The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-02 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Rear-Admiral Claude H. M. Buckle, C. 8., ap-
pointed Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces
in Ireland, in succession to Rear-Admiral Charles
Frederick, went down to Woolwich and hoisted his
flag on board the Fisgard, under a salute of 11
guns, for transfer to the Warrior, the new flagship
at Queenstown.

The iron steamship Limerick, chartered by the
War Department, has commenced shipping at the
T Pier, in Woolwich Arsenal, a number of 6i-ton
wrought-iron gun carriages and slides for the fleet
in the Mediterranean, and balks of timber, &c., for
building purposes at Malta, and will complete her
cargo in the docks.

Her Majesty's 3-gun double screw ship Philomel,
launched on Wednesday at Deptford, was taken
into the fitting basin at Woolwich yesterday to be
masted and prepared for service.
Her Majesty's ship Harpy is about to leave the
Clyde for Lough Foyle, to join her Majesty's ship
Lion, to which she is tender. The Victoria cutter
is now the only ship of war left in the Clyde, but
the Lion is expected to return shortly to the river
from Lough Swilly.
Her Majesty's screw yacht Fairy, in the steam
basin of Portsmouth dockyard, is having her inter-
nal fittings in the Royal apartments taken out of
her, together with her machinery and boilers, pre-
paratory to breaking up her hull, and thus removing
her name, for a time, from the list of the squadron
of her Majesty's yachts. All the main features in
the decorations and furniture of the Royal apart-
ments are being removed from the yacht with the
greatest care, it being understood to be her Ma-
jesty's desire to preserve at Osborne all that can
possibly be converted into memorials of a vessel so
long a time the favourite yacht of herself, the late
Prince Consort, and all the members of the Royal

Her Majesty's screw troopship Himalaya, Capt.
Shute B. Piers, has sailed from Portsmouth for
Devonport to be docked and refit for further ser-
vice. There is at the present moment plenty of
dock space and other accommodation available at
Portsmouth for the repairs and refit of the Hima-
laya, and as she will return to that port on the com-
pletion of her refit and repairs at Devonport to
embark her next batch of troops, it is somewhat
puzzling to conceive a reason for thus sending the
ship away to Devonport. In the first place, the
course adopted involves a considerable extra
loss of the ship's services ; and, secondly, it in-
volves a considerable expense in the fuel con-
sumed in steaming over nearly 300 miles and in
the wear and tear of machinery in doing so. It is
but fair to observe, however, that whatever blame
may be really due for thus sending the Himalaya to
Devonport from Portsmout!i for a refit, which
could have been effected at the latter port, where
she was lying, it cannot be laid at the doors of
Whitehall, but rather on the shoulders of those
officials of Portsmouth dockyard who have advised
such a course of procedure.
The double-screw gun vessel Plover, Commander
Poland, has left Portsmouth for a three days' cruise
in the Channel. On her return to Portsmouth she
will fill up with coal and other stores, and after-
wards sail for the West Coast of Africa.

'The double-screw gunvessel ltingdove, recently
launched frotu Portsmouth dockyard, was masted
yesterday in the steam basin of that yard, in the
process of her outfit for commission.

The Speedy, screw gun vessel, sailed from Ports-
mouth yesterday on her return to her station at the
Channel Islands.

Agreeably to orders issued from the Admiralty
the bows of her Majesty's screw troopship Urgent,
Capt. S. 11. Henderson, now lying in No. 11 dock
at Portsmouth, are being coated with Welch's
patent cement preservative and anti-fouling com-
positions, and the result of this experimental trial
of a somewhat remarkable plan for preserving the
bottoms of ships and keeping them clean below the
water line may be looked forward to with very con-
siderable interest. The compositions have been
experimentally tested at Portsmouth dockyard, and
with unvarying success, during the past three years.
The most decisive trials made, however,have been on
portions of the bottoms of the screw troopships
Tamar and Urgent. Both these vessels had large
portions of their bottom plating coated with the
Welch cement in its crudest form, and both made a
voyage afterwards to China, being absent in each
instance from England a little over 12 months.
When placed in dock on their,return to Portsmouth,
all parts of the bottoms of the ships, excepting the
parts covered witn the Welch compositions, were
covered wiih barnacle, coralline, and tuftweed. The
Welch composition patches were as clean as hard,
and as bright as on the day they were placed on the
ship's bottom. The iron underneath the patches
was perfectly preserved, but to ascertain this the
compositions had to be chipped off with a chisel.
Both the bows of the Urgent, now being coated
with the Welch cement, give a space covered with it
of about 250 square yards, extending about 50ft.
from the stem on each side. As this space takes all
the rub of the anchors and chains in bringing the
ship to or weighing anchor, the compositions will be
put to a very severe test. The parts of the Urgent's
bows now completed look exactly as if sheathed with
bright copper, and there can be no doubt of the anti-
fouling properties of this outside metallic facing.
'The process has been carried out apparently in the
following manner :—An elastic cement composed of
certain stone grits and bituminous substances forms
the protective coating, aid is laid over the bottom of
the ship to about 1-32 d of an inch in thickness.
Over this, when properly dry and set firm, is next
laid with a brush a liquid oement, on which is im-
mediately transferred by rollers a metallic facing of
copper dust. A liberal dusting of the copper facing
with fine stone grift completes the process, and the
iron ship is provided with a coppered bottom, and
with such a preservative cement coating underneath
that no possibility of contact, the inventor asserts,
can exist of setting up any action between the outer
copper facing on the composition and the iron of the
ship's bottom by any accidental or otherwise abra-
sion or penetration of the plating of the ship's hull
below the water line. Without the metallic facing
the cement is applicable far beyond any other known
method for coating and protecting the insides of the
hulls of ships.

Private letters received at Chatham announce the
departure of her Majesty's screw sloop, 17, 200-
horse power, Commander W. Swinburne, attached
to the Pacific; squadron, from the island of Taboza,
on Oct. 4, for Valparaiso. The Pacific Steam Navi-
gation Co.'s steamer Santiago arrived at Taboza on
the 4th ult., bringing the report that her Majesty's
screw corvette Clio, 22, 400-horse power, had been
surveyed at Valparaiso and found to be so defective
and rotten that the shipwrights there declined to
undertake her repair. She was awaiting instructions
from the Admiralty. The commodore's flagship
Topaze, 31, 600-horse power, flying the pennant of
Commodore It. Powell, C. 8., second in command
of the Pacific squadron, was at Callao, and the
Columbine, 4, 150-horse power, Commander J. E.