The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-11 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

Rear-Admiral of the Blue R. S. Robinson, the
newly-appointed controller of the navy, paid his first
official visit to Chatham Dockyard on Saturday, for t
the purpose of making inspection of that establish- I
meat. Admiral Robinson, who was accompanied
by Capt. Goldsmith, C. 8., and the other principal
officials of the yard, inspected the 'various ships
building under the different sheds, including the
Bulwark, 91, the Royal Oak, 91, the Belvidera, 51,
the Rattlesnake, 22, the Menai, 21, the Reindeer,
17, and the Myrmidon, 4, as well as the Bombay,
51, and the Arethusa, 51, in dock converting into
screw steamers ; and after transacting some busi-
ness with Capt. Goldsmith, the superintendent, re- ,
turned to the Admiralty in the afternoon. 1
The Marlborough, 131, screw, Captain W. H.
Stewart, C. 8., arrived at Spithead yesterday morn-
ing from the Mediterranean, and, on anchoring,
exchanged the usual honorary salutes with the
Victory, flagship of the Commander-in-Chief at the
port. She brings home 34 naval invalids, who
were landed and sent on board the flagship and to
the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar. Three deaths
occurred on the passage home, consumptive cases.
Her dates are--Corfu, Feb. 13 ; Malta, Feb. 21 ;
and Gibraltar, March 3. Stayed at the lastnamed
port two days, and filled up coal alongside the new
mole, where the appearance of so large a ship ex.
cited the greatest interest. The passage home has
been made under steam, calms having prevailed the
whole way until within sight of the Isle of Wight.
Off the coast of Portugal had dense fogs, which
rendered it necessary to keep the bell and steam
whistle sounding. The Ariadne and Diadem frigates
arrived at Gibraltar from Lisbon three days previ-
ous to the Marlborough's arrival. The Algiers
passed the Rock on the day previous to the Marl-
borough's arrival, on her way to Malta. The Im-
mortalite was daily expected at the Rock. The
Indus, Peninsular and Oriental Co.'s steamer, had
not arrived at Gibraltar from Malta when the Marl-
borough left. The day previous to arriving at Gib-
raltar spoke the Peninsular and Oriental Co.'s
steamer Pera, with the outward mails, all well, and
reported having experienced heavy weather. On
Friday last, in crossing the bay, was passed by the
Magdalena,RoyalWest India mail packet,homeward
bound. The ship's heavy guns and serviceable stores
were landed and left at Malta, filling up for Eng-
land with old guns or stores. Many of her crew
have been left behind at Malta, having volunteered
for other ships on the station. The ship's powder
and shell will be taken out of her to-day at Spit-
head, prior to her going into harbour, where she
will be paid off and re-commissioned by her present
captain on the following day to renew her service
as flagship to the Mediterranean squadron. The
greater portion of her best seamen have already
volunteered for her on recommission. The ship is
apparently in splendid order, and her machinery is
also stated to be in first rate condition. The voy.
age home has been made with four boilers, working
expansively to save fuel. Some £15,000 will be
paid to the Marlborough's crew on the ship's pre-
sent commission being closed. The system lately
introduced into the navy of allowing seamen to
remit their money to England when on a foreign
station, but not allowing the money to be received
direct by the men themselves, does not appear to
work at all well. If a man have no relatives in
England whom he can fully trust to remit his
money to, that they, in turn, may remit it to him
again through the post office or otherwise (for by
this means only can a seaman get possession of the
pay due to him when on a foreign station), he re-
mits it to some one in England who to him may be
a comparative stranger, and must trust to his
honour whether ho receives it or not. Many of the
_Marlborough's crew have made remitments to
England before receiving orders for home. These
remitments are now on their way back to Malta,
but meantime the ship has come to England, and
many of the men may lose their money. It has
been suggested by those competent to form a sound
opinion upon the subject that savings banks should
bo established on board ship on a similar plan to
regimental savings banks, where the seaman should
receive a fair amount of interest for the use of his
money ; could draw out what he wanted at various
times ; and, what would be of greater importance
still, would, in addition to increased self-respect
and moral independence, learn to justly appreciate
provident habits. The Marlborough saw nothing
of the Narcissus flagship of Sir B. W. Walker,
K. C. B

The Himalaya screw troopship, Capt. John Sec-
combo, ordered to receive new cylinders at Keyham-
yard, Devonport, has, since her present commission,
gone over a distance in miles equal to five times
round the world, and conveyed 47,000 troops, besides
some thousand tons of stores; and this without any
other loss than one jibboom.

