The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-29 00:00:00

Military and Naval Intelligence.

VALETTA, Sept. 24.—Her Majesty's ship Psyche,
Lieut.-Commander Sir F. Blackwood, arrived on the
21st inst. from Augusta, with despatches from the
Commander-in-Chief. The Victoria (flag), Royal
Oak, and Enterprise were at that port on the 20th
inst., and the Prince Consort and Gibraltar were at
Syracuse. An order had been issued by the Com-
mander-in-Chief, prohibiting the officers, except
under special circumstances, from making distant
excursions into the country during the stay of the
squadron in Sicily, in consequence of two officers,
an assistant-surgeon and a midshipman, of the Vic-
toria having been stopped and robbed of their
watches and money by highwaymen on the main
road between Augusta and Syracuse. The general
health of the squadron is very good. They will leave
Sicily about the 25th inst., proceeding leisurely for
the benefit of exercising in sailing and steam tactics
to Port Mahon, whence, should the quarantine at
Malta be taken off the French ports, they will even-
tually cruise along the coaste of Spain and France
before returning to Malta for the winter. The Resis-
tance arrived from Naples, and the Racer from Corfu,
both on the 20th inst. The former ship is undergoing
a quarantine of 15 days in consequence of her arrival
from an infected port, although the health of her
crew is excellent. She will, however, put to sea on
the 25th, returning to Malta after a 10 days' cruise
to obtain pratique and refit. She will then probably
join the Commander-in-Chief. The Racer sails
about the 25th inst. for Beyrout to relieve the Cos-
sack, which ship will return to Malta to refit, and
her arrival here may therefore be looked for about
the third week in October. Her Majesty's ship
Cruiser, which had arrived at Gibraltar after a pro-
tracted and rather stormy passage from England,
was to leave for Malta on the 17th inst., and may
there be hourly expected. She will probably re-
main here two or three weeks before joining the
squadron. It is not improbable, however, that some
modification in the intended movements of the ships
may be made, should the insurrection in various
parts of the Turkish empire assume, as it threatens
to do, a more serious character. The Hydra, sur-
veying ship, Capt. Shortland, is expected from Sicily
about the end of the month for supplies, but will
leave again for her surveying ground, the neigh-
bourhood of Girgenti, with the least possible delay.
The Assurance, despatch vessel, left on the night of
the 22d inst., with mails, &c., for the Commander-
in-Chief and the squadron. Capt. Chas. Rowley,
late commander of the Enterprise, proceeds, on pro-
motion, to England overland by the packet convey-
ing the present mail to Marseilles. Paymaster C.
IV. Eeles, of her Majesty's ship Victoria, arrived by
the packet of the 22d inst. from a short leave of
absence, and is now in the Lazzaretto undergoing
his 15 days' quarantine. Dr. Pickthorne, R.N.,
surgeon of her Majesty's dockyard, left this island
by the last Southampton steamer for England. Dr.
Pickthorne was held in great esteem in Malta on
account of his valuable and gratuitous services
during the epidemic last year, and for his many
estimable qualities. An interesting ceremony took
place on Thursday afternoon last, when the founda-
tion-stone of an English Protestant Church was
formally laid at Slima, in the presence of several
hundred English residents, by the Acting-
Governor, Major-Gen. Ridley. The service was
very impressively performed by the 'Venerable Arch-
deacon Cleugh, assisted by the Bishop's chaplain, the
Rev. Dr. Burbidge, the Rev. C.Green, and the Rev.
Mr. Burridge, military chaplains. This church, the
architecture of which is to be early English, to-
gether with an adjacent parsonage, is estimated to
cost about £4.000; which is to be raised by public
subscription. With his usual liberality, the Bishop
