The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-13 00:00:00

DE GEEMINY,

THE NAVY.

The paddlewheel steam frigate Terrible, 21, Captain F. H.
' H. Gla;se, from the eastward. arrived in Plymouth Sound
on Wednesday, to assist the Valorous in towing the Queen,
112, to Deptford.
The St. George, 120, is ordered to be fitted with a screw
at Devonport Dockyard.
His Netherland Majesty's steam frigate Eversten, 51,
Captain May, left Plymouth Sound on Thursday morning.
The Diadem screw frigate, 32, Capt. W. Moorsom, C. 8.,
arrived in Portland Harbour on Tuesday night, having on
board Sir John Pakington, First Lord of the Admiralty,
Admiral Sir R. S. Militias, K.C.8., Admiral Milne, Lord
Lovaine, M.P., Mr. H. L. Corry, M.P., and Colonel Greene,
&c. Their lordship; and party landed on the following
morning and made a complete inspection of the breakwater
works, attended by Mr. John Coode, the engineer-ia-chief,
and Mr. J. T. Leather, the contractor cf the works. The
Coastguard men of the district, with the officers of the
various stations, were drawn up on the depot under the
command of Captain Luckcraft, It N., and were inspected
by their lordships immediately on landing. The inspection
of the breakwater works, convict quarries, and Verne-hill
works, &c., occupied their lordships during the remainder
r f the day.
During the month ofJuly there arrived at Falmouth, ir-
respective of the regular coasting trade, no less than 340
vessels from foreign parts for discharge or ulterior destina-
tion, embracing as per following summary 24 different
flags,—viz. ;—Enalish, 129; Sardinian, 32; Austrian, 21 ;
Norwegian, 19; French, 15; Swedish, 14; Dutch, 12;
Danish, 11; Oldenburg, 11 ; Spanish, 11 ; Bremen, 10 ;
Prussian, 9; Mecklenburg, 8; American, 7; Russian, 6;
Neapolitan, 6; Hanoverian, 5; Hamburg, 3 ; Rostock, 3 ;
Portuguese, 2; Belgian, 2; Genoese, 2; Tuscan, 1 ;
Lubeck, 1 ; total, 340. The aggre,ate register tonnage of
the above vessels amounted to 86.856 tons. It is remark-
able that not one Greek vessel is included in the list of
arrivals.

The Great Tasmania freightship sailed vesterdsy after-
neon from Spithead for the Mauritius.
The Royal Sovereign, 131, new screw threedecker, was
taken out of Portsmouth Harbour to Stokes Bay, yesterday,
by Captain Gordon and the stair of the steam reserve, to
try her speed, which, after the usual runs up and down the
me,sured course with and against the tide, averaged a mean
of 121 knots per hour. She was not masted.
The Trafalgar, 120, line-of bLt tie sailing ship, was yester-
day towed up from Sheerness to Chtltham, and anchored off
Folly Point. She is to be taken into the fourth dock at
Chatham Dockyard for the purpose of being cut down, the
Lords of the Admiralty, on their recent inspection having
ordered her to be converted into a 90-gun screw steamer,
and to be fitted with engines of 500-horse power.
The Amphion, 36-gun screw steam frigate, George S.
Thunder, chief engineer, is ordered to be taken into dock at
Chatham for the purpose of undergoing a thorough repair,
and afterwards to be fi ted for the steam reserve.
The Ithaciamanthus steam shore transport, Mr. Sturdee,
master in command, left Woolwich yesterday, laden witzt
machinery for the Imrnortalite, the Lion, and Orlando, in
the western yarJs. At Plymouth the Rhadanianthus will
ship, and sail for Pembroke, with the sails, gear, and crew
intended for the 116-gun ship Windsor Castle, to be launched
on the 2Gth inst.
The experimental screw steam corvette Challenger,
launched at Woolwich in February last, is completed in the
factory department, and was on Tuesday removed from the
basin to No. 3 dock to be coppered, after which she Is to be
conveyed to Sheerness to be laid up in the second-class
steam reserve.

