513 
1ST0 T E s 
ON THE 
NATAL MANOEUVRES OF 1894. 
BT 
CAPTAIN R. A. K. MONTGOMERY, R.A. 
The naval manoeuvres which have lately terminated have been so fully 
described and discussed in the daily papers that I feel it is almost 
superfluous to write about them, but, having had the good fortune to 
attend them, and having found them full of interest and instruction, I 
trust that the following notes may be of assistance to those of my 
brother officers who are anxious to understand the manoeuvres of the 
sister service. 
In naval, unlike military, manoeuvres the umpires are not present, u ^P^ e ’ s 
they await in London the various reports sent to them from time to 
time, and base their decisions on these reports; consequently, to assist 
them and, at the same time, to give the Commanders of Fleets some¬ 
thing definite to go on, each ship is given a fixed value. Thus, a 
battle-ship of the newest pattern, such as the Royal Sovereign , counts 
five points; other battle-ships of an older pattern and slower speed, 
such as the Devastation , also 1st class cruisers, such as the Australia , 
. count four points; whilst the 2nd class cruisers, such as the Apollo , 
count one point. 
The torpedo-catchers and torpedo-boats have no value assigned to 
them, and consequently, in a general action, do not directly assist in 
determining the result. Further, in the event of a general engage¬ 
ment, in order to gain a victory, unless one side can engage the other 
in overwhelming strength, the winning side must have a strength 
(counted by the points) one-ninth greater than that of the weaker, and 
must keep the latter under fire for two hours at a range not exceeding 
4000 yards. 
This then was the aim of the Commanders of the Red and Blue 
Fleets, to assemble at some point a fleet of the necessary strength to be 
able to engage the other side and claim a victory. 
The problem, however, was greatly complicated by the different 
10 . VOL. X5l. 68 
