Frederic Charles Dreyer
Encyclopedia
Admiral
Sir Frederic Charles Dreyer, GBE
, KCB
(8 January 1878 – 11 December 1956) was an officer of the Royal Navy
who developed a fire control system for British warships. He retired with the rank of Admiral in 1943, having served through two world wars and having already retired once.
Frederic Dreyer was born on 8 January 1878 in the Irish town of Parsonstown (now Birr) in King's County (now County Offaly), the second son of the Danish-born astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer who was director of the Armagh Observatory
. Educated at The Royal School, Armagh
, in 1891 Dreyer joined the Royal Navy and entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
in HMS Anson
(1893–1896) and HMS Barfleur
(1896–1897). In nearly all his subsequent examinations for promotions he obtained Class 1 certificates—for Sub-Lieutenant, Lieutenant (July, 1898, while aboard HMS Repulse
) and then gunnery Lieutenant. In 1900 he authored a book called How to Get a First Class in Seamanship. He came first in his class of three in the advanced course for gunnery and torpedo lieutenants at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1901, after which he was posted to the staff of the gunnery school at Sheerness
. He then served as gunnery officer in the cruiser HMS Scylla and in 1902 was in HMS Hawke
.
In 1903 Dreyer was posted as gunnery officer to the newly-commissioned battleship
HMS Exmouth
in the Mediterranean. In 1904 Exmouth became the flagship of the British Home Fleet
whereupon he became gunnery advisor to the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson
From 1904 to 1907 Exmouth came first in the Home Fleet's (later Channel Fleet) gunlayer tests and battle practices. In 1905 he served on a calibration committee chaired by the Inspector of Target Practice Rear-Admiral Percy Scott
. He was posted as experimental gunnery officer to the first dreadnought battleship HMS Dreadnought
on her experimental cruise of 1907 on "Special Service" to assist with gunnery trials.
. At the end of 1907 he assisted in the trials of Arthur Hungerford Pollen's Argo rangefinder mounting and plotter on the cruiser HMS Ariadne. He returned to the Admiralty
, under the new DNO Captain Reginald Bacon
and remained there until 1909, when he was appointed commander (executive officer) in the new dreadnought HMS Vanguard
, then completing in Barrow-in-Furness
. In 1910 Dreyer was invited by Vice-Admiral Jellicoe to be his flag commander, first in HMS Prince of Wales
(flagship of the Atlantic Fleet) and then in HMS Hercules
(flagship of the 2nd Division of the Home Fleet).
On Jellicoe's advice, Dreyer was given command of the scout cruiser
HMS Amphion
in 1913, with promotion to Captain in June. That year Amphion came first out of the entire navy in the gunlayer's test and first in the vessel's type in battle practice. In October, 1913 he became flag captain
(commander of the flagship) to Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot
in the battleship HMS Orion
(flagship Rear-Admiral 2nd Battle Squadron) until 1915. At the behest of Jellicoe, now Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet
Dreyer was made flag captain of HMS Iron Duke
, serving at the Battle of Jutland
in 1916.
He moved to the Admiralty
with Jellicoe as the Assistant Director of the Anti-Submarine Division. In March, 1917 he was appointed DNO, where he formed a committee to design and produce a new type of armour-piercing shell, as the exisitng type had proved woefully unreliable. He was appointed to the Naval Staff as Director of Naval Artillery and Torpedoes in 1918. Following the Armistice he was appointed Commodore, 2nd Class and served as Chief of Staff to Admiral Jellicoe on his Naval Mission to India and the Dominions on HMS New Zealand
, between 1919 and 1920.
HMS Repulse
for a year before serving as Aide-de-camp
to HM the King
. In late 1923 he was promoted Rear-Admiral. In 1924 he became a Lord Commissioner of Admiralty as Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff and instituted the Tactical School at Portsmouth.
In 1927 Dreyer returned to sea as commander of the Battlecruiser Squadron
, flying his flag in HMS Hood. In 1929 he became a Vice-Admiral and the following year became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. He had previously entertained hopes of becoming the commander of the Atlantic Fleet
after his tenure at the Admiralty. However, the tainting by association of the Board of which he was part by the Invergordon Mutiny
in 1931, with the consequent effect on that fleet, meant that Dreyer was destined never to command it.
