The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-16 00:00:00

,ords of the Admiralty at Portsmouth

The inspection of this dockyard, with its office ac-
counts, its basins, docks, ships, steam factory,
smitheries, founderies, workshops, and stores of all
kinds, and the extension ground and works for the
new dockyard, occupied Sir John Pakington yester-
day, with his colleagues, exactly six hours in taking
stock of the whole. Thus, two hours were spent in
the office of the Admiral Superintendent ; two hours
in a scramble over the dockyard with all its docks,
ships, basins, stores, and workshops, and two hours
over the ground set out for the extension of the yard.
To this, however, must be added two hours in the
after part of the day, when the board were engaged
in receiving petitions or deputations from people
representing various bodies of employes in the yard,
all of which, according to custom, were graciously
received. All annual inspections by the Admiralty
of the national dockyards are consummate farces,
and necessarily so by reason of the shortness of the
time at disposal for the purpose, and from the fact
that these annual inspections are officially announced
beforehand from Whitehall, and, therefore, fully
provided for by the dockyard officials, and in this
latter mode of conduct a meritorious set of officers
(so far as their services go) are but following in the
beaten track of an old custom. That announced
annual visits of Boards of Admiralty are a farce, or
worse than a farce, if even only judged by the
amount of actual work accomplished by their lord-
ships on such occasions, it is only necessary to briefly
analyse the six hours spent by their lordships yes-
terday at Portsmouth to prove the truth of the as-
sertion. The two hours spent in the Admiral
Superintendent's office may be supposed to have
been upon investigation of accounts, or it may have
been of plans of the new works, or upon gossip.
We will take the first theory as the most probable,
and then ask what enlightenment the Admiralty
could possibly have received on so large a subject in
so short a time. Exclusive of officers of theyard there
are upwards of 3,000 hands employed, who receive
annually upwards of £201,000 as wages. If the
Board, then, wished to know where these men were
employed, and the exact nature of the work they
were then engaged upon, how could they possibly
satisfy themselves on the subject in two short hours
in the Admiral Superintendent's office, with so many
other subjects at the same time before them? Again,
let us only imagine an official inspection of a great
dockyard like Portsmouth being got through in two
hours ! The whole thing is so absurd that one al-
most shares in the absurdity to write or speak of it.
It is necessary, however, that we separate any con-
sideration of the Controller of the Navy from the
general Board in speaking as we do of " annual
inspections." The Board collectively only make
" confusion worse confounded" by their annual visit.
To them it is a holiday and is treated as such. It
is a grand processional triumph of the Lords of the
Admiralty, and no one would cavil at the custom if
only things were called by their right names. Con-
trollers of the Navy have always found themselves
compelled at these annual visits of the Board to
separate themselves from their colleagues, and look
after their ships building or repairing at the time.
Sir Baldwin Walker always acted in this manner,
and to a certain degree, therefore, independently of
the movements of the Board. Rear-Admiral Spencer
Robinson is equally alert to his duties. While their
Controller is at work, in fact, it has been long times
past, and it is now to this day, to the Board, their,
grand annual holiday.
Yesterday morning the Board, unaccompanied by
the Controller, disembarked from their yachts shortly
before noon in their barge, and crossed over the
harbour to Royal Clarence Victualling Yard, which
their lordships " inspected" in the • usual cursory
manner. From the Clarence yard carriages conveyed
the Board to the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar,
the Slipway and yard at Haslar—once the home of
the rotten Crimean gunboats, but now waiting uti-
lisation—and the head-quarters of the Royal Marine
Light Infantry at Forton. The whole was again a
"scramble" for the Board,.but it was got through
nearly within the limited time, after which the
Board returned on Board the Osborne to luncheon.
The parade of the Royal Marine Artillery was
ordered on the glacis of Fort Cumberland, about four
miles east of Portsmouth, for the inspection of the
Admiralty, at 3 p.m., and before that time the corps
was drawn up, deployed in two battalions in line,
with a half battery of 12-pounder Armstrong guns
on each flank, commanded by Col. Alexander, C.B.
It was upwards of 40 minutes after the appointed
time before their lordships arrived, the Controller,
who was engaged on board the Bellerophon iron fri-
gate, excepted, and on drawing up in front of the
line they were received with a general salute, the
band of the corps playing the National Anthem.
Their lordships immediately alighted, and walked
rapidly along the line of troops and past the demi-
batteries on the flanks. A very few minutes satisfied
their lordships that no men could possibly look bet-
ter than the Royal Marine Artillery of the British
Navy, and Sir J. Pakington led the way back to the
saluting-point, where their lordships took up their
position to view the "march past," in company with
Col. Langley, Adjutant-General of the Royal Marine
forces, Col. Commandant Alexander, C. 8., Royal
Marine Artillery, and a number of officers in blue
and scarlet and gold uniforms, among which the
black morning coats of "my lords" looked rather
out of place. The march past was performed with
all that steadiness and precision for which the Royal
Marine Artillery have become famous as in all their
other professional attainments. After this ceremony
had been brought to a close the men piled arms and
marched off to their several batteries to take part in
the practice ordered from the various ordnance in
the fort and on the glacis and sea beach in front.
The guns were apportioned in three divisions as
follows :-
Ist Division, Lieutenant-Colonel Williams com-
manding.—The field battery of 12-pounder Arm-
strongs, 20-pounder siege guns, 8-inch mortars.
2d Division, Lieutenant- Colonel Adair com-
manding.-7-inch Armstrong guns, 8-inch smooth-
bore, 40-pounder Armstrongs.
3d Division, Lieutenant-Colonel Dig by, / C•B •/
commanding.—Rocket battery, 13-inch sea-service
mortar, 10 inch sand mortars.
Colonel Schomberg in command of the whole.
The ship's gun battery, west of the fort, mount-
ing naval rifled guns, 7-inch and 40-pounder Arm-
strongs, was under the command of Major Jolliffe,
the fort with the heaviest artillery being on the
left of a line of sea beach, the ship's battery on the
right, and the field batteries, rocket battery, and
sea service and 8-inch sand mortars on the interven
ing space.

