NAVAL FORCE OF GREAT BRITAIN ON THE 1st JANUARY, 1842.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 20, 7 October 1842, Page 3

NAVAL FORCE OF GREAT BRITAIN ON THE Ist JANUARY, 1842.

The hollowing is an official return of the Naval and Marine forces of Great Britain on the Ist January, 1842, including the present promotion on the occasion of the birth of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales: — COMMISSIONERS FOR EXECUTING THE OFFICE OF LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. The Honorable the Earl of Haddington. Admiral the Right Honorable Sir George Cockburn, G.C.B. Vice-Admiral Sir William Hall Gage, G.C.11. Rear-Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour, G.C.H. Captain the Honorable William Gordon. The Right Honorable Henry Thomas Lowry Corry. royal navy. Admiral of the Fleet—Sir Charles Edmund Nugent, G.C.B. Admirals of the Red, 14; of the White, 16 ; of the Blue, 16 ; total, 46. Vice-Admirals, ditto, 19 ; of the White, 19 ; of the Blue, 20; total, 58. Rear-Admirals, ditto, 33; of the White, 34 ; of the Blue, 40: total, 107. Captains, 709 ; ditto, retired on half-pay, 6 ; ditto under Her Majesty’s order in council of the 10th of August, 1840, 49. Commanders, 809; ditto retired under His Majesty’s order in council of January, 1816, and November, 1830, 298,

Naval Knights of Windsor, 7 ; Lieutenants, 2707 ; Masters for service, 494 ; ditto retired, 6; Mates, 445 ; Pursers, 520.

Medical Officers—l inspector-general of hospitals and fleet; 9 inspectors ditto ; 13 deputy ditto; surgeons for service, 371; assistant ditto, 249; physicians, 7; deputy inspectors retired', 2 ; surgeons retired, 36 ; ditto on commuted allowance, 42 ; ditto unfit for active service, 208 ; assistant-surgeons retired, 54 ; dispensers of hospitals, 8. Chaplains—Active service, 39 ; retired, 4.

Naval instructors and schoolmasters, 37; Naval Aides-dc-Camp to Her Majesty, 11. Marine Aides-dc-Camp to Her Majesty, 2. ROYAL MARINE FORCES.

1 major-general, 4 colonel-commandants of divisions, 5 colonels of divisons ; 13 lieutenant colonels, 99 captains, 131 first-lieutenants, 62 second-lieutenants.

Royal Marine Artillery—l licutcnant-colonel, 4 captains, 7 first-lieutenants, 2 second-lieute-nants, 1 surgeon. Staff Officers —1 deputy adjutant-general, 1 assistant adjutant-general, 8 adjutants, 4 quar-ter-masters of divisions, 4 barrack-masters of divisions, 2 deputy-inspectors of hospitals, 2 surgeons, 6 assistants. Field Officers on unattached half-pay—6 colonels, 2 majors, 61 captains, 11 first lieutenants, 7 second lieutenants.

Officers on reserved half-pay—l lieutenantcolonel, 1 major, 72 captains, 168 first-lieute-nants, 132 second-lieutenants, 1 surgeon. The above force consists of 91 companies, stationed as follows: —Chatham, Ist division, 23 companies ; Portsmouth, 2nd division, 28 companies ; Plymouth, 3rd divison, 24 companies; Woolwich, 4th division, 19 companies; Royal Marine Artillery, three companies, head-quar-ters, Portsmouth.

The naval force of Great Britain, the largest in the world, consists of 590 ships of war, carrying from 1 to 120 guns each, of different calibres, which are cither in ordinary or commission. Of these immense flotilla, 105 are .armed steam-vessels, constructed on the most scientific and approved principles, for active sea service. To man this extensive fleet in time of peace there, arc 23,000 able bodied seamen, 2,000 lads, and 14,000 Royal Marines. This number will, however, be greatly augmented as the vessels ordered to be put in commission for China, &c., are to have full compliment of able seamen.

MELBOURNE.

