NAVAL GUNNERY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE *SPECTATOR.")
SIR,—" A Naval Officer" says :—" The truth is that the shooting of the British Navy is not only good now, it has always been good" (Spectator, December 22nd). Further, he states or implies that improved shooting is the result, not of better management, but of better instruments. If that be so, it would be interesting to know the names of the apparatus that caused a jump in the excess of hits over misses the first year after the accession of the First Sea Lord to office. For eight years there was an excess of misses over hits varying from 3,418 in 1899, to 1,032 in 1903. In 1905 and 1906 the excesses of hits over misses with the great guns of the Navy were 1,017 and 3,405 respectively. Sir John Fisher's arrival in office on October 21st, 1904, was immediately followed by a rise in the percentage of bits to rounds fired from 31-86 to 7112. As a layman, I cannot pretend to say that this is not a coincidence ; but it may be affirmed without fear of contra- diction that no improvement in the gun or sighting apparatus accounts for the sudden jump from misses to hits, but that Sir Percy Scott and Captain Jellicoe are the human agencies by which the feat was accomplished.—I am, Sir, &c., 2 Windmill Hill, Hampstead.
ARNOLD WHITE.
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