The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-26 00:00:00

Trial of a Portuguese War Steamer.

His Portuguese Majesty's screw corvette Duke de
Palmella, 13 guns, 150-horse power, nominal, Capt.
D. S. Rodrigues, made her trial trip yesterday off
the Maplin Sands, in a very successful and satisfac-
tory manner. The Duke de Palmella is an un-
armoured wooden built corvette, of 850 tons, and
her engines, of 150, nominal, horse power, are but
small in proportion to the vessels tonnage. Never-
theless, a mean speed of within a fraction of ten
knots was attained, the working of the machinery
throughout the daybeing as near perfection as could
well be desired. The vessel was built at the Royal
dockyard, Lisbon, and after her launch was sent to
England, jury rigged, to receive her machinery from
the contractors, Messrs. Ravenhill, Hodgson, and
Co., and to be fitted in all the internal arrangements
of her hull, and with rigging by Messrs. J. and W.
Dudgeon, shipbuilders and engineers, of Millwall
and Fenchurch-street. Both contracts appear to
have been fulfilled in the most faithful manner, both
machinery and general fittings throughout being
fully equal to the best specimens of the kind on
board any of the ships of her Majesty's navy. The
vessel is ship rigged, and bears a bold seaworthy
appearance on the water, especially so for a vessel
of her small tonnage. She is 160 ft. in length be-
tween perpendiculars, with 36ft. extreme breadth.
Her armament consists of 12 light 32-pounder guns,
mounted on near chock carriages on the broadside,
with one 56-pounder rifled Blakely gun mounted
on a pivot carriage on the forecastle. She has also
one 9-pounder Blakely rifle, with its limber and
ammunition carriage, as a fieldpiece. The ship's
machinery consists of a pair of horizontal engines,
with double piston rods and return connecting rods,
similar in their general arrangements to the engines
supplied by this firm to the British Board of
Admiralty. The cylinders are 39 inches, in
diameter with a stroke of two feet. The slide valves
are, as usual, placed vertically on the outside of the
cylinders and work direct by the link motion. The
connecting rods are each 4ft. Gin. in length, being
41 times the length of the crank. The feed and bilge
pumps are of brass fitted with indiarubber valves,
and are worked direct from the crossheads. Re-
volving expansion valves are fitted so as to cut off
the steam at points varying from one-tenth to five-
tenths of the stroke. The boilers are two in number,
and are fitted with brass tubes placed athwartships
at the back of the furnaces, being thus arranged to
keep the higher parts of the boilers below the load
water line of the ship. The propeller is two-bladed,
and brass. It has two movable blades, its present
pitch being 12ft. Gin., and its diameter 10ft. Gin.
The ship, when she started from Tilbury yesterday
morning on her trial, was complete in all her stores
and seagoing trim, her mean draught of water being
12ft. Mr. John Dudgeon represented on board the
Messrs. J. W. Dudgeon as the fitters of the ship,
and Messrs. Hodgson and Rusby the Messrs. Raven-
' hill and Co., the makers of the engines. The ship
left at 30 minutes past noon on the last of the ebb
tide' the wind being light from N.W., and the water,
from the time of the ship's departure until her re-
turn, quite smooth. In running past the Lower
Hope measured mile marks the ship was found to be
going 9.473 knots, with the revolutions of the en-
gines as yet very much under their estimated maxi-
mum number, the machinery working with the
greatest smoothness, and the vibration felt at the
bow and the stern of the ship being unusually slight
for a wooden vessel. In one hour and six minutes
from leaving Tilbury the Chapmal Light was passed,
and in one hour and 30 minutes Southend pier—a
distance of 20 miles from Tilbury—was also passed.
The revolutions of the engines were now ranging
between 99 and 100, and on the ship reaching the
Maplin Sands, at about 2.30 p.m., she was at once
placed on the measured mile there, and two runs
taken—one with and one against the tide. In
the first run down,_ against the young flood tide,
the time occupied in running over the mile
was 6min. 48sec., which gave the ship a speed of
8.823 knots, the revolutions of the engines being 99,
the pressure of steam 211 b., and the vacuum 241 in.
In the second run, with the tide, the time was 6min.
25sec., giving the ship a speed of 11.077 knots, the
steam pressure, as before, 211 b., and the vacuum
241 in. The mean of both runs gave the trial speed
of the ship as 9.950 knots per hour. Considering
that this result was attained without any extraor-
dinary
ninent
measures being takenonre nexetrathperetsrsiaulrseebf alleing
put upon the engines, as is
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gratifyingw h e when
th o h
p uhteover thet e mile Government
course,
powerde
Palmella
small
of his Majesty the King of Portugal and to the
manufacturers of the ship's engines. The speed may
not appear to be great when we make 13 knots with
our Minotaurs and Warriors, but it is great when
considered with that of ships in her Majesty's navy
of the same class as the Duke de Palmella, corvettes
of considerable tonnage
el wTlihltthet e
l psyt
eubakulneilt and building
navy. in
is
but proportion
en e
ef several
vessels
etonnage.ss
sby the Portuguese Government for the Royal
The Duke de Terceira, a vessel of somewhat larger
tonnage than the Duke de Palmella, is launched
from the naval yard at Lisbon, and will shortly
leave for England to be fitted with machinery and
all her hull fittings. A frigate, the Dom Pedro V.,
a vessel built on the lines of our own frigate the
Galatea, is also nearly ready for launching, and will
also be sent to England for her fitment and ma-
chinery. This latter vessel, although an unarmed
frigate, will form a most important addition to the
royal navy of Portugal. The senior Lieutenant of
the Duke of Palmella, M. J. Carvalho, served as
Lieutenant in the English royal navy for two years
on board her Majesty's ships Conqueror and
Galatea.

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