The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-19 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

It was yesterday made known in official quarters
at Woolwich that the Prince of Wales would deliver
the prizes to-morrow to the gentlemen cadets of the
Royal Military Academy at the breaking up for the
Midsummer vacation. He will arrive at the Academy
at 4 o'clock, and will be received by the Duke of
Cambridge, Governor; Major-Gen. Ormsby, Lieut.-
Governor ; under a royal salute fired by the cadets,
and the entire company under arms. Field Marshal
Commanding-in-Chief the Duke of Cambridge will
go down to Woolwich at 1 o'clock, and will make
his usual inspection of the class rooms, landscape,
and other drawings, and also the gymnasium, which
it is expected will occupy upwards of an hour, when
the parade will be reformed for the reception of the
Prince of Wales. Prince Arthur, it is stated, will
join the ranks with the cadets, and go through the
manual and platoon exercises for the Prince, his
brother's, inspection. Most stringent regulations
have been issued by Major-Gen. Ormsby to prevent
the crowding unnecessarily of the Academy grounds
by strangers, as it is expected the Prince of Wales
will be accompanied by other members of the royal
family, and a numerous suite in attendance. The
number of visitors on the occasion will, therefore,
be strictly limited.
Yesterday Gen. Burgoyne, G.C.8., Inspector-
General of Royal Engineers and Fortifications, re-
sumed his annual inspection of the Corps of Royal
Engineers at headquarters, Bromptou Barracks,
Chatham, in which duty he was occupied the entire
day. The whole of the morning was devoted by Sir
J. Burgoyne to the inspection of the various scienti-
fic departments at the Royal Engineer establish-
ment, field works, magazines, batteries, and other
undertakings connected with sapping and mining,
pontooning in the harbour, and also some experi-
ments for demonstrating the method by which
vessels of war, or other hostile ships, can be easily
destroyed by submarine torpedo explosions when
attempting to enter a harbour or river in the hands
of the enemy. In the early portion of the morning
General Burgoyne inspected the topographical, tele-
graphic, photographic, printing, lithographic, sur-
veying, and other schools at the Royal Engineer
establishment, in all of which departments both
officers and men of the Royal Engineers have to go
through the usual period of instruction before being
considered fit for the important duties they are re-
quired to undertake. After making a tour of in-
spection of the schools, lecture-rooms, non-commis-
sioned officers and men's libraries and reading-
rooms, barrack-rooms, and other departments at
Brompton Barracks, Gen. Burgoyne and Gen.
Murray were conducted to the Royal Engineer depot
field works, which extend from Brompton to the
Medway, and cover a large extent of ground. During
the summer, and, indeed, ever since the frosts of
winter would allow of out-door field works, all the
available officers and men have been employed in
the formation of parallels, magazines, trenches,
earth batteries, and other works, the whose of the
ground inspected yeste4day having the appearance
of vast field works undertaken by an attacking force
against New Brompton, the works of the Royal
Engineers in several instances running close up to
the public streets, and absorbing all the Government
ground at disposal. During this portion of the in-
spection some interesting torpedo experiments were
undertaken, with results exceedingly satisfactory,
as showing the enormously destructive power pos-
sessed by this new, and until recently comparatively
unknown,:agency. In the experiments made some
time since at Chatham, under the direction of Mr.
Beardsley, who was at the head of the torpedo de-
partment of the army during the American civil war,
the torpedoes were fired by percussion, and possessed
the fatal defect of being equally destructive to both
friendly and hostile ships, and consequently sealing
a harbour or river against vessels of all kinds. The
torpedo experimented upon yesterday by the Royal
Engineers is fired by means of the voltaic battery,
and consequently its destructive powers are con-
trolled from the shore. The explosion is unerringly
made at the right moment. The torpedoes being
completely submerged with nothing to indicate their
position, the exact ,spot in the harbour where each
lies concealed is ascertained, with mathematical ac-
curacy, by means of bearings and cross-angles taken
from various positions, the result being that although
the passage of a harbour may be thickly studded
with any number of torpedoes, friendly vessels
would proceed in and out with safety, while the
moment a hostile ship attempted the entrance the
torpedo would be fired with fatal exactitude. In-
stead of laying the torpedoes down in the harbour
the experiments made yesterday were carried out on
the field works with results in all respects similar to
those which which would have taken place in the
harbour. About a dozen charges, representing as
many torpedoes, were laid in different parts of the
field works, each charge being connected with the
voltaic batteries by concealed wires. A number of
men were then selected and ordered in various direc-
tions over the works, each man for the occasion sup-
posed to represent a vessel. Observations during
this time were being taken, and the instant a man
approached and was over what was supposed to be
a torpedo the fuse was fired, care, of course, being
taken that the explosion should prove harmless.
In this manner the whole of the charges were fired,
while in every instance they were exploded with
unerring exactness at the instant the man's foot
was on that part of the ground beneath which the
charged fuse was concealed. There was but one
opinion expressed yesterday by General Sir John
Burgoyne and the officers who witnessed the experi-
ments, that with a powerful agency of this kind in
our hands the defences of our naval ports and har-
bours would be effectually provided for, irrespec-
tive of granite and armour-plated batteries. Sir
John Burgoyne afterwards crossed over to the other
side of the harbour and witnessed the Royal Engi-
neers exercised in pontooning operations, and the
formation of floating bridges for the passage of
troops and war materiel, the pontoon still in general
use by the Royal Engineers being that invented by
Gen. Blanshard, although various other kinds are
from time to time experimented upon. Gen. Bur-
goyne's inspection, which was highly satisfactory,
terminated yesterday afternoon, and at its conclu-
sion the Inspector-General and Staff returned to the
Horse Guards.

The depot companies of the 31st Regiment are
ordered to procced from Kilkenny to Chatham,
where they are to be stationed. The depot will em-
bark at Cork, and may be expected to arrive at the
garrison on Saturday next.

Her Majesty's iron hydraulic armour-plated gun-
boat.Waterwitch, at Woolwich, has received her
armament, consisting of two 6 ton guns and two
241 b howitzers ; and is ordered to go down to the
Royal Arsenal to complete her war stores, in readi-
ness to join the squadron for review at Spithead.
She will be navigated down by a supplementary
crew, and will not be put in commission for the pre-
sent according to existing orders.
The screw sloop Nymphe, recently commissioned
at Woolwich by Commander T. Barnardiston, has
received orders to transfer her ship's company of
130 of all ranks, and to prepare also to join the
squadron to be present at the forthcoming review.
The troopship Euphrates, Capt. M. Dunn, went