The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-18 00:00:00

EXPERIMENTS AT SIWEBU.RYNESS.

The second day's experiments at Shoebnryness passed
off with great success. The practice consisted of a
continuance of the fire against the Plymouth shield, and
of some additional shots at the two single Thin.
plates. The first round was from the Rodman gun,
with a round shot of 4501 b., charge 8341 b. This
was aimed at the left hand, or 15in. part of the
shield, and struck in front of an upright standard,
making an indent of 7in., but doing very little further
damage behind, although it struck a place that had been
much punished already. Then followed a shot from the
great rifled gun, with 761 b. charge. It struck below
the porthole, 2ft. 3in. from the ground, under the
left-band corner of the port, and about one foot from
the vertical standard to the left of the embrasure.
The point of the shot penetrated 12 or 13 inches,
cracking the plate at the near corner of the porthole. In
the rear the damage was considerable. The third round
was a shell from the same gun ; it was aimed also at the
15in. side, and struck fair between the standards three
feet from the left hand of the target and six and a half
feet from the ground. It went through the plates, break.
ing and turning the inner plank against the pier behind.
The fourth round was a shell from another gun, the 18-ton
gun, of 10 inches bore, and fired with 601 b. of powder, the
bursting charge in the shell being 101 b. The shell passed
through the shield and exploded inside, producing many
fragments of shell and plate, some of them of considerable
size. The two rounds last named produced the worst
effect yet recorded, the latter one making almost a wreck
of the two inner layers of this part of the shield. It is
right, however, to state that there had been four previous
shots on this part of the structure, and that its strength
had thereby become much impaired. The fifth round was
with the same gun and projectile as the last, but aimed on
the part immediately below the porthole. The shell pene-
trated 161 in., and stuck in the plate, the burst-
ing charge exploding outside. It made merely a
bulge and crack in the front, but did much damage
behind. The rolled plate which had been hit before with
the 12in. gun was fired at again with a shot and a shell
rom the 10in., charge 601 b. The shot struck in the
middle of the width of the plate, about 2ft. 6in. from one
end ; it penetrated 10 inches, and caused no damage
beyond a bulge and a star-crack at the back, of the same
kind as the former round. The experiments are to be
::ontinued.

HE R MAJESTY'S OPERA.
(THE ATRE-RO YAL, D d FRY-LANE).
'Edens —Nilsson—Kellogg.
Extra '• ight.
THIS EVENING (THURSDAY), June 18, Mozart's Opera,
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO.
II Conte d'Almaciya„ Mr. Santley: Figaro, Signor Gassier;
Dottore Bartolo, Signor Scalese: Basilic), Mr. I.yall; Don Curzio.
Signor Agretti; Antonio, Signor Zoboll ; Marcellina, Corsi ;
Cherubino, Mdlle. Christine Nilsson; Susanne, Mille. Clara
Louise Kellogg ; and La Contessa, Mdlle.
Conductor--Signor a rditl.
Doors open at Eight o'clock. Commence at half-past Eight.
St Ills, One Guinea; kmohitheatre Stalls, 7s. and as.; Reserved
Box Seats, ca: Gallefy, 2s. ill. •
Boxes, stalls, and plaees may be obtained at the new Box-
°lice of Her Majesty's Theatre, under the Colonnade (second
door from Pall-mall), open daily from 10 till 5, under the super-
intendence of Mr Nugent; also at the Box-office, Theatre Royal,
Drury-lane (uu ler the portico in Brydges-street), open from 10
till 8. Tickets also at all Librarians' and Music-sellers'.