The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-19 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

On the occasion of the recent visit of the Duke o
Cambridge to Chatham garrison for the purpose of
reviewing the troops his Royal Highness had under his
consideration the necessity which existed for appointing
two additional field officers to assist in carrying on the
duties at the provisional battalion, which his Royal
Highness considered were far too onerous to be efficiently
performed by the colonel commandant and one lieutenant
colonel, as is at present the case. It is therefore intended
that two additional field officers, as majors, together with
one captain, as adjutant, shall be forthwith appointed to
the present staff of the provisional battalion, the latter
officer being permanently appointed in the place of an
officer selected from time to time from the depots sta-
tioned at Chatham Barracks, who bas been temporarily
employed in performing field duty.
Major-General Sir R. Airey, K.C.8., Quartermaster-
General to the Forces, having decided that all command-
ing officers, when quartered in barracks, shall be allowed
four rooms, an order has been issued from the War De-
partment that all commanding officers shall-henceforth
be allowed Jour rooms, fuel, and lights, and also allow-
ance for a separate room when actually living i❑

barracks.
The crew of the steam frigate Shannon, 51, Captain
W. Peel, C. 8., got out her mainmast on Thursday, and
on Friday she was warped to the jetty at Devonport
dockyard.
The paddlewheel steam vessel Trident, 3, Commander
Close, from Portsmouth, arrived on Friday at Plymouth,
03 her passage to the Wt it Coast of Africa.
The crew of the Coastguard training ship Cornwallis,
Captain Powell, C. 8., were paid wages at Plymouth on
Saturday, and she was appointed to sail yesterday for
her station at Hull.

The steam storeship Rhadamanthus, Master Com-
mander R. Brown, was taken out of dock at Devonport
on Saturday.
The Indus, 78, Captain J. C. D. Hay, having been
rie-ged and stored, will probably be taken out to-day
(Monday), and the paddlewheel steamvessel Buzzard, 6,
placed in dock for repair.
The Amphion, 36 guns, screw steam frigate, Captain
Henry Chads, arrived at the Little Nore (from the
North American and West India station), last from
Portsmouth under pilot charge of Mr. John Millen, of
Deal, on Saturday last, at 3 p.m. At 4 p.m. the same
day she was inspected by Captain Edward P. Halsted.
During the time the sip's company were at target prac-
tice one of the midship guns on the upper deck on the
port side being fired. a portion of the expended cartridge
(it is supposed in consequence of the strong wind blow-
into the main deck ports) lodged upon a cartridge in the
hands of No. 3, James Willis, ordinary seaman, and
exploded the cartridge just at the moment it was to have
been put into the muzzle of the gun on the main deck.
The result was that No. 4, Henry Yeatman, ordinary
seaman, whose duty it was to sponge the gun after firing,
and No. 6, J. Autridge, a stoker, whose duty it was to
hand the ramme!. to No. 4, first taking the sponge from
him, received injuries by the explosion ; No. 3 in hands
and face ; No. 4 and 6 in their faces. Their injuries,
fortunately. are not of a dangerous character. The am-
phion left Port Royal on the 11th of Dec., and had 35
days' passage to Portsmouth. She is ordered to be paid
off there ; she will be ready to be paid off in about tea
days' time. The usual port order that no officers or men
leave the ship, except on duty, previous to her being
paid off is being strictly enforced on board this ship. At
divisions, yesterday, it was made known on the quar-
ter-deck that pensioners then serving would not (if volun-
teering for any other ships i❑ active service), be allowed
to retain their pensions while in active service.
The Bulldog, 6 guns, paddlewheel steamship, Com-
mander A. C. Gordon, and the Salamander, 6 guns,
paddlewheel steamsloop, Commander G. J. Mecham,
from the North Sea, remain i❑ harbour, waiting Admi-
ralty orders for their departure on particular service.
The Hawke, 60 guns, screw steamship, Capt. James
Wilcox, C. 8., is progressing with her fitment in the
basin at Sheerness. Mr. A. Eaton and Mr. G. G. Duff,
mates of this ship, have left on their promotions to be
lieutenants.
The Melampus, 42, late storeship, Capt. L. G. Heath,
C. 8., will shortly be ready to leave the fitting basin at
Sheerness.
The Cyclops, 6 guns, paddlewheel steam frigate, is
making good her defects and alterations in No. 3 dry
dock at Sheerness.
The new Seamen's Hospital Ship is ordered to be
removed on Thursday from Woolwich to her intended
moorings off Greenwich Hospital. The internal arrange
ments have so far progressed that the extra labourers and
artisans employed therein were discharged on Saturday.
The screen work and appurtenances connected with the
formatio❑ of the church (which has been designed with
considerable taste) are still incomplete, and much yet
remains to be done before the new establishment can be
occupied.
The transport shipping department of Woolwich is
ordered by the Lords of the Admiralty to be closed on
the Ist Feb. next—Mr. Saunders, the superintendent,
to be placed on the list of naval officers on half-pay and
the establishment to be discharged.
The freight ship Priscilla, in the West India Docks,
having been taken up by Government for the conveyance
of Ordnance stores to Cape Coast Castle, embarked three
tons of ammunition on Saturday from the Ordnance De-
partment of Woolwich Arsenal, and sailed thence for her
destination. The Dorothy likewise sailed from Wool-
wich with stores and ammunition for the Mauritius.