The Humane Society of Dunkirk last week terminated
and launched a lifeboat, built on the principle of the Roy.il
National Lifeboat Institution of Great Britain, after the
design of Mr. James Peake, Assistant-blaster Shipwzieht
of Her Majesty's Dockyard, Woolwich, and fitted on Mr.
Beeching's plan. The committee conducting the effairs of
the society having solicited Mr. Peake's inspection of their
boat prior to its being applied to its destined purpose, he
proceeded to Dunkirk on the ‘2,d of July, and discovered that
the water had penetrated into the air cases, and under the
deck, and that the cork was saturated with water, which
circumstances would ;end to a rapid decay of the boat. The
deck was consequently removed, the inside of the boat
cleared, a watertight deck fitted, with ball, valves, &c.,
solid chocks fixed for the relieving tubes, and the upper
sides of the end cases flattened with cork. The above-named
alterations occupied three weeks, when the boat was launched
over the pier into the sea 10 feet below, and was submerged.
She instantly righted, and relieved herself of the whole of the
water in a very few seconds, to the great gratification and
no small amazement of a crowd of spectators who had col-
lected to witness the event. Mr. Peake remained in Dun-
kirk until the boat was finally completed. At the conclusion
of dinner at the principal hotel, the chairman of the com-
mittee presented to Mr. Peake a large silver medal, in tes-
timony of their satisfaction, and as an acknowledgment of
his courteous and efficient assistance.

ATTEMPT TO L4UNCH THE STEAMER

MERSEY.

The attempt to launch the fine screw steamer Mersey, 40
Buns, which was made at Chatham Dockyard yesterday
afternoon, resulted, we regret to say, in a total failure,
as the huge vessel obstinately refused to leave the slip
on which she has been constructed. The Mersey is
longer than any line-of-battle-ship in the Britis:a nary, and
is a truly noble specimen of naval architecture, in which
science has of late years made such rapid strides. Her
construction reflects the highest credit on Mr. P. J.
Laire, the master shipwright at Chatham, and Messrs.
Henwood and Fincham, his assistants, under whose super-
intendence she has been built. She is a sister ship
to the Orlando, 50, screw steamer, recei.tly launched at
Pembroke Dockyard, and the second of the immense screw
frigates which the late Lords of the Admiralty ordered to be
laid down to compete with the large war steamers which have
been constructed for the navy of the United States. The
Mersey has been an astonishingly short time in building,
having only been commenced in the early part of list year.
She is built from the desiens of Rear-Admiral Sir Baldwin
NV. Walker, K.C.8., Surveyor of the Navy, who has taken
much interest in her progre,s. In order to accommodate
her the slip on which she was built had to be lengthened con-
siderably, none of the other slips at Chatham Dockyard being
long enough to receive her. She is half the length of the
Great Eastern, and the following figures will give some idea
of her immense size :

Extreme length
Length between perpendiculars
Length of keel fur tonnage 264 5.75
Extreme breadth
Breadth for tonnage
Breadth moulded 5O 8
Depth of hold
Burden in tons, 3,726 70-94ths.
The total length of her engine space is 133 feet, and she will
be fitted:with machinery 41,000 horse-power. About 100
tons of her machinery are at present on board.
The launch was fixed to take place at a quarter after two
o'clock, at which time there were several thousand spec-
tators present, who crowded the galleries and every avail-
able spat from which a view of the vessel could be obtained.
At half-past two Miss Nicholson, the daughter of Mr. W. H.
Nicholson, Rochester, was conducted to the head of the
vessel by Mr. Laire, and that young lady
performed
the ceremony of " christening" the Mersey. Immediately
aftrwards the last dog-shore was knocked away, but to the
i
surprise of the officials connected with the dockyard the
huge vessel give co signs of moving down the" ways" into
the Midway. Mr. Lairs, who appeared very anxious for
the launching of the vessel, immediately gave orders for., he
ship to he eased by splitting the large blocks which in a
measure stayed her, and this °pet anon,. which occupied
nearly an hour, was coinple!ed ; still the Mersey, with
Leviathan-like obstinacy, refused to move the sixteenth
part of an inch. Matters were now bec.ln!ng serious, as the
tide was ebbing fast, and in si very short time it avoid have
been attended with great risk and damage to launch her at
all. A large number of shipwright?, under the direction of
Mr. Laire and Mr. Fincltam, were then employed to tirive
wet!ges bc:reatli the vessel iu eider to start her, at the same
time the foreblock was knocked sway. N
every attempt on the part of a larga_body of step .hasri
ship could not ha ind .ced to !ewe the stocks, although every
block had been removed and pone: ful screws applied to
move her. Alter working for about two hours Mr. Loire
ordered the shipwrights to shore the vessel up again, and
she now remains firm ON the stock/.
With regard to the failure in the attempt to hunch the
Mersey—the first which has been known to occur to
any
vessel at Chatham Dockyard far a grezt number of years—
it is believed to occur from the sinking of the ground at the
head of the slip on which the Mersey is bei.t, which has
carried the " ways" !town withit and destroyed the incline.
There is no doubt this supposition is coirect, as the slip is
quite new, the Mersey bring- only the second
vesgul built on
it; and although every p-ee tula3 Was silken by Messrs.