§ ADMIRAL MAYNEI beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether it is the case that instructions have been issued to the Royal Sovereign not to fire her 67-ton guns right ahead?
§ LORD G. HAMILTONNo such instructions as those suggested have been given. The gunnery trials that took place in the Trafalgar at the time she was commissioned were conclusive as to the power of the deck structure to withstand the concussion of firing the 67-ton guns fore and aft; and as the decks of the Royal Sovereign have been pillared and supported to even a greater extent, no useful object would have been served in carrying out similar trials in her case. The recent gunnery trials were made primarily to test the gun mountings and appliances for loading and working the guns, and as a matter of convenience the guns were fired nearly abeam.