The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-19 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

On the " Affairs of the Navy," our able weekly contem-
porary, the Plymouth Times, of Saturday last, contains an--
other forcible article. Speaking of the late experiments on
board the Scourge steam-sloop at Portsmouth, it observes, in
corroboration of our own statements:—
" This important step in naval warfare certainly origi-
nated 'with Sir George Cockbttrn, always actively engaged
in forwarding the interests of the country in various ways,
but more especially in the department of its navy, with the
whole routine of which he. is most thoroughly acquainted.
His view of the propriety of giving steam ships a mortar arma-
ment cannot but be considered a wonderful advance in steam
warfare. And here 'we may remark upon the great import-
ance to the Government of having about the n well-educated
men to carry into certain operation any comprehensive view
which the heads of its naval department may entertain from
great personal experience in the navy, of the construction,
armament, &c., of its ships."
It is a poor satisfaction that the country is indebted to the
blunders of the Navy-office for those experiments. But for
the failure of the Scourge, a steamer of 1,124 tons burden,.to
carry an armament commensurate with her great tonnage,
these important results would not have been ascertained, at
least for some time. The Scourge• was designed by the
surveyor as a powerful steam-frigate; but the Cyclops,
Gorgon, and others, proving inefficient, in consequence of
the mistakes committed in calculating their displacement,
weights, &c., the somewhat more indefinite term of " steam-
vessel" was given to her—postponing the classification until
they ascertained her real draught of water when launched,
when they could call her a " frigate" or a " sloop," as their
inaccuracies would allow them, Unfortunately, she did not
prove an exception to the general rule, and even as a
" sloop," she was deemed inefficient, and was thus selected
to ascertain the capability of steamers to fire shells from
mortars. The Plymouth Times gives the credit of furnish-
ing all the plans and caleuletions for this experiment, to-
gether with the working out of the details, to Mr. Watts.
the master-builder's assistant, at Portsmouth (a member of
the proscribed School of Naval Architecture), " who stands
highly distinguished for sound judgment and mathematical
and mechanical ability."

The vilifiers of the School of Naval Architecture, who say
that " it is an insult to common sense to talk of these school-
men as qualified ship-builders, versed in the routine of the
dockyards, as we have daily proofs of their total inefficiency,"
in almost the same breath, speaks thus of Mr. Watts, in no-
ticing the exercise of his professional skill on one of the sur-
veyor's other blunders :
" The sliding step of the Vanguard's mainmast was
moved forward three inches, without lifting the mast, which
Mr. Watts, a most active and talented officer, proposed to
execute, for the purpose of saving time and trouble in
shifting the mast. To all the uninitiated, aye, and to some
of the supposed initiated, this appeared an extremely bold
proposal, on account of the very confined space in which
the operation was to be performed ; but Mr. Watts's ar-
rangements and calculations were so complete, that to the
surprise and delight of ail those who witnessed it, the mast,
top, and cap, rigging, and stays, the whole weighing up-
wards of thirty tons, were moved by only eight or ten me-
chanics, with screw and wedges—displaying a beautiful ex-
pisition of the facility of moving the greatest weight by
these modifications of the inclined plane."
From so polluted a source even this testimony to the truth
is deprived of half its force. The same parties, after having
heaped the utmost opprobrium on the members of the
School of Naval Architecture, have not hesitated, on occa-
sions on which such pretensions could not be disputed, to
claim credit for a connexion with it, and to seek advice and
assistance from its distinguished members.
The men who have by extraordinary assiduity and great
practical experience in naval architecture attained high
positions in the building department of the Government
service; and those who have, to a regular course of
scientific instruction, superadded a thorough 'practical ac-
quaintance with the details of ship-building, are alike the
objects of the vituperation of the Navy-otice—all are pro-
scribed and denounced as inefficient men who do not admire
the' happy intuitive" principles of the surveyor and his man
Friday ; their virulence increasing in proportion to their suc-
cessive failures. But such a state of things cannot last. The
Admiralty must see the advantage of altering the constitu-
tion of the present Navy-office, and of rendering full and
ample justice to the distinguished members of the late School
of Naval Architecture. Thus says our contemporary
We are firm in our conviction of the absolute necessity
which exists, more especially in the present state of the
Government ship-building, for resorting to some gcod and
well ordered national establishment, by which the great
Master minds of the country may be enlisted and brought
forward by a proper course of education in the science of
naval architecture, as applied to the Government service,
and in the meantime, to put into responsible official situa-
tions, men such as Mr. Watts, Mr. Peak, Mr. Chatfield,
and others, who have been educated upon the filth
of an absolute contract with former Governments, signed by
I the King in Council, pledging the Government to that effect,