COMMENDED ESSAY, 1897 . 851 
A battery of Q.F. guns should include as many (firing over approxi¬ 
mately the same water area) as one officer can command by word of 
mouth. The range-finding station, which should be the post of the 
officer in command, should be as near the guns as possible. On a 
torpedo boat being sighted, the range-taker would follow it with his 
instrument. The officer in command would order a range for the guns, 
and as soon as the boat was within fifty yards of this range he would 
order “ Rapid fire—commence.” Firing would continue until the officer 
observed that it was no longer effective ; he would then order “ Stand 
fast,” would give a new range, and would continue as before. A whistle 
would probably be found of great advantage for ordering “ Stand fast.” 
One of the most important points to be arranged for and practised in 
connection with Q.F. guns is the receipt of the earliest possible notice 
of the approach of torpedo boats. Detachments cannot remain at their 
guns all night and every night peering into the beam of an electric 
light for boats that may never come. But this early notice is a great 
difficulty. It would seem, however, that the best way to manage it is 
to have at least two distinct areas lighted up by electric light ; an outer 
area in which hostile boats should be detected, and an inner area in 
which they should be sunk. Q.F. guns should be mounted to command 
the outer area, because they may have chances of firing a few rounds as 
the boats approach, and may often be able to sink a retreating boat; 
but the main defence by Q.F. guns should be at the inner area, for the 
ranges will generally be short and the detachments can be roused in time. 
It is, of course, of the greatest importance that proper accommodation 
for the detachments should be provided close to their guns, and there 
should be a strict rule that all Q.F. guns should remain mounted and 
ready for action at a moment’s notice. They can be protected if 
necessary from the weather by a water-proof covering which can be 
removed instantly. 
It may be assumed that Q.F. guns will be chiefly required at night, 
but actual peace practice at night is too risky to be attempted unless 
special batteries are made for the purpose, and it is doubtful whether 
this is worth doing, because the conditions with regard to the positions 
of electric lights and the facilities for observation of fire must necessarily 
be different from those obtaining in the actual defences. For night 
practice it would be far more useful that men should be exercised with 
blank ammunition in laying their own guns with, the aid of the existing 
electric lights, in varying conditions of weather, than that they should 
be exercised in actual firing from special practice batteries. It is of 
course, necessary that actual firing should be carried out by day, and if 
detachments can do this from their own guns, so much the better ; but 
this cannot always be the case, especially in the inner defences of a 
fortress. In such circumstances they must carry it out from guns 
(placed in special practice batteries if necessary) of the same calibre, 
mounted in the same manner, and at approximately the same height 
above the sea as their own guns. The ranges for such practice should 
also agree as far as possible with the ranges at which their own guns 
would be fired in case of attack, e.g., if certain guns are told off for the 
defence of a narrow channel, practice at short ranges will be more 
useful to the detachments than practice at long ranges. 
It is of course necessary that service conditions should prevail at all 
fort practice ; this is already laid down by our regulations, but it is 
often forgotten that the presence of certain specialists, such as the 
Remarks on 
service 
conditions. 
