The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-06 00:00:00

TILE NAV.):

The Duke of Somerset will hold his first Levee
.o-morrow at tie Admiralty, Whitehall.

The Princess Royal, 91,serew,Caiiiiin C. Fel-
lowes, flagship of Rear-Admiral It. Smart, K.H.,
was swung yesterday at the steam guardships'
moorings in Rortsmouth Harbour, for the adjust-
ment of her compasses.
The Cockatrice, 4, new class screw gunboat, in
the steam basin at Portsmouth, rigged, stored, and
armed, is ordered for immediate commission.

A Russian steam transport passed through Spit-
head yesterday frpm the eastward for Southampton
Water.

The Times correspondent at Plymouth has ob-
tained, from various sources, details of the recent
stranding of the paddlewheel steam sloop Hydra,
6, Commander Richard V. Hamilton, near the island
of Cuba. It will be recollected that her crew were
'sfflicted with fever, and that some deaths occurred,
an consequence of which she was sent to Halifax,
where they were all placed in hospital and the
ship fumigated. After this the Hydra was ordered
to resume her duties in the West Indies, looking
after slave ships and surveying. In the prosecution
of the latter duty she left a little place called
Baracoa, in the island of Cuba, at 10 a.m, on the
10th of January, and at 4 30 in the afternoon was
on shore on a small, unknown, and uninhabited
island called Cayo-Moa, near the east end of Cuba.
At the time of the accident Mr. Hitchfield, the
master, was on the topsail yard, and Mr. Hamilton,
her commander, was on the paddlebox. It ap-
pears that the water there shoaled very sud-
denly and unexpectedly. They struck about three-
quarters of a mile from Cayo-Moa, and within 10
minutes' pull of a landing-place. All the coal was
thrown overboard, the water started, and every
other means adopted for the purpose of lightening
the ship. The provisions were sent ashore and
tents pitched, and partly here and partly on board
the crew remained for four days, during which
time they continued without changing their clothes.
On the third day, the 13th of January, a severe
storm occurred, and it was mach feared that the
ship would go to pieces. A heavy purchase had
been maintained astern, and, finding on the fourth
day that this had slackened, all hands were called
to the capstan, and, advantage being taken of a
heavy swell, the Hydra was floated off. Just after
she was released a Spanish war steamship, with a
commodore on board, hove in sight for their relief,
the lengthened absence of the Hydra having
alarmed the Spanish Admiral. After the Hydra
was off measures were adopted for the recovery of
her spars, stores, &c., and water for ten days' con-
sumption was distilled. While doing this it came
on to blew heavily, and she was compelled to pro-
ceed to sea and keep up steam, being unprovided
with anchors. The Hydra will, it is said, be docked
either at Havannah or Jamaica. Rear-Admiral
Sir Alexander Milne, 8.C.8., Commander-in-
Chief of the North America and West Indies
station, was expected at Jamaica, and the future
course of the sloop depended in some measure on
the Admiral's decision. Some of the crew con-
sider that she will be condemned as unfit for repair,
and that they will be home in April. The island
of Cayo-Moa is said not to be laid down in any
chart, and the coast near, it is stated, was never
before visited by a British ship of war. The crew
are reported to have been cheerful and obedient
throughout.

The screw steam gun vessel Steady, 4, having
been masted, was hauled yesterday into the basin
at Devonport dockyard, and the riggers have com-
menced rigging her; the lower rigging is over her
mastheads.

The screw steam troopship Himalaya, Captain
John Seccombe, returned to Plymouth Sound at 1
p.m. yesterday, from her trial strip outside. Capt.
Astley C. Key, C. 8., of the guardship of the steam
ordinary Indus, 78, Mr. John Trickett, chief engi-
neer and inspector of machinery at Keyham steam-
yard; and an officer connected with the building
department at the Devonport dockyard went out
in her.

The screw steam gun vessel Penguin, 5, Lieut.
and Commander M. Hardy, left Plymouth Sound
at 6.30 p.m. on Monday for the Channel, where it
was expected she would join her consort, the frigate
Narcissus, and proceed with her to Ascension and
the Cape of Good Hope.
The Lords of the Mmiraltyhave directed that

the construction of the line-a-battle ships Robust
and Ocean, in Devonport Dockyard, is to be sus-
pended. In the present financial year only 200
shipwrights are to be employed on new work,
Five artisans less are to be employed in the mast-
house, boathouse, and carpenter's house. Eight
pairs of surveyors are sent back to their original
duty as lahr.urers.
The undernamed have been nnrriinated to naval
cadetships :—Edward George Deedes, Rowland
Mack worth, Hugh Askew, Robert Leonard Groome,
Richard Dundas Warren, Walter B. Elliott,
Herbert C. Sayce, Eustace Frederick Grove, and
Frederick J. Grieve.

Admiralty notice has been given at Chatham
Dockyard that the next competitive examination
of the candidates for entry into that establishment
as apprentices will take place before the Civil
Service Commissioners on the 24th and 25th
of June next. The candidates for entry into
Sheerness Dockyard are to be sent to Chatham,
where they will undergo their examination.
The follo Ring
appointments 'were made yester-

day at the Admiralty :—Lieut. the Hon. Henry
IL A'Court, to the Aboukir; Lieut. Francis S.
Thompson and Lieut. Charles H. Stirling, to the
Excellent; B. E. W. Gwynne, master's assistant to
the Cossack ; Robert K. Heaven, assist.-paymaster,
to the Immortalite ; and Thomas 0. Joynson, as-
sist.-paymaster in charge, to the We§er.