In 1932 he was promoted to full Admiral and in 1933 given command of the China Station
where he served until 1936.
He retired in 1939 only to volunteer as a Convoy Commodore
in the Royal Naval Reserve
upon the outbreak of the Second World War. He was on the staff of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Home Forces in 1940 as an advisor on anti-invasion measure, before becoming Inspector of Merchant Navy Gunnery (1941–1942). He then was appointed as Chief of Naval Air Services
(1942) before his final brief appointment as Deputy Chief of Naval Air Equipment in 1943. He then returned to the retired list for the second time.
His memoirs were published as The Sea Heritage: a Study in Maritime Warfare (Museum Press, 1955)
, with whom he worked on his fire control devices.
All three sons and his two sons-in-law were naval officers. His second son was the late Vice-Admiral Sir Desmond Dreyer
, GCB, CBE, DSC who also became as a gunnery officer and won his DSC
at the Battle of the River Plate
, going onto become Second Sea Lord
.
for his services to naval gunnery. Following the Battle of Jutland he was awarded the military CB for the behaviour and shooting of Iron Duke in the battle. After the naval mission to the Empire in 1919 he was made CBE. In 1932 he was promoted to KCB and to GBE in 1936.
, and a Naval group led by Dreyer. Both camps aimed to produce a combined mechanical computer
and automatic plot of ranges and rates for use in centralised fire control. Both systems were ordered for new and existing ships of the Royal Navy, although the Dreyer Table, as the Dreyer system was called eventually found most favour with the Navy in its definitive Mark IV* form.
The addition of director
control facilitated a full, practicable fire control system for World War I ships, and most RN capital ships were so fitted by mid 1916. The director was high up over the ship where operators had a superior view over any gunlayer in the turret
s. It was also able to co-ordinate the fire of the turrets so that their combined fire worked together. This improved aiming and larger optical rangefinders improved the estimate of the enemy's position at the time of firing. But with the longer practical ranges came the increased time of flight. The Fire Control System now had to account for more variations and more complicated corrections than was originally planned. The Dreyer Table had some mechanical flaws, particularly when additional loads were introduced in the form of unauthorised accoutrements concocted by individual gunnery personnel, but on the whole performed in a satisfactory manner. The system was eventually replaced by the improved "Admiralty Fire Control Table
" for ships built after 1927, although Dreyer Tables went to war a second time in World War II, notably in Britain's unmodernised battleships and battlecruisers.
The choice between the Dreyer and Pollen systems was controversial at the time. The Royal Navy had repeatedly tested Pollen's designs and had given him what it considered very preferential terms for them. Pollen
in 1925 won an award for £30,000 from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors
for elements of his Argo Clock that had been used without his permission. At the same time Dreyer applied for a similar grant but due to the fact that in 1915 he had been awarded £5,000 for his services to fire control his request was denied.
While Dreyer's table certainly owes some of its features to Arthur Pollen, it was still his creation and for all the claims of the navy protecting its own, Pollen's inventions received a fair trial at the Admiralty—a fact which he himself admitted.
Admiral (United Kingdom)
Admiral is a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-9, outranked only by the rank Admiral of the Fleet...
Sir Frederic Charles Dreyer, GBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(8 January 1878 – 11 December 1956) was an officer of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
who developed a fire control system for British warships. He retired with the rank of Admiral in 1943, having served through two world wars and having already retired once.
Frederic Dreyer was born on 8 January 1878 in the Irish town of Parsonstown (now Birr) in King's County (now County Offaly), the second son of the Danish-born astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer who was director of the Armagh Observatory
Armagh Observatory
Armagh Observatory is a modern astronomical research institute with a rich heritage, based in Armagh, Northern Ireland. Around 25 astronomers are actively studying stellar astrophysics, the Sun, Solar System astronomy, and the Earth's climate....
