The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-26 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

To-day being appointed for the celebration of her
Majesty's birthday, the Dockyard, Royal Clarence
Victualling-yard, Gun-wharf and Arsenal, Custom-
house, and all other public establishments at Ports-
mouth will be closed for the day. The troops in
garrison will parade at noon, and fire a feu de joie
in conjunction with a royal salute from her Majes-
ty's ships of war in the port and at Spithead, and
from the main battery of the garrison.
The Italian frigate Principessa Clotiide sailed
from Spithead on Thursday afternoon for the Downs.

The unarmoured screw corvette Challenger, 18
guns, 400 horse-power, fitted out at Sheerness as
the flagship of the future commodore on the Aus-
tralian and New Zealand station, Capt. R. B. Ma-
guire, arrived at Spithead yesterday en route to her
destination.

The Stromboli, 6, paddle, Commander A. Phillips,
from South America, last from Plymouth Sound,
has arrived at Spithead, and is ordered into Ports-
mouth harbour to be dismantled and paid out of
commission.

The Terrible, 22, paddle-frigate, Capt. J. Com-
merell, V.C., fitted out to accompany the Great
Eastern on her Atlantic cable expedition, has arrived
at Spithead from Plymouth Sound.
Mr. Wm. Scamp, the Deputy-Director of Works
to the Admiralty, has recently been engaged on a
visit of inspection to the Portsmouth dockyard ex-
tension works, after an unusually long absence,
caused, we understand, by severe illness, aggravated
by close application to the duties of his office, in pre-
paring the drawings and other information for the
guidance of contractors sending in tenders for the
execution of the works. These tenders will soon be
closed, and the main portions of the works will then
be at once entered upon. Upwards of 1,000 convicts
are now daily employed on one portion of the ground
and two large brickmaking machines are kept con-
stantly at work. An immense number of bricks have
been made from the soil of the excavations, which
has been found to be admirably suited for the pur-
pose. The original and amended designs fo-: the
works by Mr. Scamp, together with the evidence on
the subject, in two large volumes, have been de-
posited for some time in the office of the Admiral-
Superintendent of the dockyard for the information
of the officials of the yard.
The whole of the naval and military establishments
at Chatham, including the dockyard and the ord-
nance departments, will be closed to-day in honour
of her Majesty's birthday, and the workmen granted
a day's holyday. A review of the whole of the
troops of the garrison will be held on the Chatham
lines at 12 o'clock.

The operation of forging the massive iron pros or
stem for the ironclad frigate Hercules was success-
fully effected at the smithy in Chatham dockyard
yesterday afternoon, under the superintendence of
Mr. George, the head of the department. In order
to complete the forging of the stem, which is the
largest of the kind ever undertaken in the dockyard,
additional furnaces were constructed in which to
prepare the bloom, froin the best description of scrap-
iron, which was welded together by means of the
most powerful of the steam-hammers.
The Diamond, 28, sailing-vessel, at Chatham, is
ordered to be towed round to the Tyne, where she
is to be handed over to the Society for Missions to
Seamen as a school ship for seamen arriving in that
river.

The Lords of the Admiralty have given direc-
tions for the sailing ship Belleisle, attached to the
reserve at Chatham, to undergo the necessary re-
pairs previously to being lent to the Seamen's Hos-
pital Society for the reception of cholera patients
arriving in the Thames.

The Norwegian steam schooner of war the Alpha,
Lieut. Jarlsberg, commander, from Christiania,
bound to the Mediterranean, put into Falmouth on
Thursday morning to ascertain the latest continen-
tal news as to the probability of war.
The Field-Marshal Commander-in-Chief visited
Colchester Camp on Thursday. A review of the
lasting two garrison took place at Middlewick Farm,
hours. His Royal Highness afterwards
visited the gymnasium and the cavalry and infantry
barracks) and, having lunched with the officers of