The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-25 00:00:00

H.M.S. Royal Alfred.

The armour-plated converted wooden frigate Royal
Alfred, 18, 4,068 tons, 800-horse power, Capt. F. A.
Herbert, fitted at Portsmouth as the flagship of
Vice-Admiral Sir G. R. Mundy, K.C.8., appointed
successor of Vice-Admiral Sir J. Hope in the com-
mand of her Majesty's ships on the North America
and West India station, underwent her trial of speed
over the measured mile iu Stokes Bay on Friday, at
deep load draught. This ship is one of five pro-
duced by the Duke of Somerset's Board, by the
sanction of Parliament in 1861, to add as rapidly as
possible under the circumstances to the numbers of
the ships forming the ironclad fleet of the country
by their conversion from line-of-battle ships partly
built to ironclad frigates. The Royal Oak, Ocean,
Prince Consort, and Caledonia were completed, ac-
cording to the original intention of the Board, with
41in. armour-plating all round their hulls from their
upper deck beams to a certain distance below the
water line ; but the Royal Alfred was converted
and plated in a very different manner, and accord-
ing to designs submitted to the Admiralty by the
Chief Constructor of the Navy. As a merely con-
verted ship the Royal Alfred could only carry a
certain weight of armament and armour, and as
both were by Mr. Reed's plan to be very mate-
rially increased in powers of offence and defence, a
" reconstruction" of her weights in those respects
became a part of the new plan. Her armament has
therefore been altered from 40 guns of small calibre
and power to 'lB guns of tremendous power—viz.,
ten 12-ton gin. muzzle-loading rifles, and eight 61-
ton of the same description. In the weight of her
armament the Royal Alfred is at present only
equalled by the Bellerophon in the navy of this
country, and stands first of all other vessels forming
the navies of Europe or of America. In the new
arrangement of the ship's armour the complete sys-
tem has been abandoned, and a certain portion of
the hull above the water-line belt, forward of the
foremast and abaft the mainmast, has been left en-
tirely without armour, while the weight of this dis-
carded plating has been added to the armour cover-
ing the central battery of ten 12-ton guns, by giv-
ing an increased thickness there to the plating. The
armour of the ship now, therefore, is disposed over
her hull in a complete water-line belt, from which
rises amidships on each side armour-plating of six
inches in thickness, covering in the main-deck bat-
tery of 12-ton guns. Armour-plated bulkheads'
built up across the main deck at each end of this
centra) armour-plating, enclose the battery of 12-
ton guns in an ironcased citadel of oblong form.
The weakest part of the whole of the battery's pro-
tective armour appears to the eye to be around the
edges of each of the gunports ; but this has been
provided for by fixing round each port, and under
the outer 6-inch armour-plating, hammered wrought
iron shi hIY or strengthening plates, with ports
whieh increases the thick-
worked in their centre,
ileF.c of ',wing round each part, from the six of the-
outer plating to a total of ten !itches. The Lows
and stern of the ship in all their curved lines are
covered with 41-inch plating, rising upwards, like
that of the central battery, from the water-line
armour belt, and through this bow and stern armour
four 61-ton guns fire in a line with the ship's keel.
The other four 61-ton guns are mounted on the
upper deck as chase guns, or for long range firing.
In converting the ship to her present form special
care has been taken to give ample room between
each port for the working at the extremest possible
ranges of her immense ordnance, the distance from
centre to centre of the ports iu her central battery
being no less than 251 t. The iron carriages and

their slides which mount the ship's 12-ton guns are
much heavier and stronger than the carriages and
slides supplied to the Bellerophon for her guns, but
they are still but single-sided carriages, and do not
therefore equal in strength and lasting power the
box-girder form recommended by Admiral Key's
Gun Carriage Committee.
The conversion of the ship to her present form was
effected with every care for the strength of her hull
as a heavily plated vessel, and a vessel also intended
to carry ordnance of exceptional weight. Detailed
notices of the ship's conversion have appeared in the
Naval Intelligence column as the work progressed,
and it is sufficient, therefore, to observe here that,
while the Royal Alfred is an admirable specimen of
an armoured frigate, produced from the frame of an
unarmoured two-decked ship, she at the same time
possesses those points of structural weakness which
are inseparable from all wooden-built ships clothed
with armour-plating. As she is, however, she is a
heavily-armed, heavily-plated ship, wonderfully
handy under steam, having a very fair rate of speed,
and possessing altogether a capacity of doing a long
and hard day's fighting. Her present form is mainly
due to the foresight and energy of Rear-Admiral
Robinson, the Controller of the Navy. She was
converted and fitted according to his notions as an ad-
miral's fighting flagship in tropical waters, and his
judgment in the matter was more ,than confirmed
by the opinion expressed by Rear-Admiral Golds-
borough, commanding the United States squadron
in Europe, during his visit to Portsmouth
yard last autumn, when he declared the Royal
Alfred to be a far superior " fighting machine" for
general purposes to either th4e Warrior or the Mino-
taur, then lying alongside her in the steam basin of
the yard.

The engines of the Royal Alfred are by Mandalay
and Field, supplied when the Admiralty of the day
contemplated sending the ship afloat as an unar-
moured screw line-of-battle ship. They are of the
ordinary two-cylinder type of the firm, of 800 no-
minal horse power, with cylinders of 85in. dia-
meter and a 4ft. stroke of piston, and drive a
Maudslay-Griffiths screw set at a pitch of 27ft 6in.,
the diameter being 19ft. 2fin., with a length of the
blades of 4ft.

