§ The recent re-organization of the War Office Department, under which a separation was made between the civil departments which manufacture, and the combatant branches which use the articles so manufactured, facilitated the transfer to the Navy estimates of the charge hitherto borne on Army votes for Naval Ordnance. Though the Board of Admiralty have assented to the change, they have done so with some hesitation. The information supplied to them, both as to existing stock and outstanding liabilities, is imperfect, from the difficulty the War Office has experienced in apportioning from stocks held in common, for both services, and contained in store-houses scattered over the world, the exact amount to be credited to the Navy. Until the Admiralty are in complete possession of such information, though ready to account for and explain the vote so transferred, they cannot make themselves responsible for its adequacy. The sum proposed to be taken is, judging from past experience, as much as can be earned by the existing gun factories in the country, and should be more than sufficient to meet the normal wants of the year. Whatever deficiency of stores may exist at the commencement of the financial year should therefore be diminished at its close, and the maintenance of the ordnance vote at its present high figures for a few years to come should bring up to the requisite standard the reserves of ammunition and stores. In the course of the year complete information on this point will be obtained, and the Board of Admiralty will regulate their action accordingly.
§ During the year ending December 31st, 1887, 238 new Breech-Loading Guns have been issued to the Navy, including two 16¼-inch guns of 111 tons, and four 13½-inch guns of 69 tons.
§ In addition to these 238 guns, 123 new guns, including one 16¼-inch and eleven 13½-inch guns, may be completed by the end of March 1888. This will still leave 254 guns under order, exclusive of fresh guns, to be obtained in 1888–89.
§ Considerable delay has occurred in the delivery of guns at the dates previously promised. Several of the heavier ironclads are now awaiting their armament, and the programme of Dockyard work has been deranged, and the cost of completing ships has been increased by those delays. So few breech-loading guns of large calibre have hitherto been made in this country, that all concerned in their manufacture, whether they be private contractors or Woolwich factory, seem to have antedated the finish of their work and miscalculated the time necessary for its completion. As experience is gained it is to be hoped that punctuality of delivery will be associated with it, and that one of the main impediments now existing to the passing of ships rapidly into the First Reserve, as ready for service, will be removed.
§ The "Edinburgh" and "Colossus," recently commissioned, have tested and tried the working of the new hydraulic machinery upon which are mounted the Breech-Loading Guns of large calibre, and the results have been satisfactory. A report of target practice from the "Colossus" has been received, in which it is stated that four successive rounds from one of the 43-ton guns were fired in six minutes (the ship steaming at high speed and at a distance of 1,500 yards from the target), and three hits were made.
§ The mountings for the still heavier guns of 67 and 110 tons necessarily involve many important and novel features. The tests with these mountings have, up to the present, been quite satisfactory, and it is hoped that the ships armed with these guns will soon carry out full experiments of these armaments in which more experience will be gained.
917§ During the year important experiments have been undertaken with, the view of extending the system of metallic cartridge in use for the quick-firing 6-pounder and smaller guns, to guns up to and including 6 inches in calibre.
§ These trials demonstrated the practicability of producing efficient metallic cartridges of a size hitherto unattempted, and exhibited the many advantages which would accrue from working ammunition in this form.
§ In considering the results of this trial it became apparent that great benefit would result to the service if, in place of the 4-inch and 5-inch Breech-Loading Guns, at the present time mounted somewhat indiscriminately in ships of different classes, for the future a quick-firing gun could be substituted of intermediate size, with metallic cartridges carrying their own means of ignition.
§ After trials and experiments, a gun firing a projectile of 36 lbs. was selected as combining certain advantages which either a lighter or heavier gun would fail to secure. It is the largest gun that can, with a sufficient supply of ammunition, be carried by the torpedo gunboats (the smallest ships in the service), and the heaviest which can be worked with a shoulder-piece for training, a great object in the delivery of a rapid and accurate fire against the attack of torpedo boats.
§ Very greatly increased rapidity of fire has been obtained from this gun; with its special mounting and ammunition, 10 rounds can be fired in a minute, as compared with two rounds a minute, the limit of rapidity with the present 4 and 5-inch B.L. guns. This gun in future new ships will supersede the 4 and 5-inch gun.
§ A 6-inch quick-firing gun to fire a projectile of 100 lbs. is under construction, and will soon be ready for trial; should this gun prove in all respects as satisfactory as the 36-pounder (which there is every reason for hoping), it will form a most valuable addition to naval armaments, without the disadvantage of introducing a gun of new calibre into the Naval Service.
§ The importance of the development of rapid firing guns can only be fully appreciated when it is borne in mind that in consequence of the great speed of future fighting ships, the practice from slow firing guns must be most uncertain on account of the rapid alteration of distance. The system of mounting connected with these quick-firing guns allows the firer to keep his eye along the sights on the object while training or elevating the gun himself. The operation of loading is quite independent of the firer, and means have been found for the electric ignition of the charge, the primers being so fitted that the electric circuit cannot be completed till the breech of the gun is completely closed. The firer can, therefore, press the trigger whenever the sights are aligned on the object, knowing that the gun cannot fire unless safe, and his whole attention is thus concentrated on the object he is firing at, with the additional advantage of being able to rectify any miscalculation of distance in the preceding discharge. Under such conditions rapid firing should conduce to accurate, rather than to wild practice.
§ It is intended for the future that the 36-pr. and the 6-inch 100-pr. quick-firing guns, together with the 9.2-inch 22-ton gun in the large unarmoured vessels, should be the main armament of Her Majesty's Navy for vessels other than armour-clads, supplemented in all cases by the light 3-pr. quick-firing gun.
§ During the past year 131 torpedoes have been manufactured and issued ready for service, and a further number of 126 will will have been issued by the end of the present financial year 1887–88.
919§ It may be interesting to note the rapid growth of expenditure connected with. Naval Ordnance, which the following table illustrates:—
| Amount taken each year from 1881–82 in Army and Navy Estimates respectively for Naval Ordnance. | |||
| Year. | Army Votes. | Navy Votes. | TOTAL. |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| 1881–82 | 369,000 | 49,329 | 418,329 |
| 1882–83 | 616,033 | 63,990 | 680,023 |
| 1883–81 | 500,491 | 161,905 | 662,396 |
| 1884–85 | 500,000 | 185,580 | 685,580 |
| 1885–86 | 850,000 | 308,900 | 1,158,900 |
| 1886–87 | 1,000,000 | 599,900 | 1,599,900 |
| 1887–88 | 1,707,561 | 593,700 | 2,301,261 |
| 1888–89 | — | 2,177,638 | 2,177,638 |