The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-02 00:00:00

port, where she will be paid off.
The Nimrod, 6, screw, Lieut.-Commander Arthur
paid off her crew and was put out of commission
yesterday alongside Portsmouth Dockyard.
The screw steam gunvessel Surprise, 5, Commander
Whyte, left Plymouth Sound yesterday morning for
the Mediterranean,
The following transports having been char-
tered. for the military store service, were yester-
day registered to load from the Royal Arsenal,
Woolwich, viz., the Clarendon, for St. Helena ;
the Tigress, for Rio de Janeiro ; the Heather-
bell, for Cape Town ; the Fenella, for Colombo ; the
Britannia, steamer, for Gibraltar ; and the St. Croix,
for Quebec, Canada.
The following Government vessels in Hamoaz.e
are to be sold by order of the Lords 026 e. Admi
12-
Pilot,
ralty :—The sailing vessels Spartan, , ,
Express, 6, Crane, 6, Petrel, 5, Pandora, 5, Spider
schooner, Portland, 50, Lively receiving hulk, Lap-
wing, 4, Pallas coal depot, and steam vessels Mer-
lin, 6, Arrow, 4, Lyra, 9, and Viper, 4.
The Crocodile receiving ship, Commander Greet,
for many years moored off the Tower, has been for-
warded to Deptford; and the business of the ship
will be transferred to a branch office of the Fisgard,
to be established in London, under the charge of a
master of the Royal Navy.
The construction of the new transport and coal-
ing jetty along the south end of Portsmouth dock-
yard, which has just been completed at a cost of
upwards of £15,000, has not yet led, nor is it likely
at present to lead to the accommodation which had
been at first expected from it, owing to the shal-
lowness of the water alongside. One transport, the
Cressy, with troops on board, was placed alongside
and the troops disembarked from her, but the ship
took the ground, but the experiment will not be re-
peated. It may be said to be the intention of the
authorities to deepen the ground alongside the jetty
by dredging, but the question then arises—Can the
ground be dredged with safety to the structure ;
and, even if this could be done, would it not fill up
again ? This jetty, with its 600 feet frontage, extends
about 60 feet out into the harbour from the dockyard
wall, and to make it perform the duties for which it
was originally designed it is apparently necessary
to extend its front further into the harbour some 15
or 20 feet, supposing that the structure itself is suf-
ficiently strong to bear such an extension. The con-
struction of jetties without sufficient depth of water
to enable ordinary troopships to go alongside, and
of docks too shallow to receive ships of a deep
draught of water, seems to be an established failing
in the additions and alterations in Portsmouth
Dockyard. No. 11 dock, which has just been again
taken in hand by the contractor, has an entrance
which was constructed some 13 years since at a cost
of £5,000. At that time ships like the Warrior
were not thought of, and the docks capable of ren-
dering general service to the ships of those days
will necessarily be almost valueless for the future.
The completion of No. 11 will now only add to the
resources of Portsmouth yard a dock that will be too
shallow to receive a ship of any size. The vital
importance of large docks at Portsmouth will per-
haps not be acknowledged until some half-dozen
ships run inside the Isle of Wight for repairs after
a desperate engagement with an enemy's fleet in
the Channel. One thing is, however, acknowledged
by all. In the event of hostilities with a country
situate so close to us as France is, that Power which
could soonest repair its fleets and despatch them
again to sea in search of the enemy must enjoy an
immense advantage over its opponent.
The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Lieuts. H. L. Perceval and J.
E. M. Wilson, to the Warrior ; Sub-Lieut. A. G. C.
Tait, to the Donegal ; G. H. Blakey, master, to the
Warrior ; L. J. Monteith, surgeon, to the London ;
S. J. D. Wells, surgeon. to the Warrior ; Astley
Cooper, assist.-surg., to the Cumberland ; David
Duncan, assist.-surg., to the Indus ; Jas. Thomson,
assist.-surd., to the Caesar ; Iluxton Maxwell,
assist.-surg., to the Pembroke; Josiah Austen,
assist.-surg., to the Warrior ; E. W. Coleman,
acting assist.-surg., to the Warrior ; H. Macdonnell,
acting assist.-surg., to the Virago ; Belgrave Ninnis,
acting assist.-surg., to the Impregnable, for Ply-
mouth Hospital ; J. T. Moore, acting assist.-Burg.,
to the Victory, for Hasler Hospital ; the Rev. 11. N.
Jackson, chaplain ac d naval instructor, to the War-
rior; R.A.Fowler, naval instructor, to the Cadmus;
John Phillips, second master, to the Warrior ; J. N.
de Vries, paymaster, to the Warrior ; W. H. Clyma,
paymaster, to the Spiteful • G. A. Welch, paymas-
ter, to the Virago ;J, W. and Thos. W.
Moore, assist.-paymasters to the Warrior; N. J.
Aaron, clerk, to the Warrior ' • and O. F. Matthews,
assist. cl.erk, to the Warrior.