368 
COMMENDED ESSAY, 1897. 
Service. 
the most rapid fire possible being kept up while the target is visible, 
but careful laying, etc., must be insisted upon, as at night the layers are 
apt to shirk this and the tendency is to go in chiefly for “ show.” 
The importance of firing with blank is not sufficiently recognised, 
and usually no provision is made for it. It is however a most excellent 
method of improving the training of the personnel and giving the 
finishing touch to the drill before commencing practice, and excepting 
one or two minor details such as projectiles not being rammed home, 
and the guns sometimes having to be run back, the work done is almost 
the same as at actual practice, with the great advantage that there are 
no restrictions to firing on account of danger to shipping, etc , and that 
therefore service conditions can be more nearly represented, the target 
can approach or recede at any angle and fire can be opened at any range. 
Practice with blank is the only way in which we can train men to 
night work, is comparatively inexpensive, and teaches all concerned, 
except perhaps the B.C. and his observers, almost as much as practice 
with projectiles. To be truly instructive however, careful checking of 
the elevation ordered and given, is necessary. 
Service practice could now be commenced, a scheme being drawn out 
and published in orders, and not merely inserted in the practice report 
to satisfy certain regulations. 
As the object should be to train all hands to meet any form of attack 
likely to take place, ships running p.ist, steaming about at msdiuin 
range, anchored or disabled, should, if possible, be represented on 
different occasions. Whenever a moving target is used, a stationary one 
should be previously laid out, so that in the event of the former getting 
destroyed, or if desirable for any other reason, the fire of the guns may 
be turned on to it as rapidly as possible. This would give excellent 
training in directing fire, often save a lot of waiting about while a new 
target is procured, and represent a possible occurrence in wartime, such 
as a ship becoming partially disabled, an overwhelming fire being poured 
into her while in that state. 
At least two or more groups should be used, each having its own P.F. 
or D.R.F. If the amount of ammunition available is not sufficient for 
this, one or more of the groups should fire with blank or friction tubes, 
but in all cases the complete battery command should be manned if 
there are sufficient men, so that all may get into the way of working 
together, and the B.C. gain experience in directing the order and rate of 
fire, etc., of his groups. 
When using D.R.F.’s, a B.C. could, in action, rarely be near his 
instruments and make his corrections ; at most he could only do so for 
groups of one nature of gun, worked by one D.R.F. It would then be 
far better to get his operators into the way of correcting for themselves, 
under the supervision of the R.G.C., he himself keeping a general hold 
on them at first by employing “ slow fire,” ordering corrections only if 
he finds them going wrong. 
Supposing the target to represent a ship moving rapidly or trying to 
run past, and attacked with common shell, everything should be 
simplified as much as possible ; there should be no attempt at minute 
corrections, B.C.’s drums should be laid aside, the G.G.C.’s should not 
give displacement corrections at closer differences than fifty, if the 
range varies at all quickly ; fire should be as rapid .as possible consistent 
with fair accuracy, and casualties of all kinds should be rehearsed, such 
as B.C. being placed out of action, the senior G.G.C. taking his place, 
