The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-11 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Orders have been issued to fit out the Royal
Alfred, ironclad, as a flagship for Sir R. Mundy, to
replace the Duncan, which is come home with Sir
J. Hope. The Royal Alfred carries a very heavy
armament.

The Wivern, 4, screw turret sloop, Capt. H. Bur-
goyne, V.C., bas been placed in the Warrior dock
at Portsmouth yard, where her valves have been exa-
mined, hull cleaned below the water, and a renewed
coating of the Hay composition given her at the
water line. She was to be undocked this morning,
in readiness to sail and join thelrish coast squadron.
The Virago, 6, paddle stoop, Commander Bing-
ham, sailed from Spithead yesterday morning for
Queenstown, Ireland.
Her Majesty's screw troopship Orontes, Capt.
Hire, sailed from Portsmouth at 1 p.m. yesterday for
Queenstown, Ireland, with the 48th Regiment on
board, under the command of Col. J. G. R. Aplin.
The regiment arrived at Portsmouth by special train
on the London and South-Western Railway, from
Farnham and Aldershot.

The Himalaya, screw iron troopship, is drawing
near the completion of her repairs and alterations at
the hands of the factory and shipwright depart-
ments of Portsmouth yard, and will then be again
available for the public service in the transport of
troops. The Himalaya has gone through a most ex-
tensive course of repairs both in her hull and ma-
chinery, and the arrangements of her internal fit-
tings have been materially altered. The construc-
tion of a line of offices on the upper deck, abreast
and forward of the funnel, will give additional cabin
room below on the main deck, over and above What
she previously- possessed there. When next com-
missioned for service the Himalaya will be a stronger
and a roomier ship than she was when first pur-
chased by the Admiralty.
The Ariadne, unarmoured screw frigate, 3,214
tons, 800-horse power, is being put through a course
of very heavy repairs to her hull in No. 8 dock at
Portsmouth.

The Terrible, paddle frigate, 1,850 tons, 800-
horse power, Capt. J. Commerell, is having
a thorough overhaul and refit in preparation for
further service.

The Urgent, screw iron troopship, Capt. J. 11.
Henderson, is coaling in the steam basin of Ports-
mouth yard for trial of her machinery, in prepara-
tion for further foreign service. After her trial and
the completion of her stores, the Urgent will sail on
troop service to China, calling at the Cape of Good
Hope on the voyage out.
The Bellerophon riflemen disembarked from that
frigate alongside Portsmouth Dockyard yesterday,
and, headed by their band, marched out into the
country for a long afternoon's drill. The steadiness
of the riflemen under arms and their proficiency in
rapid execution of light infantry mancevres is some-
thing astonishing. In this instance, seamen have
become soldiers of the highest excellence.
But few hands are now at work upon the Blanch,
4, 1,268 tons, 300-horse power, and the Myrmidon,
4, 695 tons, 200-horse power, the only wooden ves-
sels under construction at Chatham. A number of
the workmen have been withdrawn and placed on
the iron ships Hercules and Monarch, which to-
gether employ nearly 3,000 hands. Notwithstanding
that very few weeks have elapsed since the turret-
ship Monarch was commenced in the dock in which
she is building, so rapid has been the progress made
in her construction that the operation of fixing her
armour-plates along her broadsides will be begun
before the close of the present month. At the pre-
li
sent time there are upwards of 1,000 tons of 9-inch,
7-inch, and other armour-plates stacked in Chatham
Dockyard, and in readiness for fixing to the armour
plated ships now in course of construction.
Yesterday the War Department traLsport Marl-
borough went alongside the Ordnance-wharf at
Chatham, and commenced the shipment of 100 cases
containing the old pattern Enfield rifles from the
armoury, being the first consignment of rifles for the
'rower, for the purpose of being converted into
breech-loaders.

The want which has been so long experienced by
the dockyard workmen at Chatham, of a suitable
building in which those who are compelled to do so
may dine in the yard, is at length likely to be sup-
plied. Hitherto there has been a difficulty in pro-
viding a suitable site for a building of the dimen-
sions required for accommodating about 2,000 work-
men—the number who now take their dinners in the
yard—where every foot of space has to be appro-
priated for the requirements of the daily increasing
establishment. In a report on.the subject made by
Capt. Stewart to the Admiralty, the vacant ground
near the entrance to the dockyard, adjoining the
block of buildings erected as quarters fur the officers
of the Royal Marines, is recommended as a site.
Should the Lords of the Admiralty approve the re-
commendation, there is nothing to prevent the
building being at once proceeded with, when the
necess.try contracts could be made for furnishing the
men daily with a substantial dinner at a cheap rate.
Capt. the Hon. Arthur Cochrane, C. 8., has been
engaged for some time past at Woolwich, on board
her Majesty's 17-gun sloop Chanticleer, in perfect-
ing his patent vertical tube boiler. The space oc-
cupied by Capt. Cochrane's and the service
boiler in the Chanticleer is the same. The
weight of the patent boiler when filled with
water for service is • 8.3 per cent. less than the
ordinary boiler. The time for raising steam from
similar temperatures was, on an average of five
trials, 9 per cent. quicker in the patent than in the
service boiler; and, when working to the utmost,
the evaporative power, with equal weights of Welsh
coals consumed in the same time, was 10 per cent.