The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-04 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

There are few who visited Cherbourg or Ports-
mouth last year during the presence in those parts
of the combined fleets of France and England but
will remember the beautiful little steam launches at-
tached to the French ships. It may have been owing
to the comparisons then drawn of the power and
efficiency of these miniature steamers of the two
countries that our own authorities became convinced
of the errors of their own system. At all events,
scarcely 12 months had elapsed since the great iron-
clad exhibition than our Admiralty had despatched
two vessels on foreign service each supplied with a
steam launch as superior to those in use in the French
and Russian navies as theirs had been to ours 12
months ago, and this very creditable fact, we be-
lieve, is mainly owing to the exertions of the present
Controller and Chief Constructor of the Navy. The
two vessels are her Majesty's screw sloop surveying
vessels Sylvia and Nassau, and the two boats sup-
plied to them are not only steam launches possess-
ing all the excellent qualities of lightness and speed,
but are also lifeboats. They were built for the Ad-
miralty, hull and engines, by Mr. John. S. White,
of Cowes, and their trials took place under the su-
pervision of the officers of the steam reserve, steam
factory, and shipwright department of Portsmouth
yard, the results being as nearly as possible alike in
both cases. In the last, under the Supervision of Capt.
W. C. Chamberlain, commanding the steam re-
serve at Portsmouth, the boat was 27ft. long. 7ft.
3in, broad, and 3ft. 2in. in depth. Her weight was
as follows :—Hull, 17 cwt. ; engine, 4 cwt. ; boiler,
12 cwt. ; water, 4 cwt. ; coals, 4 cwt. ; stores, 1 cwt.
total weight, 2 tons 2 cwt. The hull is built of
mahogany of two thicknesses, the inside worked
diagonally, and the outside thickness fore and aft.
Capacious air-trunks run fore and aft on each side
of the boat. The draught of water was lft. 101 in.
forward and 3ft. aft; midship section, 14.2 square
feet ; displacement, 10.57 tons. The speed was
6.722 knots, with exceedingly little vibration, and
the consumption of fuel at this rate of steaming,
estimated by the officers conducting the trial at not
more than cwt. per hour. In testing her qualities
as a lifeboat extra men were taken on board, mak-
ing a total of 30 people, in addition to all her other
weights, and the water then let into the boat ; but
even under these severe conditions the water would
only flow to the under side of the thwarts, and the
boat remained suspended by her air-tubes and cas-
ings, with her gunwale nine inches out of the water.
The last experiment made was with 15 men standing
on the boat's gunwale—the water still having free
admission to the interiorof the boat—•when the water
could only be brought to within liin. of the gun-
wale's upper edge. This concluded the trials, which
were pronounced by the officials to have been
throughout exceedingly satisfactory and interesting.
A boat on the same principle as those supplied to
her Majesty's ships Sylvia and Nassau has been
built by Mr. White for his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales.

The Reindeer, 7, screw sloop, Commander E.
Wares, 200 horse power, has gone into Portsmouth
harbour from pithead to remedy some defects in
her galley, after making an official trial of her speed
over the measured mile in Stoke's Bay. At the
trial the ship drew 13ft. sin. of water forward and
loft. aft. The safety-valve was loaded at 251 b.,
and the wind was at a force of four, but off the
land, and the water, therefore, smooth. The six
runs made with full-boiler power gave speed in
knots of 10401, 9420, 10.595, 9.651, 10.401,
10.021 ; mean speed of the ship, 10 knots ; average
steam pressure, 221 b. ; ditto vacuum, 23 inches ;
with half-boiler power four runs were made, giving
9.045, 8108, 8.612, and 8.430 ; mean speed of the
ship, 8.451 knots. At full power a complete circle
was made to starboard in 4min. 30sec., and to port
in 4min. 34sec. At half power a complete circle
was made each way in smin. 4sec. The trial was
quite satisfactory. In contrasting this trial with one
the Reindeer made off the Maplin Sands on the 24th
ult. it will be found that on the present occasion,
with full-boiler power, the vessel attained an excess
of-speed of over nine-tenths of a knot over that at-
tained at the Maplin trial, but the half-power trials
were about equal. This is accounted for by the fact
that the load on the safety-valve was different on
each trial, and that the pressure of steam was much
greater on the Stoke's Bay trial than on the previous
one. The time occupied in making the circles
was about the same. The Reindeer had been very
carefully and beautifully fitted by the officials of
Chatham yard. Indeed too much pains and money
appear to have been expended upon an unarmoured
and, therefore, non-fighting vessel.
The paddlewhe ei steamer Virago, 6, 1,059 tons,
220 horse power (nominal), lately attached to the
third-class steam reserve in the Medway, has been
commissioned by Commander H. M. Bingham (Feb.
19, 1862), late of the Formidable, flag-ship of Vice-
Admiral Sir B. W. Walker, Commander-in-Chief
at the Nore, and her officers appointed, nearly the
whole of whom had joined and taken up their com-
missions yesterday afternoon. Her A B.'s and ordi-
nary seamen arrived on Saturday from the Fisgard,
42, at Woolwich, and the other receiving ships at
the various ports, and her seamen gunners from the
Excellent. Her Royal Marines were sent on board
yesterday from the Chatham division. Workmen
are employed on the Virago night and day, in order
that she may be ready for being despatched to the
west coast of Ireland, and should she be completed
in time she will leave the Nore to-day, proceeding
direct to Queenstown to await further orders.

