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

THENATY.

Thu Duke of Somerset, as First Lord of the Ad-
miralty, and several members of the board, will pay
an of cial visit to Deptford Dockyard to-day.
The. fine frigate Arethusa, 51, which has been
converted from a sailing ship to a screw steamer at
Chatham dockyard►
has several hundred ship-
wrights and completedployed on her, in order that
she may beand undocked by Friday
nest, the 9th inst., when the iron mailclad steamer
Defence will be taken into the dock to be vacated.
Yesterday, a numerous party of mechanics com-
inenoed sheathing her with Muntz's patent metal,
_ _

which is to be employed instead of copper.
The, Gloucester, 50, fitting at Chatham for har-
bour service, to supply the place of the Hussar, 40,
destroyed by fire at Shoeburyness, was completed
yesterday. She is to be used as a receiving ship
in Chatham harbour, for the officers and seamen of
the various ships fitting at that port.
Capt. W. Aldham, C. B ~ commanding her Maj esty's
ship Valorous, was removed from his ship yesterday
in Portsmouth harbour and conveyed to the Royal
Naval Hospital at Haslar for surgical treatment,
he having some time back, while journeying by land
to Vera Cruz, been attacked by banditti and severely
wounded in the thigh by a ball. We are glad to
hear that the medical authorities report favourably
of the state of his wound, and that his speedy con-
valescence may be expected. The Valorous sailed
from Portsmouth yesterday afternoon for Devon-

and clean them periodically, and brown the barrels
every second year, besides marking the arms of their
regiments, including those of sergeants ; 4. they
shall keep up the tools in the armourer's field forge
without any expense to the public ; the sum of 11
a-year per arm of rank and file shall be deducted
from each captain's contingent allowance, and
credited to the public, in aid of the expense in-
curred in maintaining the arms in repair ; 6. all re-
pairs to arms injured, either intentionally or by
carelessness, are to be paid by the men. These re-
gulations do not apply to the sergeants' short rifles
the parts of which are not interchangeable, nor do
they exonerate captains of companies from their
responsibility for the perfect efficiency of the arms
belonging to the men composing these companies.
Officers are directed to satisfy themselves, by means
of frequent and careful inspection, that all repairs
are promptly and properly performed by the ser-
geant-armourer.
In order to expedite the demolition of the exist-
ing fortifications known as the Cavalier and Half-
moon batteries at Garrisrn Point, at the entrance
to the Medway, and to prepare for laying the mas-
sive concrete base on which the foundations of the
new casemated batteries are to rest, 100 additional
workmen have been placed on the works. The exist-
ing batteries are of very ancient date, some portions
of them having been built prior to the reign of
Charles 11. Recently, during the progress of the
excavations, a shell was discovered near the spot on
which the old works now stand, stamped Van
Tromp," and bearing the date 1665. It is supposed
to have been fired when the Dutch fleet, under Ad-
miral De Ruyter, sailed up the Medway to Chat-
ham, and burnt several vessels of war at Upnor.
The new works are to be constructed under the
superintendence of Mr. Lacy, C.E.

BOAT-BUILDING BY STEAM.