Page:The organisation of the Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers explained.djvu/11

Rh corps is to be recruited in a large proportion from among aquatics, many of their number may be expected to possess this qualification without the necessity for special instruction. The next point to claim attention will be the exercise at the great guns. Here I may venture to affirm, from personal experience, that the naval gun drills have been, in every detail, so carefully considered, the instructors are so completely masters of the subject which they have to teach, and the mechanical appliances are such effectual substitutes for heavy manual labour, that a few days of constant attention will suffice to make a volunteer a useful man in a gun's crew. The class of recruits required for the Royal Nay Artillery Volunteers possess advantages of intelligence and education, far beyond those which the practical seamen can enjoy; and we may anticipate, from the experience already acquired, that they will form some of the smartest gun's crews in any branch of the naval service. There is neither insurmountable difficulty, nor unduly fatiguing labour, in the drill at the great guns. The intricacies could be mastered in a few days, if the volunteers were kept continuously at drill, as they necessarily would be, should they ever be called out for actual service.

The essential point in a volunteer corps is to secure men physically capable of doing their work, and who may be confidently relied upon as ready to serve, whenever they may be called upon.

The small-arm exercises are still more easily