Gipps Land. —We are happy to have it in our power to announce the safe arrival in Melbourne, from Gipps Land, of a party consisting of Messrs. Raymond, Pearson, and Broadribb, and an aboriginal black, whose lives had nearly been sacrificed in the adventurous attempt to discover a new and more practicable route between Gipps Land and Western Port. Deceived by the report of a person in Gipps Land, who said that he had seen in three days’ journey from Port Albert the land around Western Port, Mr. Raymond and his companions started in the direction pointed out. In two days, however, they found themselves hemmed in by a dense scrub, intersected here and there by nearly impassable ranges, and it was with the greatest difficulty they were enabled to

struggle onwards. Eighteen days were consumed in,.the journey to Western Port, during the last eight of which their stock of provisions got completely exhausted, and their only means of subsistence was a little wet flour, occasionally eked out with the flesh of the native bear..or monkey, for the capture of which they were generally indebted to their sable companion. To add to their distresses, for the greater part of the time their , route lay over a tract of country completely flooded, and it was but rarely they chanced upon a spot where a dry sleeping place was to be obtained. Gi|)ps Land seems to be going rapidly ahead, and the settlers there speak in raptures of the beauty of the country, and the exceeding fertility of the soil. The population is already between two and three hundred, and it is calculated there are from 20,000 to 40,000 sheep, 9,000 horned cattle, and about 100 horses in, the district. Two vessels, the Watcrwitch and Industry , are laid on as regular traders to Van Dieman’s Land, whither they convey fat cattle and sheep, and a third is to be chartered forthwith. Though the town is laid out, and numbers of people arc desirous of obtaining allotments to commence building, there docs not appear to be symtoms of any intention on the part of the Government to bring land into the market. No provisions, as far as we have observed, has been made for Gipps Land in the estimates for the ensuing year. — Geelong Advertiser. “ The worst of wives is she, the worst of husbands he ; The wonder is they don’t agree.”—- Trans. Mar. Ep. o Maid Servants and their Friends.— Evcry.master and mistress ill the United Kingdom knows what a maid servant’s friend is. Sometimes lie is a brother, sometimes he is a cousin, (often a cousin), and sometimes a father who really wears well, and carries his age amazingly ! He comes down the area, in at the window, or through a door ajar. Sometimes a servant, like a hare, “ has many friends.” The master of the house, after washing his hands in the back kitchen, feels behind the door for a jack-towel, and lays hold of a friend’s nose. “ Friends are shy;” sometimes a footman breaks a friend’s shins by plunging into the coal-cellar for a shovel of nobbies. We speak feelingly, our own abode having been once turned into a friend’s meeting house; a fact we became aware of through the medium of a smoky chimney ; but a chimney will smoke when there i 3 a journeyman baker, up it.— Geelong Advertiser.

Will of tiie late Duke of Cleveland, K.G.—The will of the late Harry Duke of Cleve- 1 land has' been just proved hi the Prerogative Court by the executors, Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux, Thomas Metcalfe, and G. B. Wharton, Esqrs. The personal property has been sworn under £1,000,000y upon which a stamp duty of £13,000 has been paid. The property ha 3 been bequeathed principally to.his family, consisting of the present; duke, Lords William Poulett, and Harry Vane; Ladies .Laura Meyrick (who is abroad), Arabella Arlen, and Augusta Milbanke, with the exception of some legacies and annuities ,to his servants. Lord Brougham and his excecutors are bequeathed £ISOO each. The late duke’s personal estate is the largest left by any peer of his elevated rank the late Duke of Sutherland, whose personal effects were sworn as amounting to more than £1,000,000; all sums beyond which amount are not subject to probate duty. The dowager duchess is handsomely provided for under the late duke’s will.— Standard.

The long-lost “ President. is supposed, from the following extract from the logbook of the brig Poulieney , Capt. Jamc3 Moult, of Baltimore, that the hull of thislong-lost steamer has at last been found : —“ July 21, 11a.m., lat. 24 deg. 21 m. N., long. 39 deg. 16 m. W., from New York for Smyrna, passed a large piece of wreck, sixty feet long, thirty to forty wide, and looked like the broadside of a steamboat. It appeared to be part of the mainchannels, having four dead eyes, with turned mouldings, and long flat, iron straps. Her hulk was black, with a broad white streak, and large ’painted black ports. There was a bight of a hawser over a piece of wood, apparently part of the guards. The ill-fated President was seen, both here and in Liverpool, by the chief mate of the Poulieney , and ho unhesitatingly says that the wreck passed was part of the steam-ship. Every thing about th’e wreck plainly showed, from their great size and manufacture, that they belonged not to any merchant vessel or man-of-war, but to a large steamer. We think as the mate does qn this point, and believe the wreck seen to have been that of the unfortunate, ill-starred President. —Extract from a New York Paper.

ENGLAND. The Duke of Wellington, albeit unused to the softer mould, actually wept like a child when the news of our disasters in Affghanistan was reported to him, declaring that in all. his experience, or that handed dowii from history, he had never heard of so lamentable a sacrifice of life in a British force .—Geelong Advertiser .