The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-14 00:00:00

PORTSMOUTH DOCKYARD.

The Right Hon. Sir John Pakington, accom-
panied by the other Lords Commissioners of the pre-
sent Board of Admiralty, arrived at Portsmouth
last evening from London, on the Board's first an-
nual inspection of Portsmouth Dockyard and other
Admiralty establishments in and around the port.
Their Lordships dined on board the paddle yacht
Osborne, moored off the dockyard, and afterwards
slept on board the Osborne and Enchantress. This
morning Sir John Pakington and his colleagues,
after breakfasting on board the Osborne, will land
from their yachts at the King's stairs of the dock-
yard, where they will be received by the Port Ad-
miral and the Admiral-Superintendent, attended by
the several managing or mismanaging officials of the
yard, these latter gentlemen displaying all that ner-
vous yet pro-found homage to " the Board" which
they affect to think part of the duty of their several
positions, and which must be grateful to Boards of
Admiralty by reason of the antiquity of the custom.
This preliminary process gone through, the Board
will first proceed to the office of the Admiral-Supe-
rintendent and will there " transact" in a wonder-
fully short space of time a tremendous amount of
business, but business of no very specific character;
the superintendent of police, the various heads of
departments, the-coxswains of the admirals, mes-
sengers, idlers, &c., mounting guard outside. The
business in the office of the Admiral-Superintendent
having been brought to a conclusion their Lordships
will again present themselvesto the body of officials
who have been waiting outside, and a procession
will be immediately formed, Sir John Pakington, at-
tended by the admirals of the port and yard, lead-
ing the way, followed by the Controller of the Navy
and the members of the Board, the tail of the pro-
cession being formed of subordinate officials of the
yard, the superintendent of police, the coxswains,
the messengers, the idlers, &c. The course of the
procession will lie over roads paved with the " pig-
iron"now rendered famous by the passage of arms be-
tween Mr. Seely and the Admiralty in the House of
Commons, and their lordships will have an opportu-
nity for making a personal inspection of the outer
apparent quality of the iron, and also of admiring
its present efficiency—whatever its true value as iron
may be—as a simple road pavement.
Having thus far launched the Board of Admiralty
into Portsmouth yard, we will leave their Lordships
there for the present in busy examination of the iron-
paved roads, while we glance briefly at what they I
may otherwise find worthy their grave attention
during their hurried peregrinations at Portsmouth
both ashore and afloat, first, however, referring to
a rumour which has been current in the dockyard
for some days, that certain of the subordinate offi-
cials of the yard are anxious to wait upon Sir John
Pakington during the stay of the Board at Ports-
mouth and express their gratitude to him for the
very effective manner in whiCh he " settled" Mr.
Seely in the late tilting match between those two
naval reformers on the floor of the House of Com-
mons. The said officials also intend to express to
Sir John that, in their opinion, the defeat of Mr.
Seely, and thereby the prolongation of the life of
the present dockyard " system" is entirely due to
the skilful adumbration of the returns which were
furnished to Sir John by the said officials, &c.
There certainly existed an extraordinary degree of
excitement in one department of the yard when the
Admiralty order was received calling for the returns
which were so admirably "adumbrated," and there
exists now a great visible exultation among the offi-
cials at the signal proof given by Sir John of his
earnestness as a naval reformer. With all this,
however, it is not probable that the Board will con-
sider it at all politic to encourage demonstrations of
such a nature, and we, therefore, fear the enthu-
siastic aspirations of the gentlemen referred to are
likely to be disappointed.
To return to what their Lordships will most pro-
bably see and do, or what will be available for the
purpose during their stay at Portsmouth, there is
first for consideration the slipways and sheds.
But one of these is now occupied, No. 2, in
which is building the Danae, a screw
sloop of 1,268 tons, and 350-horse power. This
