The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-17 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Duncan, unarmoured screw line-of-battle
ship, at present carrying the flag of Sir J. Hope in
the West Indies, is ordered to return to England
and undergo a refit as the flagship of Sir George It.
Mundy, the appointed successor to Sir J. Hope in
the command of her Majesty's ships on the North
American and West Indian station. Such is an
order of the Board of Admiralty over which Sir J.
Pakington is supposed to preside. It is, we need
scarcely say, in defiance of the opinion of every one
outside the walls of the Admiralty. Not many days
since the subject was referred to at some length in
our' _Naval Intelligence," and we then freely re-
marked upon the absurdity of selecting an anti-
quated wooden two-decker like the Duncan to carry
the flag of a British Admiral on a foreign station.
Shice then, however, the Lords of Admiralty, with
the sanction, we must presume of Sir J. Pakington,
have issued the commands, and the Duncan is to
return to England and refit for return to her old
station, and for the assigned reason that she is so
much more cons Portable a ship for an Admiral than
an ironclad. There can be no mistake about this,
however preposterous such an assertion may appear.
Sir George R. Mundy on being informed by the
Admiralty that he would succeed SirJ. Hope in the
West Indian command at once applied to his brother
officers now in office at Whitehall to give him his
old ship, the two-decker Hannibal, as his future
flagship, on the ground that the Hannibal had al-
ready the necessary fittings for the accommodation
of an Admiral and his suite on board, and that Sir
George knew her from his own personal experience
to be a very comfortable ship. Now, during the
time Sir George Mundy hoisted his flag on board the
Hannibal in the Mediterranean the ship became
noted only for her presence in certain ports during
the advance of Garibaldi from Sicily to Naples and
for her general inefficiency under steam. It is there-
fore perhaps fortunate that thecabins and other fit-
tings on board the Hannibal have been now for some
considerable time removed, and could not therefore
be so readily appropriated as the future flagship of
Sir George. Under these latter circumstances it was
concluded that the Duncan would be as comfortable
as the Hannibal, while her reputation under steam
was very much better. Neither of them are fighting
ships, but then an Admiral in command of a British
fleet must have his personal comfort considered in
the selection of his flagship in preference to the effi-
ciency of the ship as a fighting vessel. In accordance
with this new rule in the naval government of the
country, the Duncan is to return to England and
to undergo all necessary repairs, and refit for the
service of Sir G. R. Mundy. There are three impe-
rative and paramount reasons why an ironclad ship
should be the future flagship of Sir George in pre-
ference to a now obsolete and absolutely defenceless
" box of guns." 1. The necessity for the immediate
settlement of the great gun-carrying question; 2,
the expressed opinions of Rear-Admiral S. R. Ro-
binson, the Controller of the Navy,.and other com-
petent authorities who can form impartial opinions
on the subject from a national point of view; and 3,
our own reputation as a great naval power in the
eyes of Europe and of America. We have previously
referred to the desire of the Controller of the Navy
that the ironclad Royal Alfred at Portsmouth should
be commissioned as a flagship on the first opportu-
nity, and that such opportunity it was expected
would occur on the appointment of Sir J. Hope's
successor in the North American and West Indian
command. The fitness of the Royal Alfred for this
duty was sufficiently proved by the remarks made On
board her by Rear-Admiral Goldsborough, of the
United States Navy, during his recent visit to Ports-
mouth dockyard, when that officer declared her to
be the best and most efficient description of a fight-
ing ship that England possessed. The gun-carrying
question is of such immense importance that, con-
sidering the Royal Alfred will be one of the first,
—if, indeed, she is not the first ship that will
be supplied with a complete battery of 12-ton
guns on the broadside, it would seem beyond
all doubt imperative that she should be placed
in commission at once, in order that the new and
adopted system of our naval armament should be
thoroughly and carefully tested at the earliest pos-
sible moment. The Royal Alfred has been specially
fitted and at great expense as a flagship, and there
could be found no better opportunity for her com-
mission and the trials of the working of her heavy
broadside armament than the present want of a
flagship for Sir G. Mundy. Notwithstanding the
recent trials on board the Bellerophon, there are still
people to be found who assert that 12-ton guns
cannot be worked at sea in moderately rough
weather in a ship's broadside battery, and it is some-
what remarkable that just at the present juncture
the
French naval authorities have arrived at the
same conclusion. We ourselves believe that the
Bellerophon, the Royal Alfred, and other ships of a
like character in our own navy,can carry and work
12-ton guns in any weather at sea when it may be
possible to open their main ' deck ports, and this be-
lief is shared most fully by Rear-Admiral A. C.