. Educated at The Royal School, Armagh
The Royal School, Armagh
The Royal School, Armagh is a co-educational voluntary grammar school in the city of Armagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. It was one of a number of free schools created by King James I of England in 1608 to provide an education to the sons of local merchants and farmers during the plantation...
, in 1891 Dreyer joined the Royal Navy and entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
Early years
At Dartmouth he performed well in his examinations and was placed fifth in his term. He then served as a MidshipmanMidshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
in HMS Anson
HMS Anson (1886)
HMS Anson was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy, and was the last member of the Admiral-class to be laid down....
(1893–1896) and HMS Barfleur
HMS Barfleur (1892)
HMS Barfleur was a predreadnought second-class battleship of the Royal Navy. She was part of the three-ship Centurion class, designed for long-range patrolling of the United Kingdom's far-flung empire. She mainly saw service in the Mediterranean and Home Fleet, along with Service at China Station,...
(1896–1897). In nearly all his subsequent examinations for promotions he obtained Class 1 certificates—for Sub-Lieutenant, Lieutenant (July, 1898, while aboard HMS Repulse
HMS Repulse (1892)
HMS Repulse was a Royal Sovereign-class predreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. She was the tenth ship to bear the name HMS Repulse.-Technical Characteristics:HMS Repulse was ordered under the Naval Defence Act Program of 1889...
) and then gunnery Lieutenant. In 1900 he authored a book called How to Get a First Class in Seamanship. He came first in his class of three in the advanced course for gunnery and torpedo lieutenants at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1901, after which he was posted to the staff of the gunnery school at Sheerness
Sheerness
Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....
. He then served as gunnery officer in the cruiser HMS Scylla and in 1902 was in HMS Hawke
HMS Hawke (1891)
HMS Hawke, launched in 1891, was the sixth British warship to be named Hawke. She was an Edgar-class protected cruiser.-Service:...
.
In 1903 Dreyer was posted as gunnery officer to the newly-commissioned battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
HMS Exmouth
HMS Exmouth (1901)
HMS Exmouth was a Duncan class predreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. HMS Exmouth was laid down by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead in August 1899, launched in August 1901 and finally completed in May 1903...
in the Mediterranean. In 1904 Exmouth became the flagship of the British Home Fleet
British Home Fleet
The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy which operated in the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967.-Pre–First World War:...
whereupon he became gunnery advisor to the Commander-in-Chief Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson
Arthur Knyvet Wilson
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson VC, GCB, OM, GCVO was an English Admiral and briefly First Sea Lord who was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry during the war in Sudan...
From 1904 to 1907 Exmouth came first in the Home Fleet's (later Channel Fleet) gunlayer tests and battle practices. In 1905 he served on a calibration committee chaired by the Inspector of Target Practice Rear-Admiral Percy Scott
Percy Scott
Admiral Sir Percy Moreton Scott, 1st Baronet GCB KCVO was a British Royal Navy officer and a pioneer in modern naval gunnery.-Early years:...
. He was posted as experimental gunnery officer to the first dreadnought battleship HMS Dreadnought
HMS Dreadnought (1906)
HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...
on her experimental cruise of 1907 on "Special Service" to assist with gunnery trials.
Admiralty and war service
On his return, upon the recommendation of Admiral Wilson, he was promoted Commander and appointed Assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance (DNO), John JellicoeJohn Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe
Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO was a British Royal Navy admiral who commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in World War I...
. At the end of 1907 he assisted in the trials of Arthur Hungerford Pollen's Argo rangefinder mounting and plotter on the cruiser HMS Ariadne. He returned to the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
, under the new DNO Captain Reginald Bacon
Reginald Bacon
Admiral Sir Reginald Hugh Spencer Bacon, KCB, KCVO, DSO was an officer in the Royal Navy noted for his technical abilities who was described by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jacky Fisher, as the man "acknowledged to be the cleverest officer in the Navy".-Family:Reginald was born at Wiggonholt in...
and remained there until 1909, when he was appointed commander (executive officer) in the new dreadnought HMS Vanguard
HMS Vanguard (1909)
The eighth HMS Vanguard of the British Royal Navy was a St Vincent-class battleship, an enhancement of the "" design built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness...