vessel was designed by Mr. E. J. Reed, the Chief
Constructor of the Navy, and in examining her lines
from the midship section forward their Lordships
will no doubt be surprised to find that she is a much
finer and handsomer vessel than many interested
detractors of Mr. Reed's reputation as a naval archi-
tect would fain have them and the public believe.
This vessel will carry four 61-ton 7-inch rifled
muzzle-loading guns, besides smaller guns for boat
service, and, as her Channel speed will certainly not
be under 14 knots, she will be a most formidable and
valuable, although unarmoured, cruiser. So much
has been said of the late Amazon, of which vessel the
Danae is an improved type, that it is necessary here
to say a few words with regard to both vessels. In
the first place it has been acknowledged over and
over again that when the Amazon was designed not
a syllable was said about any Alabama class. The
orders then given and received from the Admiralty
and by the builder were merely to design a new sloop
to supersede the Rinaldo class, to carry two 6-ton
guns and two 40-pounders, to carry the rig of merely
an enlarged gun-vessel, with anchors, cables, &c., of
a class much smaller than the Rinaldo, and to carry
a crew of only 40 men. Since the Amazon class
were designed their complement has been increased
to 135 men, and their bow and stern guns from 40-
pounders to 64-pounders. With these alterations
the Amazon realised as high a rate of speed as could
be expected from her-12.4 knots, and nearly two
knots in excess of the Rinaldo class at a like load-
draught. The bows of the Danae and Blanche,
the former at Portsmouth and the latter at Chat-
ham, are much finer and longer than the Amazon
possessed, and, in fact, are forward quite different
vessels. The Blanche at Chatham has been ordered
by the present Board during their recent visit to
that dockyard to be completed in the form then seen,
and we hope the same course will be fol-
lowed with the Danan at Portsmouth. It would
be for their Lordships' consideration whether, re-
membering the disastrous results of the collision be-
tween the Amazon and Osprey, it would not be an
act of commendable prudence to give all wooden
vessels a water tight bulkhead at aboutlo or 15 feet
from the bows or stem. The remainder of the build-
ing slips are, as already stated, vacant, but as the
Naval Estimates contain provision for the building
of an iron unarmoured sloop at Portsmouth of the
Inconstant class now building at Pembroke it will
be for the consideration of their Lordships whether
the time has not fully arrived for the commence-
ment of this vessel at Portsmouth, where the plant
is ordered, in iron, for building, and where the build-
ing of such a ship as would initiate the shipwrights
gradually in the working of iron, and employ them
far more profitably to the country than they are at
present in many instances. The Inconstant, now
building at Pembroke, was designed six months
since specially by the Chief Constructor of the Navy
as
a Counterpoise to the class of corvettes building
by the
Americans. The fact is satisfactory as prov-
ing that the late Board of Admiralty and the Con-
troller
of the Navy were not unmindful of the pro-
tective powers
country. required by the commerce of the
The Inconstant is to have no armour plat-
ing, will be 33ft.
and
rthan the Bellerophon, with
will
6ft. less beam,have engines of similar
power and type to that
principal dimensionso thisf The following are the
important class of vessel :
Length betweenperpendiculars
Breadth extreme -• ... 333 feet.
Burden in tons ... ••• ••• 50 feet.
Draught of water forward ••• ••• 3,978
j-t.ecn112..1. in -t
bounngkcuro
Ditto aft ••• ••• 22 feet.
Displacement ••• ••• 24 feet.
: s
5,495 tons.
Ifour 61..t0n guns.
Number of officers and men, 600; oa
GOO tons; rig, full ship, with large spread of canvas.
She will be sheathed below the water line with
too thicknesses of teak and an outer sheathing 0,
copper, so that she may keep the seas as long as
any ordinary wooden ship without fou
nerling her
Her and
estimated speed speed is 15 knots. g
gineer both estimate that, with a carrying capacity
for GOO tons of coal in her bunkers and the econo-
mical power of working given by her engines, she
will be able to - maintain a moderate rate of speed
over a distance of nearly 10,000 miles.
Next in order for consideration in Portsmouth

Armament ...

yard and harbour come the vessels under repair or