Key, C. 8., the acting Director-General of Naval
Ordnance, and other officerswho have witnessed the
trials on board the Bellerophon. The third reason,
in addition to the above, why the Royal Alfred
should supersede the Duncan hi the Admiralty order
relative to a flagship for the West Indies is the im-
pression it may produce in America. AV hat could
make this country look more ridiculous in the
opinion of the naval officers of the United States
than the arrival at Halifax in the year 1867 of an
old-fashioned two-decker, bearing the flag of the
newly-appointed British Admiral on the station
—a ship that a couple of shells from the Mianto-
nomah would suffice to destroy ? Supposing a war
to break out between the two countries, what would
be the Royal Alfred's chance in an encounter with
the Miantonomah ? We must confess our belief
that the Royal Alfred would prove the victor, for
the reasons that target experience proves her 12-ton
guns capable of piercing the 10 inches of laminated
and unbacked iron of the turrets of the American
ship, and also that her speed, form, and weight
mould give her the power not only to "ram" the
turret-ship, but to run over and sink her. We only
mention the Miantonomah as a means of illustrating
the powers of the Royal Alfred as a fighting ship,
and the utter helplessness, as such, of the Duncan.
Sir S. C. Dacres, Sir A. Milne, and Sir G. Mundy
have neither of them commanded an ironclad, and
each officer when last afloat flew his flag on board
an unarmoured two-decker such as the Duncar. All
three may therefore possibly be excused for as yet
having no faith in ironclads as fighting machines,
and also for having great faith in the beauty, com-
fort, and dignity of the screw two-decker as a flag-
ship. This feeling at the Admiralty and on the part
of the new commander-in-chief for the North Ame-
rica and West India station, however, must not be
alowed to act detrimentally upon the efficiency of
any one of her Majesty's ships that may be sent
abroad in the character of a fighting ship. if the
officers commanding her Majesty's fleets cannot find
the necessary comfort and accommodation on board
an
ironclad, let the Admiralty give them a steam
yacht of the Helicon class as a flagship. This arrange-
ment would savesome thousands annually in the out-
fit of fighting ships as an admiral's residence; it would
be conducive to perfect drill and discipline, for the
presence of an admiral and his suite on board a ship
seriously interferes with the regular drill of the crew,
and should the admiral ever be fortunate enough to
take his fleet into action with
his the
ro
h ienneell, he could
leave his yacht for any
one of a s he might
select for the day of battle. In conclusion, he would
ask Sir J. Pakingtou whether, bearin • mind
g in
that he has said relative to the condition of the
Reserves of the Navy on his accession to office, he
personally approves this selection of the Duncan in
preference to an ironclad as flagship for the West

Indies.
Dr. A. Armstrong, Deputy Inspector of Hospitals
and Fleets, and honorary surgeon to the Queen, has
been promoted to the rank of Inspector-General for
special service, recorded at the Admiralty, promo-
tion dated the 15th inst.
The Helicon, paddle despatch vessel, Commander
E. Field, went into Portsmouth harbour from Spit-
head yesterday, to undergo necessary repairs and
refit for further service by the 28th ink.
The Hector, 20, armour-plated iron frigate, 800
hor power, Capt. W. G. Luard, has arrived and