The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDINESDA

THE NA PY.

By advices from Madeira and Cadiz we have re-
ceived the following particulars of the movements
of her Majesty's Royal yachts and the arrival of the
Empress of Austria at Cadiz from Madeira :—On
Tuesday, the 23d of April, the officers of the British
squadron in Funchal Roads and his Royal High-
ness the Duke of Oporto, Captain-General of the
Portuguese Navy, had the honour of dining with
the Empress of Austria at her palace on the island.
On the 24th the officers of her Majesty's yachts
Victoria and Albert and Osborne, and her Majesty's
steamer Argus, played a match at cricket with
English gentlemen resident on the island, and
after a lengthened contest, were beaten by the
islanders. The day was oppressively hot, and there
were occasionally tremendous showers of rain. On
the following day it blew a fresh breeze from the
south-west. At three p.m. her Majesty the Em-
press proceeded on board the Portuguese corvette
Bartolomeo Diaz, and partook of luncheon with his
Royal Highness the Duke of Oporto, Captain the
Hon. Joseph Denman being honoured with an in-
vitation to meet the Empress. Royal salutes were
fired as her Majesty embarked and disembarked
from the Bartolomeo Diaz by the batteries on

shore, from the corvette, and from her Majesty's
steamer Argus, the several ships being dressed out

from deck to truck in coloured bunting ; yards were
manned, and the scene, under the glowing April

sun tempered by a pleasant breeze, was most in-
spiriting. The same evening, at seven o'clock, her
Majesty's steamer Cossack, 20, screw, Captain R.
Moorman, arrived in Funchal Roads from England,

on her way to the Cape of Good Hope, and an hour
later her Majesty's ship Isis, Capt. Barnard, arrived
from England, on her way to Ascension. On the
following morning the British Consul paid a visit
to the fleet, and received the usual salute of seven

guns. At 230 p.m. the Duke of Oporto paid a
visit to the Victoria and Albert, and was received

at the gangway by Capt. the Hon, Joseph Denman,
by whom the officers of the yacht were introduced
to his Royal Highness. Royal salutes were fired
and yards manned by the batteries and ships of
war on his Royal Highness going on board the
yacht and returning from her. On the 27th of
April, at 8 p.m., a gun being fired as a signal, the
Victoria and Albert made a grand pyrotechnic dis-

play in the bay. The Austrian colours, on a gigan-
tic scale, were first displayed,.and followed by a

magnificent flight of coloured rockets. Then suc-
ceeded the Portuguese colours, which, to judge by
the vigour of the cheers and vivas on shore, raised

he excitement of the islanders to the highest pitch

of enthusiasm. Rockets of large size followed,
ascending to an immense height. A Royal salute
was then given by 21 discharges of mortar-rockets.
On Sunday morning, the 28th, her Majesty the
Empress of Austria and suite, comprising the fol-
lowing :—Princess Windischgratz, Princess Taxis,

and Countess Hunyady, Ladies in Waiting ; Count
Nobile, Master of the Household ; Count Nietrow-
sky, Lord Chamberlain ; Count Hunyady, Master

of Horse; Count Hohenstein and Count Tra-

pezy, Couriers ; Rev. Dr. Hasel, Chaplain ; Dr.

