COMMENDED ESSAY, 1899. 
411 
ipulation of handspikes, etc., and for this reason young officers and 
recruits should be well grounded in it, but once this has been done 
it should only rarely be resorted to as a form of drill; the time 
should be given up to teaching work more likely to be useful in war 
time or emergency. Many officers go through several years of ser¬ 
vice without the smallest idea as to the best method of moving, 
mounting or dismounting heavy guns. The consequence is that 
when suddenly given a job of this description to carry out, a great 
deal of unnecessary time is wasted over it, and sometimes consider¬ 
able damage is done. 
With our present complicated mechanisms, a projectile from a 
small quick-firer might so 1 injure a heavy gun mounting as to tempor¬ 
arily place it out of action, and much might depend upon its being 
repaired as soon as possible, in anticipation of renewed attack, to do 
which the gun, carriage, or slide, would very likely have to be moved. 
Many other instances of the necessity for rapidity in armament work 
could be quoted. 
Considering the importance of this subject, great attention should 
be paid to it, and at the annual course such operations as dismount¬ 
ing and moving heavy guns, suspending a gun while the carriage is 
removed, turning over slides, taking the shields off hydro-pneumatic 
mountings, etc. etc., should form the main part of the instruction. 
It will probably be said that if this work is carried out with the arma¬ 
ment guns, they will rarely be in a serviceable condition. To this 
we must answer that practice will bring its own cure; if our officers 
had a little more knowledge of the mechanism and methods of 
mounting the guns they use, we would rarely if ever hear of damage 
done, which in nine cases out of ten is due purely to want of ex¬ 
perience. 
All shifts should be carried out by the subalterns, who should be in 
no way interfered with, so long as they are not making any glaring 
mistake or doing something dangerous. They should not be tied to 
the book but allowed to use their own judgement and the resources 
available. They should be called upon when necessary to show all 
their calculations of strains, etc. and should give all important words 
of command themselves instead of standing by in a casual manner, 
while a sergeant does the whole work as is sometimes seen. It is only 
by this means that they can obtain intimate knowledge of this part 
of their profession, and confidence in themselves. The Instructor of 
Gunnery, if there is one, should always be available to give his advice 
if asked for, but should not interfere with the actual work. 
In conjunction with the above the removal of buffers, elevating and 
traversing gear, adjustment of friction cones, compensating and other 
gears should be gone into, and an officer should know every detail of 
every mounting in his station, how to replace damaged parts, how to 
alter recoil, and the thousand and one things which make all the differ¬ 
ence whether a mounting works well or does not. 
Every subaltern must be put through a local course of Depression 
Range Finding and also of Position Finding if installed. The orders 
lately issued about examination in range and position finding will 
