The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-27 00:00:00

TEE N AVY.

We understand that Charles A. Pritchard, Esq.,
RN., at present secretary to Rear Admiral Stop-
ford, in command of the Channel Fleet, will be the
secretary to Rear Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker,
the newly-appointed commander in chief at the
Cape of Good Hope.
Hero, 90, screw, Commodore Seymour, at Ply-
mouth, will have made good defects by the Ist
February.
Spiteful, 6, paddle, Commander Wilson, arrived
at Devonport on Monday from Portsmouth, with
the detachment of marines from the Amethyst,
recently paid off. After disembarking the marines
she returns to Portsmouth to await orders.
SHIPS IN COMMISSION AT PLYMOUTH.—In
Harbour : Impregnable, Royal Adelaide, Cam-
bridge, Indus, Hero, Ariadne, Narcissus, Jason,
Implacable, Wellington, Geyser, Plying Fish,
Nautilus, Avon, Redwing, Clinker, P.orpoise,
Sylph, Aboukir, Donegal, Conqueror, Emerald. In
the Sound : St. George.
The Philomel, 5, three-masted screw schooner,
has been commissioned at Portsmouth for service on
the West Coast of Africa. This is one of the new
class of vessels designed for service on the Coast of
Africts for the more effectual suppression of the
slave trade, and in her construction an equal regard
has been paid to her sailing and to her steaming
qualifications. She is fitted with machinery of
80-horse power, nominal, by Messrs. Napier, of
Glasgow, and on her official trial of speed in Stokes
Bay, on the 31st July last, attained a speed of
nearly 11 knots, at light draught. She was built,
from designs furnished from the Surveyor's office,
by Messrs. White, Cowes, Isle of Wight.
In anticipation of the increased amount of
labour which will be thrown upon the smiths' de-
partment at Chatham dockyard, consequent on the
building of the large mail-clad iron steamer at that
establishment, several important alterations and
improvements have been for some time in progress
at the factory, the whole of which have been carried
out under the direction of Mr. Cotsell, the chief of
that department. The number of men at present
employed in the smithery is about 300, but the num.
ber of additional workmen that will be required for
the new iron ship will be at least 1,000; and it is in
anticipation of this large influx of extra hands into
the factory that the extensive alterations have been
effected. In order to obtain additional space in the
smith's shop, the whole of the old cumbrous brick
forges have been removed, and their places supplied
by neat and not inelegant structures of iron, with
light iron chimneys, giving to the interior of the
factory a considerable increase of space, while, at the
same time, additional light and ventilation are ob-
tained. The smithery has been fitted up with several
of the largest and most powerful of the Nasmyth
steam hammers, capable of forging the largest plates
of iron which may be required. The newly invented
system of stamping in dies, the invention of the
master smith, which has been recently introduced
into the factory, is effecting a complete revolution
in this department of shipbuilding, the old, tedious
process of forging the ironwork, which, besides tak-
ing hours to accomplish, was attended with other
disadvantages, being entirely superseded by the hot
iron being plreced in the dies, when two or three