THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
61 
naval guns, as well as of those for land service, had already expressed 
themselves strongly in favour of Krupp's breech-loaders. This was not 
surprising. The name of Krupp stands deservedly high all over Europe as 
a manufacturer of steel, including steel guns, of great excellence; in Prussia 
it is more than a name—-it is a power. National prejudices, national vanity, 
and material interests of various descriptions all enlist themselves on the 
side of the great steel manufacturer of Essen. An instinctive preference on 
the part of Prussian officers for Prussian guns to those of English production 
is natural, and it is unnecessary to seek for more recondite explanations of 
the bias in favour of the Krupp system, which, at the outset of the Tegel 
trials undoubtedly prevailed in the War Ministry of Berlin. But in Prussia, 
as in England, the Admiralty and War Office are not always in perfect 
agreement on the question of naval ordnance; and it happened that in 
this instance the Prussian Marine Department were desirous of seeing the 
efficiency of the Krupp guns established upon some more substantial basis 
than was afforded by the mere expressed preference of the Prussian War 
Ministry, or by the comparatively limited practical experience of these 
weapons to which those who favoured them were able to appeal. 
With regard to the preference of the Prussian War Ministry for Krupp 
guns, it is to be noticed that the experiments with these weapons as armour- 
piercing guns had up to that time been limited to the penetration of iron plates 
41 ins. thick, and as Captain von Doppelmair observes, “ The question of guns 
intended to attack iron-clads was not solved by this result." 1 Of the nature 
and extent of the practical experience of Krupp's guns then available, we 
shall speak more fully hereafter. It will be sufficient for the moment to 
observe that at the time when the Prussian naval authorities were pressing 
for a trial of some other system of ordnance in comparison with the Krupp, 
no European nation, except the Russians, had adopted the Krupp system on a 
large scale. Austria had a few 8-inch Krupp guns; she had four times as 
many Armstrong 7-inch guns. The Spanish iron-clads were armed with 
Armstrong guns. Italy had English guns; Prance had French guns; 
Sweden had Swedish guns; Norway, Denmark, and Holland had Armstrong 
guns; Turkey, Egypt, and Greece were fast arming with English guns. 
Finally, even Prussia herself had not ventured upon the formal adoption of 
Krupp's guns. Two or three breech-loading Krupps had been placed on 
board the Prussian men-of-war, with this result—that the Prussian navy 
were crying out for muzzle-loaders and another system. Under these 
circumstances, the anxiety of the Prussian naval authorities to obtain some 
more complete and satisfactory assurance of the suitability of Krupp's 
ordnance for the Prussian iron-clads appears intelligible. 
Intelligible or not, that anxiety existed and was expressed to the extent 
of inducing the Prussian War Ministry to sanction a full trial of some 
Krupp guns, and to pit against these guns a representative of the 
“Woolwich muzzle-loading system." A 9-inch l^J-ton “Woolwich" 
gun, made by Sir William Armstrong, was purchased of the Elswick firm 
for the purposes of this trial, for £1500. A supply of projectiles and 
English powder was purchased, and the gun was to be required to adhere 
Doppelmair, p. 1, 