Letters received at Plymouth from Rio Janeiro, in
reference to the collision with the screw steam sloop
Cruiser, 17, Commander Charles Fellowes, state that
the Swedish bark Therese tore away one of the sloop's
guns, and damaged her lower rigging, bulwarks, and
some spars. The officer in charge was a midshipman,
and it is understood that the court of inquiry held on
board have, in their communication to the Lords of the
Admiralty, censured the captain for giving this duty to
a junior officer on such an important occasion as when
nearing so frequented a port as Rio Janeiro. Had the
bark struck the sloop in front both would probably have
gone down. The Cruiser and her companions, the gun-
boats, sailed for China on the 13th of Dec.
The following appointments have been made at the
Admiralty :
M. C. Seymour, mate, to the Calcutta, for disposal ;

A. Irwin, surgeon, to the Hecla ; W. G. J. Ayre, as
aistant-surgeon, to the Portsmouth division of Royal
Marines ; W. Edney, assistant-surgeon, to Malta Hos-
pital ; D. Duncan, assistant-surgeon, to the Recruit ;
G. Goodman, assistant-surgeon (confirmed) to the Siren;
R. L. B. Head and G. W. J. Sutherland, acting-assist
ant-surgeon, to the Victory ; P. Fairbairn, acting-as-
sistant-surgeon to the Indus ; R. W. Parish, clerk,
to the Iris ; D. P. Sambell, assistant-clerk, to the
Meander ; A. H. Piddell and F. F. Fitzmaurice, as-
sistant-clerks to the Monarch.

THE GREAT BLASTING OPERATION AT
HOLY HEAD BARBOUR.

This great national undertaking, which is being car
ried out under the immediate directio❑ of the Board of

Admiralty by the Messrs. J. and C. Rigby, of Weetmin
ster, and which was designed by the late Mr. Rendel
affords periodically to the civil and military engineer an
opportunity of witnessing the effect of large quantities of
gunpowder brought to bear on the dislodgment of im-
mense masses of the hardest description of quartz rock,
amounting, in several instances, to upwards of 100,000
tons. One of these stupendous operations took place on
Friday, the 16th inst., in the presence of the Earl of
Airlie,; Lieut.. Colonel Servante, of the Royal Engineers ;
the Hon. W. 0. Stanley, M.P. ; Sir R. Bulkeley, Bart. ;
Lord C. Paget, Chancellor Trevor, Captain Bulkeley,
Captain Skinner, R.N., Professor Ramsay, Mr. Hayter,
besides several other engineers and scientific gentlemen,
as well as a very large party of ladies, and several hun-
dred spectators.
The engineering arrangements were under the personal
direction of Mr. Charles Rigby, assisted by Mr. Reithei-
mer, the resident engineer of the firm.
The aggregate charge in the four chambers, acting
upon a face of 210 feet in length and 115 in he!gbt, with
a line of least resistance of about 25 feet, was 16,0001 b.
of gunpowder. The voltaic battery was placed a short
distance from the quarries, and the spectators were
within a protected battery or observatory in front of the
mountain, at a distance of only 600 yards, from which
they were enabled to witness the explosion 100 yards
from the face of the quarry. We may here mention that
nearly 6,000,000 tons of stone have been already dis-
lodged by this means for the construction of the harbour,
without failure and without accident. In the mining
operations which take place for this purpose the quantity
of gunpowder used annually exceeds 500,0001 b., or more
than 250 tons, and the stone deposited in the sea for the
formation of the rubble foundations and embankment
exceeds yearly 1,000,000 tons. In addition to the agency
which gunpowder affords for the rapid construction of
this breakwater, there are employed upwards of 1,20
men, a large number of locomotive engines, stationary
engines, travelling cranes, with steam power, and every
modern appliance which mechanical skill can bring to
bear to accelerate the completion of this important har•
bour of refuge.
The northern, or great breakwater, is at present about
7,000 feet in length, or nearly one mile and a half, and
will enclose an area of upwards of 800 acres of Holyhead
Bay, rendering it, as far as it is already projected into
the sea, a perfectly secure roadstead and harbour, avail-
able to the largest vessels of any draught of water, in all
winds, and in all states of the tide. Its necessity and
utility have become so obvious that it doubtless will, for
the benefit of shipping and the public service, be made
complete by considerably extending the arm of the
breakwater which forms the roadstead. So much has the
importance of this harbour been felt by mariners that in
its present state it has afforded protection to more than
a numberi si ct
300 vessels at one time during the heavy gales in this
channel, and must thereby have saved a vast number of
shipwrecks and human life.
To o
t showhis
under
its increasing rhheeaagss itneegletn
ero
utilityf the
t may be mentioned that
in 1854 1,788 vessels, with a tonnage of 137,169 tons,
anchored n
Thevessels
system
p lastted of year.
increasednorthern
to
upwards bre breakwater,,
3wa,
ot eoro,
constructing this breakwater so
as to combine the advantages of obtaining stone from
the adjoining mountain with economy and rapidity of
execution bas been that of forming timber stages, with