The trial of the ship over the mile in Stokes Bay
on Friday was made under the management of Mr.
Andrew Murray, chief engineer of Portsmouth
Dockyard, and Mr. Geo. Murdoch, chief inspector
of machinery afloat, assisted by Chief Engineer W.
Bardin, Assistant Master Shipwright W. Brain,
and other officers. Captain W. C. Chamberlain,
as the officer commanding the steam reserve of the
port, was in temporary command of the ship dur-
ing the day's trials. The ship weighed her anchor
from Spithead, and entered upon her runs over the
mile about 11 a.m. under favourable conditions of
wind and weather, her draught of water being 22ft.
6in. forward, and 27ft. aft, and her length of hull
between perpendiculars being 273 ft. The main re-
sults of the trials are summarised in the following
figures :—Six runs over the mile, with full power,
gave 11.356, 12.543, 10.434, 13.235, 10.583, and
13.333 knots ; steam pressure, pounds, 19, 19, 18.5,
20, 20, and 20 ; vacuum, inches, 23.5, 23, 23, 24,
24, and 23 ; engines' revolutions, 59, 58.5, 55, 6u,
60, and 60. Mean speed of the ship, with full
full boiler power, 11.796 knots.

Two runs afterwards made with half boiler power
gave 9.137 and 8.071 knots, or a mean speed of
8.604 knots. Steam pressure, 141 b.: vacuum, 23.5
and 24 inches ; and revolutions of the engines, 42.
Under full boiler power a half circle was made in 2
min. 56 secs., and the fall circle completed in 5 min.
43 sec., the helm being put over to starboard. With
the helm put over to port, a half circle was made in
2 min. 37 sec., and the full circle completed in smin.
15 sec. The engines gave great satisfaction by their
working throughout the trial, and especially so,
indeed, if due consideration is given to the fact of
their being what may be termed of the old type.
In timing their action in answer to signal from the
bridge telegraph, they were stopped dead from the
time of moving the telegraph-handles in 15 secs.,
started ahead to full speed from rest in 17 secs.,
and, reversed to full speed astern from full speed
ahead in 31 secs. After the trials were concluded
the Royal Alfred was re-anchored at Spithead,
where she will be swung to-day under steam, to
ascertain the deviation of her compass.

The trial of the Royal Alfred over the measured
mile, and her intended departure in a few days from
England to enter upon the duties of a flagship on
foreign service, affords a fitting opportunity for our
again suggesting for the consideration of the Admi-
ralty the propriety of selecting other than fighting
ships as the residence of an admiral and his suite
when commanding squadrons on active service. An
entire change from the present system is most de-
sirable for many reasons. It is highly objectionable,
for instance, that a ship of war, which has been
completed at immense cost as a fighting machine,
should be under any circumstances turned into a
floating residence for an admiral and his suite, since
this cannot be done without sacrificing some portion
of the ship's fighting efficiency, and interfering very
materially with the drill of her crew. An admiral
commanding a fleet in the day of battle should also
possess the same free means of personal movement,
independently of his fighting ship, as is possessed
by a genial i❑ directing the movements of his
battalions on land.

Shocking Murder and Attempted Suicide

at Norwich.

A brief telegram in Saturday's impression stated

that a shocking murder had been committed on the
previous day at Norwich. The Norfolk News gives
the following particulars :

" Two old people—John and Elizabeth Winter,
man and wife, the former 71 and the latter 73 years
of age—have been living together in a single
room in Fountain-yard, St. Benedict's, their means
of subsistence being parish relief, and some little
assistance from their son, a man named Hardesty,
in the employ of Mr. James Hardy, grocer, St.
Stephen's. Ihe woman being paralysed was unable
to do any active work, and for some time past her
granddaughter, a girl of about 14 years of age, who
lived with her father on Grapes's-hill, had been in
the habit of assisting in her house work. On Fri-
day morning, between eight and nine o'clock, she
went to the room for that purpose, and found that
the old man bad got up and lighted the fire.
Her grandmother was lying in bed, but they all had
breakfast together, and at the time nothing was
noticed to occasion any alarm. The repast, how-
ever, had not been concluded very long before the
old man turned her out of the room and locked the
door, giving no explanation for this singular pro-
ceeding. The girl immediately ran home and told
her elder sister of what had occurred, and the latter
(Laura Hardesty) at once proceeded to Fountain-
yard. Finding that the door was locked, she looked
through the window, and saw her grandfather in
the act of leaning on the bed and cutting the old
lady's throat with a razor. Frightened at the
horrible act which she had witnessed the girl
ran out of the yard and told her mother of what
had occurred. In the meantime a neighbour looked
through the window and saw the old man lying on
the bed by the side of his dying or dead wife, with
his own throat cut. It seems that he had only that
moment committed the rash act upon himself, for
he was laying down the razor at the time the neigh-
bour looked in at the window. The door being
forced, it was found that the deceased's threat was
cut on the left side, the wound being about four
inches i❑ length and of considerable depth, and
severing the windpipe. The murderer had inflicted
a wound upon his own throat,. extending almost
from ear to ear, and penetrating the jugular vein ;
and from the jagged character of the cut the razor
appears to have had a backward and forward move-
ment. The police found -on the window shelf a
razor covered with blood. A quantity of cord was
tied round the handle so as to enable the murderer
to hold it with a firm grasp, and the blade was also
tied to prevent it from shutting. Mr. Bailey, sur-
geon, who was the first medical gentleman in the
house after the discovery of the occurrence, dressed
the old man's wound, and he was conveyed to the
hospital. He was able to speak, but the injury is of
so frightful a character that there is little chance
of his surviving►. It seems that tha old people were
in tolerably comfortable cireurnsances as regards