COMMENDED ESSAY, 1899 . 
425 
fifthly .—We come to a suggested new departure. 
Naval course. Specialists are urgently required for the identification 
of ships and theoretical coast defence. These are subjects which at 
present a Garrison Artilleryman is supposed to know intuitively with¬ 
out having been taught them. 
The course would include, first, lectures and instruction on all the 
various schemes for defending our ports and coaling stations, pointing 
out the theory, the good points and the defects. Second, lectures on 
the different classes of ships in our own and other navies, and the ' 
means of identifying them. 
Lastly the officers of the course would be sent to sea in a man- 
of-war for. three months. They would see all the Mediterranean, 
Home and Channel defences from the sea side and get an idea under 
what sort of conditions ships live and fight; what sort of things they 
can, and what they cannot do. 
After the When the officer had finished whichever of these 
course. courses he might take up and become a specialist, he 
would join a company abroad. He should by this time be an officer 
whose opinion would carry weight on his own subject among all ranks, 
and who would be none the less a good Garrison Gunner, 
outline of Now let us glance at the career of a young officer who 
Artmery 1 selects to go into the Garrison Artillery under the 
career. proposed new regime. 
After he leaves the Royal Military Academy he would go straight to 
his six months’ course, he would not have lost the habit of working, 
and he would find himself associated with others who have to work as 
he does. 
He would be kept at work for about six hours a day ; and at his age 
he ought to be able to absorb a great deal of knowledge in six months. 
He would look forward to his examination at the end of six months 
and would work in his spare time for it, as he would know if he did 
not pass he would not get his armament pay. 
At the end of the course he would go to his company at home, or at 
Malta or Gibraltar; as has been said before, he would be no raw 
Gentleman Cadet who does not know how to give a word of command ; 
but an officer of six months’ standing, who can instruct at drill, deal 
with minor offences, and who has picked up a good smattering of the 
customs of the service. 
The next two years he would spend with his company; he would 
know he will one day have to become a specialist and he would gradu¬ 
ally see where his tastes lay. By the end of the first year he would have 
made up his mind what speciality he would take up, and at the end of 
the second year he would have given himself a good grounding in his 
subject and would be in a ripe condition to undergo his six months’ 
course. 
At the end of his second year (when he has two and a half years’ 
service) his connection with his company would cease, and he would 
be seconded for his specialist course. 
He would go back to Woolwich and undergo one of the five courses 
