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MORRIS’ TUBE PRACTICE. 
- BY - 
LIEUTENANT G. 0. STURROCK, R.A. 
The following account of Morris’ Tube Practice may be of interest. 
The company to which I belong, No. 5 Company, S.D.R.A., had not 
for the past eight years been in a coast defence station, and therefore 
the great majority of the men knew comparatively little of coast de¬ 
fence work. In the early part of 1897 we were told that we should 
do our practice, including the competitive, at Bombay with 6" B.L., 
at coast defence targets. It was, therefore, necessary to give the 
N.C.O.’s and layers some idea of the work they would have to do, i.e., 
duties of gun layers and gun captain. We made many attempts to do 
this with our armament; 64-pr. converted guns on wooden sliding car¬ 
riages, taking “ ekkas,” bullock carts, etc., moving across a bridge of 
boats about 1,000 yards from the fort as laying points, but with a 
very limited amount of success ; the guns and mountings being un¬ 
suitable and not fitted for Case II. I was then allowed to work out a 
system of Morris’ tube practice and after some two months the fol¬ 
lowing finally evolved itself. A flat portion of the parade ground was 
chosen, with a wall at one end of it; at the other end a 40-pr. fitted 
with a *220 Morris’ tube was placed on a platform. From a point 
under the trunnions at a scale of 10 ft. to 1" (R.F. T ^) distances of 
1,500, 1,600, etc. up to 3,500 yds. were marked out straight to the 
front. A cardboard reader was then fixed to the carriage by the ele¬ 
vating arc on which a long paper strip was fixed. The gun was then 
laid Case I on the different ranges and the paper strip graduated for 
every 200 yards up to 2,500, and thence for every 500 yards, and from 
this was filled in by interpolation. 
10. YOL. XXV. 