Kurmar, Physician ; and Councillor Bayer, em-

barked on board the Victoria and Albert, accom-

panied by the Governor of Madeira and a host of
high functionaries. Her Majesty was received by
Captain Denman and his officers, with the officers
of British ships of war in the roads, and by the
hearty cheers of the yacht's crew, which she warmly
acknowledged. The usual Royal salutes were fired
from batteries and shipping, and the latter were
covered with streamers of every hue. An hour later
the Duke of Oporto paid his farewell visit to her
Majesty, and at 1.30 the Victoria and Albert was
steaming out of Funchal Roads with her Imperial
freight, followed by the Osborne, Argus, and Bar-
tolomeo Diaz, the latter with the Duke of Oporto
on board, and which after a few hours was hull
down, owing to the superior speed of the Victoria
and Albert. The yacht reached Cadiz on the Tues-
day following at 9 a.m. Shortly after the yacht
anchored the Count and Countess Crivelli, ac-
companied by the Captain-General of the-port,
paid a visit to the Empress. The Empress was
expected to proceed to Seville to meet the Queen
of Spain, and to leave Cadiz again about the 7th of
May for Gibraltar.
The Adventure, screw troopship, Commander E.
Lacy, pays off her crew, and hauls down the pen-
dant at Portsmouth on Friday, The Sparrowhawk,
5, screw, Commander Byng, is reported to do so on
Monday next.

The Griper gunboat, Lieutenant-Commander S.
Keats, tender to the Cornwallis, has left Sheerness
for Hull, to resume her position at that port.
The Star, 4, steam despatch vessel, has arrived
at Sheerness from Woolwich, and taken up her
position in the third-class steam reserve.
The Phaeton, 51, screw steam frigate, 400 horse-
power (fitted with one of Smith's common screws,
with the leading edges cut off), was taken out of
Sheerness harbour yesterday for the purpose of
testing her machinery and speed. The vessel was
in charge of Capt. Schomberg, chief of the steam
reserve at Sheerness, and of Mr. Price, inspector of
machinery afloat. Although both the wind and
tide were against the vessel, the trial was pro-
nounced very satisfactory, and was attended with
the following results :--Draught of water forward,
18ft. 6in. ; aft., 21ft. 2in. ; mean revolutions, 66;
vacuum, 251 ; mean speed, 12 knots.
Her Majesty's 6-gun paddlewheel steam sloop
Driver, commissioned at Woolwich, was yesterday
docked in preparation for sea. After a thorough
examination she will be again floated on Friday,
and will be supplied with her sea stock, her depar-
ture having been ordered without delay. The Driver
is the first ship appointed to form a portion of the
naval force about to be despatched to the Atlantic
for the protection of the shipping during the conti-
nuation of the war now•threatening between the
Southern and Northern States of America. Her
new commander, Horatio Nelson (1857), yesterday
took up his commission, his pennant having been
previously hoisted by Mr. Patterson, master, in the
absence of the commander. The whole of the crew,
170 in number, yesterday volunteered for the Driver
from the flagship Fisgard in the course of a single
hour, and were Falotted to the receiving hulk Hebe
for tran3fer on Friday. The commander and officers
already joined will take up their berths immediately
on the ship floating out of dock. Her departure:is
expected during the ensuing week. Mr. Patterson,
a convalescent from 11 wounds received from the
Chinese forts while serving in the Weasel, has re-
ceived a notification to the effect that he will not be
required to proceed in the Driver, but will be reap-
pointed to the flagship Fisgard. An Admiralty
order was yesterday transmitted to the Commodore
Superintendent at Woolwich, intimating that a
second paddlewheel vessel of the same class as the
Driver should be put forward for the same service,
to be proposed by the Commodore, as well as a pro-
portion of six gunboats, the other ships necessary
to constitute the force to be fitted out at Chatham,
Portsmouth, &c.
The Arethusa, 51, converting ;from a sailing-ship
to a screw steamer, at Chatham, is ordered, when
r received
completed, to be sent to the steam basin at
o
to be fitted with her machinery and
engineseved of
at .soothe
ordnance
horse
of 5 6 guns,
e cwt. ach
each, of 65
6 9 sfeet departmentui.' fol; ebe
fol-
lowing armament to be put on board her, viz.:--
10
cwt.
nheandle9s
in length feeltenignle; s of
length
22
6
45 feet 6 inches in length ; and
one cwt.
swivel gun, 10 feet in length. As
s 0068-pounder
p each,
tehuen d
Arethusa
e rr e
n
s
8 thusa has been undocked the 50-
gun sailing frigate Nankin will, according to pre-
sent orders, be placed in the same dock to be
lengthened, and undergo the necessary alterations
to convert her into a screw steamer.
84, Captain J. Pafford, late the
ear-Admiral Sir R. L. Baynes,
fixasTgcshihßei.p:Gaconfggineisi
jet
the

