They did not appear more suitable for service
mounted this way than it on regular land carriages. The
muskets are all rifled on the Minis principle ; we found,
however, the locks very stiff and hard, and not suitable
for precise firing. The best of shots could not insure a
good shot with one of them. The pistols are upon the
common percussion plan. Upon inquiry it appeared
that there are not any revolvers ain,ng-it the public
armament. The cutlasses e ppeared short. The guns
are more swelled at the breech than our ordnz.nca.
The armament of the main-deck battery consisted of 9-
inch guns ; the upper deck 8 inch, and two 10 inch pivot
guns, one on the forecastle, and one on the quarter-
deck (40 in all) ; the bulwarks being made to fall down
to work these guns. We could not see the arrangement
of the magazine and shell rooms ; but it struck us that
the light-room of the fore magazine was insecure,
very light door only separating it from the gunner's store-
room.
the main deck is low, and disappointed sae. From
the capacity of the ship, a finer gun-deck might have
been expected. The employment of wooden knees, in-
stead of iron, also gives a clumsy appearance to the deck.
This old-fashioned mode of construction is remark Ole.
A very noticeable thing was the abundance of large hatch-
ways and ladders, a very good thing in a ship of war.
The lower deck is good, but the absence of mess-tables
gives it an uncomfortable appearance. The men take
their meals on the deck. This is greatly to be reprobated
in a ship of her size. Nothing contrientes so much to
the moral condition of a ship's company as their social
comfort. The clean mess-table on board of an English
man-of-war, with the mess traps all nicely arranged on
the shelves at the ship's side, is a great comfort to the
men ; and it is plea/ant to' observe the men sitting at
their tables of an evening, reading perhaps to each other,
or enjoying the yarn of Rowe gifted mem:nate. It is
true that in many small English men-of-war the mess
tables are not used, but in large 'vessels this is never the
case, and in frigates especially the mess-table can never
be objected to, as they are not interfered with in time of
action.
The engines are on the double piston rod principle, and
direct action ; they are much pinched up, and many
of
the parts most difficult to get at. The " screw
alley," or
" shaft-way," is formed of boiler plate, arched at the top,
and waterproof. The screw is on Griffith's principle.
The spare fans were stowed on the lower deck. There
was nothing remarkable aloft except that there were a
kind of standing rolling tackles, or more properly pre-
venter lifts on the lower yards. There was a very ex-
cellentcontrivance onthe forecastle for fishing the anchor.
It consisted of a stout spar, one end fixed to a swivel
bolt on a band round the foremast, the other end fitted
with a hoop with four eyes. When used a pendant from
the lower mast aloft is hooked to the upper eye, and
guys to the eyes on each side. The spar is then topped
up and canted over to the side required, the fish tackle
block hooking to the eyebolt on the other side of the
hoop. By this arrangement the fish davit is riggedi n
an instant, and is always ready for use. When not re-
quired it lies fore and aft on a crotch.
The appearance of the ?Merrimac outside is not favour-
able. She has a considerable amount of sheer, and her
stern is very heavy. Her bow is good. She does not
look as if she were a fast ship, although the officers as-
sured us that she was so.
To conclude, sufficient desire is indicated in the great
size of the Merrimac, on the pars of the United States,
to succeed us in the size and weight of their frigates, to
suggest to our Government the necessity of increasing
very considerably the dimensions of this kind of ship of
war. Whether the Shannon, our largest frigate, is a
faster ship than the Merrimac, whether she carries mote
guns, and will be more inefficient in her armament, is
another thing. The fact of the Merrimac being a thou-
sand tons larger than she is, is sufficient to arouse the
rtften!ion of the Laval surveyors to the necessity of
livatitut; ~wan larger fr44Litir9 than the Shannon, if we do
the event of anotber American war—which
G Lobiti-1,,, have birniirir disasters to those which
marked the naval proceedings in the last war ; but it
must be remembered that, as far as size is considered,
there is a greater contrast between the Shannon and