The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-17 00:00:00

Colonel Yolland, the Government inspector, will
be opened for public traffic on Thursday, the 18th
inst. The line is to be worked by the Bristol and
Exeter Railway Company.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Right Hon. H. T. L. Corry, M.P., First

Lord of the Admiralty, attended byVice-Admiral
Sir Sydney Colpoys Dacres, K.C.B. ; Vice-Admiral

Robert Spencer Robinson, Controller of the Navy ;
and Captain Brandreth, R.N., private secretary,
arrived at Portsmouth at 2 p.m. yesterday from
London, on Mr. Corry's first official visit to the
port and dockyard since his accession to office at
Whitehall as First Lord. A visit was first paid to
the Naval Commander-in-Chief and Port Admiral,
Sir Thomas Pasley, K.C.8., at the Admiralty-house,
after which, accompanied by Admirals Sir Thomas
Pasley and G. G. Wellesley, their Lordships, who
were now joined by Lord 11. G. Lennox, M.P..
proceeded to make as brief an inspection of such of
the ships and other matters in the dockyard as the
time available during the remainder of the after-
noon permitted ; the iron frigate Minotaur,
Captain James G. Goodenough, flagship of Rear-
Admiral F. Warden, C. 8., second in command of
the Channel Squadron, being first boarded, and
here their Lordships remained some time. This
grand looking, five-masted frigate will now in a few
days be complete in the number of the iron carriages
and slides for her 121-ton and other guns, and also
in all other of her fittings and stores, and will, ac-
cording to existing arrangements, make her official
trial of speed over the measured mile in Stokes Bay
at deep-load draught on Monday next. If Mr.
Corry and the members of his Board who accom-
panied him on board the Minotaur shared the opi-
nions of the majority of people who have seen her,
the First Lord and his officers must have been highly
pleased with their visit to this noble frigate. Ex-
tremes meet in dockyards as elsewhere, and the visit
to one of the largest ships in her Majesty's navy was
therefore naturally enough succeeded by a visit to
one of the smallest—the screw gunboat Trinculo,
just placed in commission, a very useful class of
vessel for certain purposes, but being built of wood
and without defensive armour utterly useless as a
fighting vessel. The armoured iron screw frigate
Valiant in No. 10 dock next received a short in-
spection. She is having her hull below the water-
line repayed over with protective and anti-fouling
composition, and is having her deck fittings in board
completed for the reception of her new armament,
according to the new Admiralty scale of June, 1866.
From the Valiant the course next taken was past
the building-sheds, where the screw despatch vessels
Danae and Sirius arc building, to Nos. 3,4, and 5
sheds, under which are building the twin screw
wooden gunboat Ringdove and the composite twin
screw gunboats Avon and Cracker. A look over
these minor craft occupied but little time, and the
walk of the Board was continued by the north ex-
tremity of the yard, whence an excellent view was
obtained of the area of water and mudlands which
is to be taken from the general harbour space for the
great extension works of the dockyard, and round
by the steam basin, in which lie the Prince of Wales
three-decker, stripped of her machinery, the
Ariadne, unarmoured screw frigate,Boo-horse power,
sister vessel to the Galatea, fitting for commission,
and a small gun sloop. A short pause took place
on the caisson of No. 11 dock, and a few words
passed relative to the Warrior, in the dock and pre-
paring for commission, and the course of the Board
was again resumed round the steam basin for the
Steam Factory, a passing glance being given to her
Majesty's yacht Victoria and Albert in No. 7 dock
undergoing her customary spring embellishment
and repair. In the Steam Factory were inspected
with great interest the iron carriages and slides
which are being fitted there for the Minotaur's 121-
ton guns, under the supervision of Mr. Andrew
Murray, the chief engineer of her Majesty's naval
establishments in the port.. The carriages and slides
are being fitted in precisely the same manner as
those of the 121-ton guns of the Royal Alfred, the
same kind and dimensions of material bting used,
and the same workmen employed under the same
conditions of superintendence. The excellence of