of Gibraltar has headed the list with a handsome
donation of £l,OOO, and some £BOO more has already
been given towards it by persons interested in the
object in view. So anxious is the Bishop to see the
building completed as early as possible that he has
made himself responsible for the whole amount till
the required sum is collected, in order that no delay
may occur in the progress of the work. His lordship
is at present absent from the island, but will return
shortly for the winter. The only route from Eng-
land which remained open to travellers without the
infliction of quarantine on arrival at Malta has been
closed during the past week—that is to say, a qua-
rantine of seven days has been imposed on arrivals
from Leghorn, and all persons desirous of reaching
Malta by that route will have to endure that term
of incarceration in the Lazzaretto. The Marseilles,
Genoa, and Naples routes are even more objection-
able, as the quarantine of 15 days is still enforced on
arrivals from those places. The ports of Great
Britain continue subject to a like term, and although
clean bills of health have been issued for some weeks
from Southampton, no relaxation of the rule has yet
taken place. In these matters we are compelled,
from motives of expediency, to do as Sicily does,
notwithstanding much manifest inconsistency, if not
absurdity. The quarantine of seven days includes all
the ports and islands of Italy (except Sicily) not
already subjected to quarantine. On the other hand,
the 15 days' quarantine on the 'lonian Islands and
the Turkish ports in Europe and in the Archipelago
has been taken off. Vessels having had cases of
cholera on board, or carrying Hadjees, are not ad-
mitted into the harbour, but are compelled to anchor
outside, where they are furnished with everything
they require. The English steamer Saida arrived on
the 18th inst., with 140 of this suspicious class of pas-
sengers, coming from Alexandria on their way to
Tangier, returning from their pilgrimage to Mecca.
After replenishing fuel and provisions she continued
her route the following day. Fortunately the weather
was favourable, with a calm sea, so that little
difficulty was experienced in coaling. It has been
found necessary to enforce the quarantine .regula-
tions with much greater severity this year, which has
had the effect of calming the minds of the popula-
tion. The awful scenes of last summer and autumn
must still be fresh in the memory of many, and it is
therefore not unnatural that they should, with cho-
lera so near them, view with satisfaction the adop-
tion of rigorous precautionary measures against its
re-introduction from infected countries, notwith-
standing the great inconvenience and suffering such
measures entail on a commercial community. News
has just been received here of Greece having placed
a quarantine of 11 days on arrivals from Trieste and
Adalia, owing to the manifestations of cholera, and
of having also prohibited the importation of cattle,
hides, &c., from Tunis. The Right Rev. Monsignor
Micallef, ex-general of the order of the Augustinians,
appointed administrator of the vacant bishopric of
Gozo, arrived at Malta on Saturday last from Rome.
Her Majesty's ships in port arc the Hibernia, flag-
ship of Rear-Admiral 11. Kellett, C. 8., Resistance,
Racer, and Psyche. P.S.—At the moment of closing
my letter I learnt that at a meeting of the Board of
Health held this morning it was decided, in conse-
quence of intelligence having been received of the
occurrence of cases of cholera at Alexandria, to put
a quarantine of 30 days on all arrivals from Egypt,
with the view of checking an apprehended influx of
refuges to this island. Eight fatal cases, four in one
family, occurred on the 20th inst., the day of the
departure of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's
steamer Pera for Malta. At the same meeting the
quarantine on arrivals from the island of Sardinia
was removed.

