George Tryon - Admiral Superintendent of Reserves 1888

Admiral Superintendent of Reserves 1888

In April 1888 he was appointed Admiral Superintendent of Reserves, which included the coastguard service, and became chairman of a committee on coastguard buildings.

In 1891 he chaired a committee on naval reserves, where he expressed his views on the importance of cooperation between merchant shipping and the navy in times of war. The committee consisted of Allen Young, C. Rivers Wilson, Thomas Ismay, and two or three naval officers. The committee noted that although traditionally the merchant navy was looked upon as a pool of trained sailors which could be called upon in wartime, the proportion of non-British sailors in British ships was steadily increasing. Moreover, that modern warships were becoming increasingly different from merchant ships, so it was felt a man could not simply be called from a merchantman and placed into a naval ship. A system of reserves was required where men received training and a retainer fee to be ready for war service when needed. Tryon felt it important that men from the reserve should wear the same uniform as regular sailors, so that no sense of inferiority might attach to them. Tryon had been impressed by the quality of merchant sailors serving in the Naval Brigade in Crimea.

Tryon was consulted on the best design for new battleships following the naval defence act of 1889, which had authorised seventy new ships including ten battleships. Tryon favoured a high freeboard to allow ships to perform well in rough seas, guns at least twenty-three feet above the waterline, and a minimum length of 380 feet. He opposed the very large 100-ton guns which had become available at that time, preferring smaller guns of around 45 tons. This proved a correct choice, as the 100-ton guns which did enter service proved unsuccessful. Their introduction had been experimental and in part in reaction to other navies trying such guns.