The screw steam contract-budt gunboats Heron
and Doterel were placed in No. 3 dock at Keyham
steam-yard on Thursday to have their valves'exa-
mined.

There is a rumour at Devonport that the dis-
charge of artisans and labourers from the naval
establishments is about to be discontinued. The
rumour arises probably from the presumed intention
of the Lords of the Admiralty to retain all the en-
gine fitters at Keyham steam-yard in relation to
the requirements of the screw steamship Black
Prince, 36, building at Glasgow. About 92 men
were discharged on Saturday; many of the skilled
artisans have anticipated the time of their discharge.
Lieut. the Hon. John Carnegie hoisted his pen-
nant on Friday on board the screw steam gunboat
Procris, 3, at Plymouth. She is to have a crew of
30 men, and will probably be sent to the coast of
Scotland to protect the fishing interest there.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Geyser, 6, Com-
mander J. Jackson, from Queenstown, with super-
numeraries from the Sanspareil and Hawke, arrived
at Plymouth on Friday. The Geyser left Queens-
town Harbour on Wednesday, but, on account of
sudden heaVy weather from the south-west, was
obliged to anchor off Spike Island, and sailed thence
on Thursday.

Great progress is making with the rigging of
the screw steam gunvessel steady, 5, at Plymouth.
Her topsail-yards were crossed on Saturday.
The usual course of lectures was resumed on
Friday evening on board the gunnery-ship Cam-
bridge, at Plymouth. Lieut. Philip H. Colomb,
Flag Lieut. to Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley,
gave a very instructive and clever lecture on the
" Rise and Progress of the British Navy." It will
be completed in three lectures fortnightly.

The cost of fitting the screw steamship Hero,
91, at Plymouth, for the conveyance of his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales to Canada was
£3,878 9s. Bd.

The paddlewheel steamship Dee, 4, Master Com-
mander J. C. Pullen, from Woolwich, arrived at
Plymouth on Thursday evening. After discharging
machinery for the screw steam frigate Liverpool,
51, and the screw steamship Defiance, 91, she will'
proceed to Glasgow -with boilers for the screw
steamship Warrior, 30. , '
Letters by the Brazil--mail state that her Ma-
jesty's ship Oberon sailed from Buenos Ayres on the
19th of Jan. for Montevideo, and thence to Rio
Janeiro, at which port she was lying when the
Magdalena left. The Bethune, Liverpool ship which
zas fouled during the August gale at Buenos Ayres
as sold on the 25th of Yan. for £3OO. The French
gunboat Fulminante .and the American gunboat
Seminole Were at Buena Ayres on the 27th of Jan.
Her At •
ship Curae-oa sailed from Monte-
video foarjejillnitallon the 28th of January. On the
29th the
steamer Saintonge arrived
from Rio, and leitnr
The following Whips
oef same day for Buenos Ayres.
were at Montevideo on
the 30th of January :2‘;
frigaw.pauder Majesty's ship Curlew,
the French
French gunboat
D'Entrecasteaux, ° the
Spanishth brig Graving, the
Spanish gunboat Concer%
Congress, the American deapittechAmerican frigate
the Brazilian corvette V. Imp,,io;bmGat' Pulawski,
sett aranagua.
the Brazilian gunboats Meorin and paranar°' and
The erection of the groins on the
ana earri
face of Lump's
Fort, near Portsmouth, rapidlyisbein.gers
ed'out
by the contractors, Messrs. Roo Booth. The
material used for their construction consists of up_
wards of 1,000 oak piled, each 9 feet long, and 2 inch
elra planking. The piles are driven 6 feet in the I

shingle, the planking running 5 feet in depth, exca-
vating from the level 2 feet, A continuous line of
pile and planking runs for 1,200 yards par i I lel with
the face of the fort, at the junction of the shingle with
the soil. From this line of work the gr ns run out
160 feet seaward in diagonal directions. It is doubted
by many whether these means will nswer effec-
tually for any length of time in preventing the
encroachments of the sea on the beach. During the
past half century the action of the sea at this point
has advanced the line of high water mark 60 feet
further inland. In the original designs for the con-
struction of Lump's Fort a stone sea wall was in-
cluded, but the construction of this was found by
the contractors of the work to be impossible, owing
to the absence of any foundation. It was after-
wards decided to erect groins for the protection of
the beach and glacis of the fort, and if the present
experiment should prove successful, it is contem-
I plated to carry out the same system from Southsea
\Castle and Fort Cumberland, the whole extent of
beach between the two forts wasting considerably
from the wash of the sea on each recurrence of a
south-east gale.