page_title: Percy Scott
section_title: Ideas into practice
hierarchical_section_title: Percy Scott / Ideas into practice
caption_attribution_description: Caricature of Captain Percy Scott RN ADC CB LLD. Caption read "Gunnery".
context_page_description: Admiral Sir Percy Moreton Scott, 1st Baronet, KCB, KCVO was a British Royal Navy officer and a pioneer in modern naval gunnery. During his career he proved to be an engineer and problem solver of some considerable foresight, ingenuity and tenacity. He did not, however, endear himself to the Navy establishment for his regular outspoken criticism of the Navy's conservatism and resistance to change and this undoubtedly slowed the acceptance of his most important ideas, notably the introduction of directed firing. In spite of this, his vision proved correct most of the time and he rose to the rank of admiral and amongst other honours was made baronet, a hereditary title.
context_section_description: Promoted to the rank of captain in January 1893, Scott served on the Navy's Ordnance Committee until 1896 when was given his first sea command, HMS Scylla, a 3400-ton cruiser in the British Mediterranean Fleet. There he was able to implement his theories on gunnery, scoring the unprecedented success of 80% during the 1897 gunnery trials. His accomplishment was unbelievable for the time, and many thought that he had cheated in order to gain such a success. As a result of the turmoil, the Lords of the Admiralty removed him from command of HMS Scylla and placed him on half-pay.
  During his time on Scylla Scott noted that night time signalling between ships in the fleet was slow and inaccurate. He addressed this in two ways: he devised training aids and put his signallers under instruction and he devised a new more effective flashing lamp. The new efficiency of his ship's signalling was quickly noticed by the Commander-in-Chief resulting in Scott's programme being adopted by the whole Mediterranean fleet. A report by the fleet's flag lieutenant to the Admiralty was submitted in 1899 setting out the inadequacies of the old system and promoting Scott's ideas. It was however, many years before they were adopted.
  Because of poor equipment and shortage of time allocated by the fleet to training, Scott was unable to make much progress in improving his ship's gunnery until 1898 when Scylla was detached to make an independent cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean. In this period Scott solved the problem of the sub-calibre gun which was used for practice and which proved highly erratic and inaccurate, and thus useless for training. Scott devised a new sub-calibre gun whose use involved fitting a one-inch calibre rifled barrel inside the barrel of the main armament but which used the main guns controls. He also devised new sights employing telescopic optics and new training targets. The new arrangement proved highly effective in improving the ship's gunnery but when the plans were sent to London in 1899 they were rejected and Scott was reprimanded because the new scheme required an extra man in the gun crew. Nevertheless, four years later Navy policy changed to mandate the introduction of the extra crew.
  He was then given command in 1899 of HMS Terrible which was ordered to China. Expecting hostilities to break out in South Africa, Scott managed to persuade the Admiralty to allow him to make passage via the Cape of Good Hope rather than the originally planned Suez Canal route. Terrible arrived at the Cape in October to find war imminent. With no threat from the sea, Scott set about determining how he might adapt the navy's guns by mounting them on wheels for use on land to support the army, which lacked long-range artillery and found that its ordinary guns were out-ranged by the Boer artillery. The mountings looked somewhat amateurish, causing the authorities to regard them with considerable suspicion. However, they proved very effective and the role of two of his 4.7-inch guns at the Siege of Ladysmith became a matter of some notoriety.
  At the end of October Scott was appointed Military Commandant of Durban and arrived in Terrible to take up his appointment on 6 November. By the afternoon of 8 November all approaches to the city were covered by gun batteries and an armoured train ready to respond to eventualities. Scott was able to signal the Governor of Natal that the city was safe. While busy in his role as Military Commandant and supplying adapted naval guns to the army, Scott also devised a system for communicating with the besieged Ladysmith using a ship's searchlight mounted on a truck, a salvaged dynamo and a venetian blind arrangement to allow messages to be flashed. This proved most successful. He also turned two steamers into hospital ships. Scott's time in South Africa came to an end at the end of March 1900, almost coinciding with the relief of Ladysmith, and Scott was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 13 March 1900, in recognition of services in South Africa. The Terrible proceeded on its way to China.
  
caption: Scott caricatured by Spy in Vanity Fair, 1903
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