SPEED IN FIRING WITH GARRISON GUNS. 
105 
All the above are, in most cases, capable of improvement and even in 
the case of old armaments much might be done under 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 
and 9. 
(1) Imbued with the old and slow methods of Artillery fire, the 
designs of land emplacements and mountings do not, for the most part, 
seem to have taken into consideration speed in firing at all, or at any 
rate, to nothing like the extent of the mountings provided for the 
Navy. Considerations of safety have been given infinitely more 
prominence than those of speed, and in some cases, pure gunner 
requirements have yielded to building conveniences. Now it may be 
taken almost as an axiom that security demands a sacrifice of speed 
much in proportion to the amount of protection given, though, as I 
have endeavoured to prove, extreme rapidity of fire is absolutely 
necessary now-a-days to ensure efficiency. 
Thus, for instance, absolute safety could be ensured to a gun and its 
detachment by placing them in a deep cave at an entire sacrifice of 
hitting power ; or on the other hand, a gun could be mounted on a bed 
plate in the open, somewhat as seen on the Experimental Ground at 
Shoeburyness, neither gun or detachment having any protection, except, 
perhaps, a small gun shield. Here, the gunners are on a level with 
their work, and a maximum of speed, efficiency, and all-round fire is 
obtainable. There must be some satisfactory means between the two 
extremes. 
Briefly described the usual course now pursued runs in the line of 
making a very expensive and highly-finished emplacement, grateful to 
the eye of the Engineer if not to the Artilleryman ; the emplacement 
usually taking the form of a more or less circular pit, of great depth 
and often of large diameter. A gun mounted in this pit would be safe 
from all but high angle fire, but would itself be incapable of firing 
except at great elevation. Therefore the necessary command over the 
edge of the pit is procured by partially filling it up with a drum, and 
causing a moderately large slide and carriage to traverse on its upper 
surface ; or, what has been perhaps more common, making an enormous 
slide and carriage to traverse on racers laid at the bottom of the pit. 
In either case a gun can by no possibility fire rapidly, nor is protection 
given to more than a portion of the detachment, for the men have to 
climb up and down to their work and raise the shell, &c., to an un¬ 
necessary height. In some of these mountings the detachments are as 
exposed as if the gun itself was in the open on a mounting calculated 
simply for speed of fire, while the climbing up and down is a serious 
addition to the labour of the men. The exposure of detachments in 
working is quite recognized for frequently, in addition to the pit, a 
shield is added. A slightly larger shield on a low mounting would 
probably give all necessary protection if there were no pit at all, and 
the gun could then be worked at high speed, without wearing out the 
detachment by unnecessary physical exercise. 
Another form is the pit with the disappearing gun, which is apt to 
get out of order, is expensive, and needs much care and. training. It is, 
necessarily, a slow firer, but it is very secure from casual fire. When 
a gun must be badly placed owing to no high ground being available 
reasonably near the water’s edge, such protection may be desirable, but 
the guns must be recognized as slow firers, and should be multiplied 
for effect. 
