The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-02 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

The Conqueror, 68, screw ship, 7,845 tons, 500
horse power, Capt. William G. Luard, from China,
arrived at the Nore yesterday afternoon, and sa-
luted the flag of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Talbot,

K.C.8., Commander-in. Chief. She will be paid 1
out of commission, dismantled, and placed in the
third division of the Sheerness Steam Reserve.
The Favourite, 10, ironcased screw corvette,
2,094 tons, 400-horse power, Capt. Francis 11.
Shortt, was taken into dry dock yesterday after-
noon at Sheerness for the purpose of having her
bottom scraped. It is supposed she will be shortly
put in commission.
The Tien-lien, which was purchased by the Go-
vernment from the promoters of the China expedi-
tion, under the command of Capt. Sherard Osborn,
and which since the close of the China war has been
lying, together with two of her sister ships, in
Sheerness harbour, has been purchased by Mr.
Laird of Birkenhead. A captain and crew have
I been sent to Sheerness to fetch her away.

The shipwrights and labourers employed in
taking down the frame of the wooden screw frigate
Belvidera, 51, at Chatham Dockyard, have nearly
completed their work, and in the course of a few
days the whole of the timbers of that vessel, the
last of her class to be laid down at Chatham, will
have disappeared from the building slip on which
the vessel has been lying for so many years. The
timbers are to be used in the general service of the
dockyard.
The screw frigate Ariadne, 26, 3,214 tons, 800
horse power, lies moored off the entrance to No. 2
dock in. Chatham harbour, in readiness for being
taken into one of the available docks for the pur-
pose of undergoing an extensive overhaul and re-
pair to both hull and machinery previously to being
placed in commission.
The hired sailing troopship Gresham, Captain
Brayley, anchored at Spithead at 9 a.m. yesterday
with military and naval invalids on board from
Hongkong and the Cape of Good Hope. She has
brought to England from Hongkong Capts. Bur-
land and Gipps, 2d battalion 9th Regiment; Lieut.
Vaughan and Surg. Black, 2d battalion 11th Regi-
ment ; Mr. Deegan, Military store Department ;
Purveyor Thompson ; Staff Assist.-Surg. Adams ;
Mr. Boxer, Master R.N., late Her Majesty's natal
agent at Hongkong, and Mrs. Baylan ; also 175
soldiers, invalids, 26 women, and 28 children, and
8 naval invalids. 45 invalided soldiers, too ill to
proceed any further on the voyage to England,
were landed at the Cape for treatment in the mili-
tary hospital there. Staff Assist.-Surg. Ray and
35 men, women, and children were embarked at the
Cape for conveyance to England ;and at Ascension,
where the ship called after leaving Simon's Bay,
eight more invalids were taken on board. The ship
sailed from Hongkong on the 13th of October, call-
ing in at Anjer on the sth of November, and sailing
again on the following day. The Cape was reached
on the 6th of December, and the ship remained
there at anchor in Simon's Bay until the 16th.
t
Ascension was reached on the 28th, and left again
on the 30th. Fine weather was experienced
throughout the voyage until off the Azores, when a
fresh gale was fallen in with, which soon passed
over. The deaths during the voyage have been un-
usually numerous, 38 soldiers, two distressed sea-
men, three women, and eight children having died
on board since the ship left Hongkong. This ex-
cessive mortality, however, is ascribed to the i
dysentery and fever which prevailed at the time of
embarcation, and not to any defect in the arrange-
ments on board for the accommodation of the
troops, or the sanitary condition of the ship. The
naval invalids were disembarked from the ship soon
after her arrival at Spithead, and transferred to the
Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar, and Her Majesty's
ship Victory. The military will be disembarked
this morning and forwarded to the Royal Victoria
Military Hospital at Netley.
Yesterday the detachment of non-commissioned,
officers and men of the Ist battalion of the 4th
Regiment,
the
(King's Own) arrivedprevious iouseavtenCihngat,ham
garrison from Bombay
un-
derwent the customary inspection by the Medical
staff of the garrison. The whole of the non-com-
missioned officers and men composing the detach-
ment have completed the term of service for which
they were engaged, and only await the arrival of
the formal orders for their discharge from the Horse