the work and material bestowed on the carriages
and slides on board the Royal Alfred extorted the
admiration of the members of the Naval Gun-car-
riage Committee and other officers who witnessed
the late trials of the ship's guns off the Wight. The
turret sloop Scorpion, undergoing alterations and re-
pairs in No. 3 dock, was next visited, and some time
was spent on the ship's hurricane deck and forecastle
by their lordships in viewing the general alterations
being made in the above deck arrangements. The
most important of these is the connexion of the poop
and forecastle by a hurricane deck, and the raising
the height of the hatchway coamings above the
deck, to prevent any chance admission of water be-
low. 'When completed the Scorpion will be some-
what similar in appearance on her upper deck to the
turret-ship Captain, now building for the Admiralty
by Messrs. Laird on designs approved by C apt. Cowper
Coles, R.N. Both vessels will have poop and fore-
castle standing higher from the upper deck than the
roofs of the turrets, and connected by a hurricane
deck extending fore and aft, and over the roofs of
the turrets. There will, however, be these important
differences existing in the two ships :—While the
Scorpion's hatchway coamings will extend only about
3ft. 4in. above the deck level, hnd her hurricane deck
in its width only about half covers the diameter of
her turrets, the Captain's hatchways open on to the
hurricane deck, and the width of the latter is just
within the diameter of the turrets. The Scorpion,
however, is but a sloop of 1,833 tons, while the
Captain will be a ship of 4,272 tons. The inspection
of the Scorpion concluded the afternoon's work of
the Board, Mr. Corry and his colleagues afterwards
going on board the Admiralty yacht Enchantress,
where they dined in the evening, entertaining seve-
ral guests. The programme of the Board to-day may
probably commence with a visit to the ironclads at
Spithead and a cruise of two or three hours with the
Bellerophon off the Wight, to try her 12-i-ton guns,
a sojourn of the Enchantress in Cowes Roads for the
night, with an Admiralty dinner on board, and the
departure of the Enchantress with the First Lord
and his colleagues early on Thursday morning from
Cowes Roads for Portland. Mr. Corry has recently
described himself as being the first Irishman who
has filled the office of First Lord of the Admiralty.
He is certainly the first who has entered upon the
office for many years with a full knowledge of the
duties of his office, and he is also, probably, the first
chief of the Board who has led his colleagues through
the dockyards with a thorough knowledge of all the
" ways and means" which prevail within the walls
of those mysterious establishments. Under Mr.
Corry's administration, therefore, much of the bur-
lesque which has hitherto attended upon cflicial in-
spections of dockyards by "My Lords" will be
happily got rid of; and some amount of actual good
will result from such visits.
His Prussian Majesty's screw steam frigate Niobe,
16, Capt. Batsch, from Havannalt for the Baltic, put
into Plymouth Sound yesterday, and saluted the
flag on the citadel, &c.
The screw steam troopship Orontes, 2, Capt. H.
Phelps, from St. Helena, arrived at Plymouth yes-
terday. After disembarking the 40th Regiment in
the Royal William Victualling Yard, she will em-
bark a portion of the 17th for conveyance to Ire-
land.

Her Majesty's ship Ocean (ironplated), Capt.
Stanhope, is ordered from Malta to proceed to the
China station.
Her Majesty's ship Royal Alfred (ironplated),
Capt. F. A. Herbert, is ordered to geoceed forth-
with to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
M. P. A. V. Le Lubez has been in attendance
each day diiring the week in Woolwich dockyard,
by order of the Board of Admiralty, in testing a
number of diving machines, the invention of M.
Rouquayrol and M. Denayrouze, the latter a lieu-
tenant in the French Imperial Navy. Four of those
received at Woolwich are intended to be transmitted
to the dockyard at Malta for use in cleansing the
bottoms of ships and other diving purposes at sea.
The machines, or diving dresses, wen; applied dur-
ing the trials with approved Patisfaction, under the
personal inspection of the Commodure-Superinten-
dent and the principal officers of •the yard. The
peculiar construction of the regulat or enables re-