COMMENDED ESSAY, 1899. 
403 
suited, and that their training should consist of two parts; a general 
training in subjects common to both coast and siege work, and a 
special training in one or the other, this latter to be on sufficiently 
broad lines to enable them to 1 adapt themselves to the requirements 
of the service. 
The following subjects putting aside mathematics, military topo¬ 
graphy, field tactics, fortification and law, which are more or less com¬ 
mon to all army officers, should form part of their general technical 
training, and most of them should be taught before an officer obtains 
his commission: — 
1. Electricity.-—The importance of which especially in Coast 
Defence, cannot be overrated. Its application is becoming 
more general every year in the direction, ranging and firing 
of guns, in the working of search-lights and the lighting of 
magazines and batteries. 
2. Chemistry.—A thorough knowledge of explosives being 
necessary. 
3. Steam.—Which, though not SO' important as it promised to be 
a few years ago, is nevertheless used in many ways and a 
clear understanding of the elements of which is required to 
enable officers to follow local explanations of its use in work¬ 
ing guns, machinery, dynamos, etc. 
4. Hydraulics and Hydro-pneumatics.—Which are applied in 
some form or other to every mounting of modern construc¬ 
tion, both in Coast and Siege Artillery, and in many other 
ways, as in jacks, lifts, etc. 
5. Mechanism.—Which is most essential to a good understand¬ 
ing of every class of mounting and machinery used in the 
service. 
6. Artillery generally.—Including gunnery and ballistics, ammuni¬ 
tion and military carriages. 
7. Employment of Artillery.—In the field, in sieges and in coast 
defence. 
8. Fortress Defence.—By which we understand the defence of 
land fronts by fire from rifles, machine guns, field guns, light 
armament and howitzers. 
A Coast Artillery officer should also possess special knowledge of 
the following: — 
1. The general working of guns against every form of attack 
from the sea likely to take place, and the best tactical 
methods of meeting such attacks. 
2. The ships of foreign navies, their capabilities, speed and 
power of resistance against projectiles; the general evolu¬ 
tions likely to be performed by a squadron when attacking 
coast forts, and the different ways in which torpedo-boat 
raids may be carried out. 
3. The position of mine-fields and their use in defence, the forms 
of countermining that might be employed, and the working 
of search-lights. 
4. The various methods of finding and passing ranges, and the 