Although the want of a suitable building in which
the workmen employed on the iron ships under con-
struction at Chatham dockyard might take their
midday meal has been repeatedly urged upon the
Admiralty, nothing whatever has yet been attempted
in the way of providing proper accommodation for
the hundreds of workmen who, under the existing
Admiralty regulations, are compelled to take their
dinners in the dockyard ; and, incredible as the state-
ment may appear, some 600 or 800 of the best work-
men of their class in this country may daily be seen
eating their dinners huddled together in corners in
the open air, on the staging up the vessels building,
among the dirt and filth of the factory, and in other
places without the least approach to shelter, and
that, too, in all weathers. The expense of erecting
an appropriate dining-room for the workmen can-
not for a moment be considered by the Admiralty
when there are daily to be seen vast sums of money
squandered in our dockyards, and therefore the con-
tinued neglect on the part of the Admiralty to pro-
vide a suitable building for their workmen must be
soughtjfor in another quarter. The importance of
the matter has been frequently brought under the
notice of the Board by the present superintendent
of the dockyard, and hopes were entertained that
before the present winter had set in a suitable place
would be provided for the workmen. At the present
moment several convenient spots could be found in
the dockyard suitable for the erection of commo-
dious dining-halls, in which every comfort and con-
venience might be provided for the workmen during
the brief period now allotted them for their hasty
meal, while private persons are willing to furnish a
good, cheap dinner for the hands on the same plan
as that so successfully carried out at Glasgow. Few
things would give greater satisfaction to the work-
men at Chatham Dockyard than the Admiralty
taking this matter in hand and providing *what has
been long felt to be a great desideratum among all

An order has been received at Chatham Dockyard
directing that in future the leading-man employed
in the sawmills is to be an assistant-convertor, the
duties of the engineer at the sawmills being at the
same time performed by an engine-driver. On the
occasion of a vacancy occurring in the appointment
of assistant-convertor the office will not be filled up.
The order ato directs that when, from a scarcity of
work or other causes, the hands employed in the
sawmills are temporarily reduced to labourers they
are to be paid their full wages, but when perma-
nently reduced they are to receive the pay of first-
class labourers—viz., 2s. 6d. per day.
Mr. Fox, the Secretary of the United States Navy,
has paid a lengthened visit to Chatham Dockyard,
and was occupied for some time in the inspection of
the various vessels under construction at that es-
tablishment. During his visit he was attended by
Mr. Thornton, master shipwright, and other heads
of departments, who accompanied him on board the
ironclad ship Hercules and the turret ship Monarch,
the inspection of both of which occupied him a con-
silerable time, the drawings and plans of both ships
being very minutely examined.

- The deaths of the following officers have been
officially reported at the War-office since the Ist ult.
—Gen. Sir William Robert Clayton; Major-Gen.
Sir Charles Warren, K.C.8., colonel of the 96th
Regiment; Col. J. T. Maulever, C. 8., 30th Regi-
ment; Lieut.-Col. James Tedlie,',3sth Regiment;
Major Thomas Clark, 24th Regiment ; Captains
C. W. Willis, 33d Regiment; Francis Mitchell,4lst
Regiment ; A. Mac Cay Dumares, 63d Regiment ;
Henry Arkwright, 84th Regiment ; R. H.Willcocks,
2d West India Regiment ; J. C. Fielding, Ceylon
Rifle Regiment ; James Birch, Royal Engineers ;
Charles Cox, 41st Regiment ; and John Chancellor,
61st Regiment. Lieuts. C. J. Protbero, Royal Ar-
tillery ; H. E. Baines, Royal Artillery (from inju-
ries received during the fire at Quebec) ; Geo. W.
Barber, 2d battalion 10th Regiment ; C. Denford,
95th Regiment ; S. Sargent. Ist Veterinary Batta-
lion ; B. De Lisle, Canadian Infantry ; and T. D.
Broughton, Royal Marines. Ensigns Henry A.
Wyat-Edgall, 13th Regiment; Robert W. Hill, 2d
battalion 21st Fusiliers; John Le Marchant Sey-
mour, 41st Regiment ; Chas. Stevens Ward, 64th
Regiment ; Alfred Wilson Cooper, 86th Regiment,
and Mark Thomas, 98th Regiment. Paymaster C.
Cox, 75th Regiment. Deputy-Commissary-Gen. C.
A. Clarke. Assist.-Commissary-Gen. Cliarles Gar-
row Blanc. Deputy-Inspectors Gen. of Hospitals
Thos. Hull and John Collis Carter, M.D. Surgeon
James Young M.D., 48th Regiment. Assist.-Surgs.
Coote F. Hutchinson, William B. Ross, M.D., sth
Royal Veterinary Battalion, and Chas. Gemmellaro.