being dismantled at Sheerness. The crew are to
be paid off on the 15th inst.
The Rinaldo, 17, screw, was commissioned at
Portsniouth on Monday for Commander Hewett,
V.C., who joined yesterday.
Eighty ordinary seamen and firstclass lads from
the flagship Fisgard are ordered to be despatched
from Woolwich to Sheerness for service on board
the screw steam corvette challenger, 22, recently
launched at Woolwich, and commissioned by
Captain Kennedy for sea.
The following ships have been taken up by the
War Department for the transport of military
stores from Woolwich for stations in the British
possessions abroad, viz, -- The Gondola, the
Lunaria, the Rambler, the Queen, the Hero of the
Hill, the Duchess of Sutherland, the Black Eagle,
the Wanderer; the Northumberland, the Eliza-
beth, and the Patrician, sailing vessels ; and the
Britannia, the Peninsula,lthe Eva, and her Ma-
jsly's ship. Wye, steamers.

In order to ascertain the nature of the ground
at the entrance of the river Medway, on which it
is intended to erect the additional fortifications for
the protection of that river, borings have been
commenced at different places in front of the exist-
ing works, but up to the present time the results
have been so far unsatisfactory that the original
plans will undergo some '
portant modifications.
In the reconstruction of th new line of sea defences
it was originally intended
.o extend them close to
high-water mark, in, order ko push them out as far
seaward as possible. Owing, however, to the un-
satisfactory nature of the substratum of the soil on
which the heavy batteries store intended to be con-
structed, coupled with the great expense in carry-1
ing out the original scheme, it has been decided
that the permanent position of the new fortifica-
tions shall not extend so far seaward as was at first
proposed, though of course the additional line of
defences will be of such a character as to render the
approach to the river Medway almost impossible.
The 100-pounder Armstrong guns, with which it is
intended during the present financial, year to arm
the forts and batteries of the Chatham district, will
be supplied, in the first instance, to the defences at
the entrance to the Medway, where they will be
mounted in the most commanding situations, the
positions of which will be dicided upon by the colo-
nel commanding Royal Attillery and the colonel
commanding Royal Engineers. The martello tower
erected at the right hand entrance to the river will
also be supplied with the 100-pounder Armstrong
guns, instead of the ordiriary 68-pounder 10-inch
guns with which it is at present armed. The con-
tract for the erection of the new fortifications on
the Isle of Grain, on the opposite slore of the es-
tuary of the Medway, has been taker by Mr. Baker,
London, and the works are to be proceeded with at
once, in order that they may be completed as rapidly
as possible. The sum to be expended in the erection
of additional fortifications in the Chatham district
alone for the protection of the important naval and
military establishments at Omtham and Sheerness,
will probably extend to £2,000,000.
The following appointments were made yester-
day rat the Admiralty :—Lieut. A. H, Alington
to the Rinaldo ; Lieut. Henry Cardale and Lieut.
Edmund J. Church to the Driver ; Lieut.
Hilary M. Carre to the Challenger ; Lieut.
Edward L. Hublyn to the Wellesley, for service in
the ordinary ; Lieut. R. P. Fitzgerald, additional,
to the Cambridge ; Thos. Leethem, master, to the
Madagascar; Wm. E. Fitzgerald, mate, to the
Challenger ; Wm. Skipwith, W. B. Walpole, and
W. H. Hall, midshipmen, to the Challenger; E.
Day and Roberts Byng, midshipmen, to the Rin-
aldo; Fred. Hire, master's assistant, to the Chal-
lenger ; Henry A. Easther, master's assistant, to the'
Rinaldo; and Jdhn Browne, master's assistant, to
the Driver.