The damage occasioned to the works for the en-
largement of the dock at Chatham dockyard in which
the turret iron-clad ship Monarch, 6, 5,100 tons,
1,100-horse power, is intended to he
constructed has
been made good by the workmen employed by the
engineering department of the establishment, the
operations having been carried on night and day
since the occurrence. The last of the outer row of
piles, forming the second cofferdam, to which the
accident
occurred, was driven yesterday, the inner
cofferdam not having sustained any injury,
Throughout the undertaking various difficulties of a
more or less serious nature have been encountered,
but these have at length been surmounted, and,
after being several months in hand, the works may
be said to be nearly completed, while the dock,
which has been increased in length by some 20 ft.,
will be ready in the course of the ensuing week to
receive the keel of the vessel intended to be con-
structed in it. Notwithstanding the delay which
has occurred in connection with the enlargement of
the dock—to which reference will hereafter be made
—some progress has been made in building the

Monarch, the keel of which is gradually growing up
in the temporary workshop formed in the space be-
tween the third and fourth dock. Already a con-
siderable portion of the plates intended to form the
cellular bottom of the vessel have been fitted in
readiness for being taken to pieces and refitted in
the dock. Like the Hercules broadside ironclad,
now rapidly building in the adjoining dock, the
Monarch will be constructed on the double-bottom
unsinkable principle, carried out by the present
Chief Constructor in all the ironclad ships designed
by him, by which there are, in fact, two bottoms to
the vessel, the inner bottom being placed four feet
apart from the outer one, while carried up far out of
the water, and protected by the armour-plating, will
be a kind of internal watertight walls, the whole ren-
dering the vessel, what she is intended to be, a double
ship from end to end. Under this system of construc-
tion it will be, apparent that watertight bulkheads
will not be required, inasmuch as no ordinary in-
jury would have the effect of jeopardising the safety
of a vessel so built. In order, however, to re-
duce the chances of accident to a minimum,
the Monarch will be built with a few watertight
compartments, so that in case any injury should be
caused to any part of the vessel from hostile shot,
or any other causes, the vital safety of the ship
would not be endangered. No turret ship yet con-
structed for any of the navies of the world is more
powerfully plated than will be the Monarch. The
thickest plates yet placed in any iron-clad ship have
been those of six inches, with which the central
battery of the Bellerophon is protected, with a back-
ing of 12 inches of teak and an inch and a half
iron skin. The designs for the Monarch, however,
show that her midship battery, for a distance of
about 200 feet, will be protected by armour of seven
inches in thickness, laid on a backing of timber two
inches thicker than in the case of the Bellerophon,
with an interior double-iron skin. It is, however, in
the turrets that her enormous defensive powers will
be developed, and here the armour will be nearly a
foot in thickness, composed of solid slabs of iron. Her
freeboard, or height out of the water, will be from
12ft. to 14ft., or about twice the height of the Royal
Sovereign and Prince Albert turret ships, by which
arrangement her broadside, as well as her turret
guns, can be brought into requisition simultane-
ously. Each turret will be sufficiently large to allow
two of the 20-ton 600-pounders, which she is in-
tended to carry in both turrets, being worked in
conjunction with those of the broadside. In order
to overcome the weakening effect of the apertures
for the turrets upon the structure of the hull of the
vessel, the upper deck, where the turrets pass
through, is to be constructed on an entirely new
principle, designed by Mr. Reed, by which, instead
of the hull of the ship being weakened, its strength
and rigidity will be very considerably increased.
Under the system proposed by the Chief Con-
structor, the double skin plating of the side will be
carried over upon the deck in the form of massive
stringer plates, and thus add immensely to the
strength of the hull. The solid forging for the stem
of the Monarch, weighing about 20 tons, will en-
able her to be used as a ram, while the large chase
gun she is designed to carry at her bow will be pro-
tected by an armour-plated traverse or battery, ex-
tending to about 8 feet above the upper deck. Un-
like the Miantonomah, the Monarch will be fully
rigged for ocean service, and the contract with the
makers of her engines is that with the whole of her
guns, stores, &c., on board she shall steam a mean
speed of 14 knots per hour. Although the order
for the construction of the Monarch directed that
she should be completed by the same period as the
Hercules, it is not probable that the two ships will
be finished at the same time, the Hercules being
already about one-fourth built.

Her Majesty's ship Porcupine has left hull Roads
on a surveying expedition.

The Reindeer, 7, 200-horse power, was yesterday
inspected in dock at Chatham by the officials con-
nected with the master-shipwright's staff, in order
ascertain the amount of injury she recently sus-
tained from her grounding when steaming out of
Chatham harbour. Beyond the tearing away of a
portion of the copper near her forefoot she has ap-
parently suffered no other injury. Yesterday the
shipwrights were employed in the alteration of her
midship hatchways to admit of additional space
being obtained for the platforms and carriages for
the large 9-ton guns she will mount at the broadside
amidships. The alterations now in progress and the
other work remaining to be effected on board will
detain her in the shipwrights' hands for some short
time to come.

The armour-plated screw steamship Caledonia,
30, Capt. Hon. Fitzgerald A. C. Foley, flag of Rear-
Admiral Hastings R. Yelverton, C. 8., is expected
shortly at Keyham steamyard to be docked.
The iron-plated screw steam sloop Research, 4,
Commander Robert A. E. Scott, left Plymouth on
Tuesday evening to join the Channel squadron at
Queenstown.

It is reported at Devonport that the iron turret ship
Prince Albert, 4, Capt. Arthur Wilmshurst, is to be
put out of commission. The rumour there is that
this has been determined upon in consequence of the
recent experiments upon the turrets of the Royal
Sovereign. The Prince Albert is to be attached to
the gunnery ship Cambridge, in Hamoaze.
The paddle-wheel steam vessel Medusa, from
Sheerness, with supernumeraries, arrived at Devon-
port on Tuesday evening.
The massive iron forging intended to form the
projecting curved stem of the ironclad frigate Her-
cules, 12, 5,226 tons, 1,200-horse power, having
been completed at Chatham, was temporarily fixed
in its place yesterday. The form of the stem, which
is nearly S-shaped, shows that it is the intention of
the designer of the Hercules to use that vessel as a
ram, the long under-water protruding stem rendering
her exceedingly formidable.