The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-27 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

A deputation from Falmouth, accompanied by
Mr. T. G. Baring, M.P., had an interview with
Vice-Admiral Sir R. S. Dundas yesterday at the
Admiralty on the subject of the proposed construc-
tion of docks in Falmouth harbour.

An Admiralty order was received yesterday
evening at Woolwich dockyard to hold the paddle-
wheel steam yacht Black Eagle, Master-Commander
Petley, in readiness to embark the funeral car of the
late Emperor Napoleon, from the Royal Arsenal
pier, on Monday, Nov. 1, for conveyance to France.
Mr. D. Partridge, inspector of naval steam ma-
chinery at Woolwich, was yesterday ordered by the
Lords of the Admiralty to proceed to Hull, and
survey the engines of the gunboat Sandfly, tender
to the coastguard ship Cornwallis. The Sandfly left
Woolwich only a few days back, after undergoing
some considerable repairs in her boilers and ma-
chinery, which it appears are again in an unser-
viceable condition.

Her Majesty's paddlewheel steam sloop Gorgon,
Commander Joseph Dayman, has arrived at Wool-
wich. She is ordered to be admitted into basin
forthwith, and to be paid off.
An addition will shortly be made to the number
of large line-of-battle screw steamers by the launch
of the Hood, 90, which is nearly completed, at
Chatham dockyard, where she has been on the
stocks several years. Two other line-of-battle
ships, the Atlas, 91, and the Irresistible, 80, are
also building at Chatham, both of which are to be
fitted with the screw. The Lords of the Admiralty
have also ordered a 91-gun screw steamer, to be
called the Bulwark, to be built at that establish-
ment ; in addition to which a fifth line-of-battle
ship will be laid down as soon as one of the slips
now occupied becomes vacant. The screw corvette
Charybdis, 21, one of the class of vessels built from
the designs of Sir Baldwin Walker, is nearly com-
pleted, and can be brought forward for launching.
immediately ; orders to that effect have been re-
ceived from the Admiralty. In addition to the
new ships in progress at Chatham, the Trafalgar,
old 12Q-gun sailing ship, is in dock being cut down,
to be converted into a 91-gun screw steamer, when
she will be fitted with engines of 600 horse power.
On the removal of her principal timbers they were
found to be in a perfectly sound state.
A careful examination of the Swedish man-of-
war corvette Naijaden, 18 guns, Capt. Warberg,
was made at Chatham dockyard yesterday by the
authorities at that establishment, when it was found
that she had sustained considerable damage on the
occasion of her running aground on the Galloper
Sands during the passage from Christiansand,
from which port she was on her voyage to the
West Indies. The injuries to her keel and all other
defects to the vessel are to be made good at Chat-
ham with the least possible delay.
The new screw steamship Edgar, 91 guns,
arrived at Sheerness at 10.30 a m. yesterday from
Woolwich, in tow of steam vessels Monkey,Widgeon,
and Bustler. She has been taken to moorings at
Blackstakes, to remain until the defects to the cais-
son at the fitting-basin entrance are effected. Pre-
parations are being made by laying blocks in No. 1
dry-dock for making good the defects to the caisson.
The Committee of Investigation on Dockyard
Economy, consisting of Rear-Admiral of the inuo
Robert Smart, K.H., C. 8., &c.; Mr. R. Laws, store-
keeper of Chatham-yard ; Mr. H. Chatfield, master
shipwright of Deptford-yard ; and Mr. A. Murray,
chief engineer and inspector of machinery at Ports-
mouth-yard, yesterday commenced their investiga-
tion at Sheerness-yard. Mr. W. L. Freeman, store
receiver of the yard, was the first person called on
to give evidence. The investigation is expected to
occupy from seven to eight days.
The Jackal, steam vessel, Lieut.-Commander C.
T. W. G. Cerjat, is ordered to be paid off at Sheer-
ness on Friday next.
The theory of iron-sided ships resisting
.the fire
of ordinary men-of-war, or shore batteries, has
most signally failed in practice, as developed at
Portsmouth on Monday (briefly alluded to in
our columns of yesterday), by the gunnery of
Her Majesty's ship Excellent. The Erebus, a new
16-gun iron-built steam battery, of 200 horse power,
the production, we believe, of Napier, of Glasgow,
was moored at 400 yards' range from the gunboat
Snapper, iron plates 4 inches thick (the same con-
sistency as those of which the battery is built) hav-
ing previously been affixed over the ports on the
side next the gunboat. The fire was directed from
the Snapper at the space between these supplemen-
tary plates, the solid side of the battery, and con-
sisted of four 68-pounder " turned " solid shot, and
four 32-pounders, the former projected with the
service charge of 17 lb. of gunpowder, and the latter
with 10 lb. The result was instantaneously deve-
loped ; the 32's merely indented the iron battery,
but the 68's passed right through it, and the first
of them split two of the beams. Only eight rounds
were fired. • The experiments were not repeated
yesterday, but a survey was made, and a report
founded upon it for the information of the Lords of
the Admiralty, by Capt. Hewlett, C. 8., command-
ing the Excellent.
Mr. A. H. Long has been appointed a midship•
man to her Majesty's ship Victor Emmanuel.