While the men were marching to their batteries
their Lordships visited the drill batteries inside the
fort, the model-room, and infirmary. This was all
gone through with that wonderful celerity which
distinguish all Boards of Admiralty on similar occa-
sions; and at 3 15 p.m. the appearance of their
Lordships on the south-west bastion of the fort was
the signal for firing, which commenced simul-
taneously from the heavy ordnance in the fort,
from the field batteries, the rocket battery, and the
sea service IS-inch mortar. The effect was very
grand. The shells burst with beautiful precision at
1,800 and 2,000 yards seaward. It was all over
however very quickly,
V A.
great deal of noise and
smoke had been
evolved
a small amount of time,
and in these two particulars only the practice of the
Royal Marine Artillery resembled Admiralty doings
in general.
The ship's battery was afterward visited, where
some excellent drill with the
navals rifled guns was
mad
displayed and broadside practice
targets on the sandbank. This was
no :oat canvas
than their lordships' carriages were called
onfer ended.
the Board immediately left on its return toolPnant, d
mouth, driving past or through the new Roysal
Marine Artillery barracks at Eastney, but giving no
time for an inspection of any park.
Rear-Admiral R. S. Robinson, Controller of , the
Navy, on the Board leaving the Osborne in the
morning landed at the King's stairs of the dockyard,
andpaid a visit to the iron frigate Bellerophon, Capt.
E. Tatham, then preparing to leave the harbour for
Spithead preparatory to a trial of her speed over the
measured mile in Stokes Bay. Admiral Robinson
had thus, fortunately, an opportunity of seeing per-
senally how far this ship's decks have been damaged,
and Go vessel altogether knocked about by heaping