Percy Scott - Ideas Into Practice

Ideas Into Practice

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 in 1898 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, so useless for training. Scott devised a new sub-calibre gun which 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 telescope 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 as to support the army which lacked any 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 some considerable suspicion. However, they proved very effective and the role of two of his 4.7inch 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. Other tasks he achieved included turning 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 the Terrible proceeded on its way to China.

In China Terrible and its crew became involved in the Boxer Rebellion and once more Scott found himself dismounting his guns to provide assistance to land forces and making a significant contribution to the capture of Tiensin. After hostilities ceased Scott returned to working up his ship's gunnery capabilities, devising novel training aids and trying to better the 80% score which had been achieved in the Scylla. After target practice Scott was in the habit of posting his comments on the ship's notice board. On one occasion he had praised nine out of the twelve gun crews but had described the other three as most discreditable. This was somehow picked up by the Press which pointed out that the three gun crews which had been criticised had achieved scores of 41%, a score achieved by no other crew in the Navy using the same guns, the average score being 28%. In the Navy's 1901 prize firing Terrible achieved a score of 80%, the best of any ship in the Navy. Consequent to this the captain of HMS Barfleur adopted the Terrible training regime and saw a doubling in its score within a month.

In July 1902 Scott received orders to return with his ship to Britain and after making passage via the Suez Canal returned to Portsmouth in September.

With the intervention of Jackie Fisher, Scott was posted to HMS Excellent, the naval gunnery school at Whale Island, Hampshire. The Excellent served as a training ground, especially for gunnery, and Scott was able to continue to refine his ideas. This included ways to increase artillery accuracy as well as improve the speed of loading the guns. In 1903 Scott was appointed aide de camp to the king, a largely honorary role which he held until promotion to flag rank in 1905.