, then completing in Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
. In 1910 Dreyer was invited by Vice-Admiral Jellicoe to be his flag commander, first in HMS Prince of Wales
HMS Prince of Wales (1902)
HMS Prince of Wales was a London- or Queen-class predreadnought battleship, a sub-class of the Formidable-class battleships of the British Royal Navy...
(flagship of the Atlantic Fleet) and then in HMS Hercules
HMS Hercules (1910)
HMS Hercules was a Colossus-class battleship built by Palmers, launched on 10 May 1910, and commissioned on 31 July 1911 at Portsmouth. She was a 20,000-ton dreadnought, mounting ten 12 inch guns in five twin gun turrets, sixteen 4 inch , four 3 pounders, and three 21 inch ...
(flagship of the 2nd Division of the Home Fleet).
On Jellicoe's advice, Dreyer was given command of the scout cruiser
Scout cruiser
A scout cruiser was a type of warship of the early 20th Century, which were smaller, faster, more lightly armed and armoured than protected cruisers or light cruisers, but larger than contemporary destroyers...
HMS Amphion
HMS Amphion (1911)
HMS Amphion was an Active-class scout cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched on 4 December 1911. She became the first ship of the Royal Navy to be sunk in the First World War...
in 1913, with promotion to Captain in June. That year Amphion came first out of the entire navy in the gunlayer's test and first in the vessel's type in battle practice. In October, 1913 he became flag captain
Flag captain
In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First Captain", with the "flag captain" as the ship's...
(commander of the flagship) to Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot
Robert Arbuthnot
General Sir Robert Arbuthnot, KCB, was born at Rockfleet Castle, County Mayo, Ireland, on 19 November 1773 fourth son of John Arbuthnot Senior of Rockfleet, Co Mayo. He was a General in the army, a colonel in the 76th Regiment. He was a Brigadier General in the Portuguese Service and was appointed...
in the battleship HMS Orion
HMS Orion (1910)
HMS Orion was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1910, she was the lead ship of her class; she was the first so-called "super-dreadnought", being the first British dreadnought to mount guns of calibre greater than twelve inches, and the first British dreadnought to have...
(flagship Rear-Admiral 2nd Battle Squadron) until 1915. At the behest of Jellicoe, now Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet
British Grand Fleet
The Grand Fleet was the main fleet of the British Royal Navy during the First World War.-History:It was formed in 1914 by the British Atlantic Fleet combined with the Home Fleet and it included 35-40 state-of-the-art capital ships. It was initially commanded by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe...
Dreyer was made flag captain of HMS Iron Duke
HMS Iron Duke (1912)
HMS Iron Duke was a battleship of the Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class, named in honour of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. She served as the flagship of the Grand Fleet during the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland...
, serving at the Battle of Jutland
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...
in 1916.
He moved to the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
with Jellicoe as the Assistant Director of the Anti-Submarine Division. In March, 1917 he was appointed DNO, where he formed a committee to design and produce a new type of armour-piercing shell, as the exisitng type had proved woefully unreliable. He was appointed to the Naval Staff as Director of Naval Artillery and Torpedoes in 1918. Following the Armistice he was appointed Commodore, 2nd Class and served as Chief of Staff to Admiral Jellicoe on his Naval Mission to India and the Dominions on HMS New Zealand
HMS New Zealand (1911)
HMS New Zealand was one of three s built for the defence of the British Empire. Launched in 1911, the ship's construction was funded by the government of New Zealand as a gift to Britain, and she was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1912...
, between 1919 and 1920.
Post war
This was followed by a return to the Admiralty as Director of the Gunnery Division from 1920 to 1922. He returned to sea commanding the battlecruiserBattlecruiser
Battlecruisers were large capital ships built in the first half of the 20th century. They were developed in the first decade of the century as the successor to the armoured cruiser, but their evolution was more closely linked to that of the dreadnought battleship...
HMS Repulse
HMS Repulse (1916)
HMS Repulse was a Renown-class battlecruiser of the Royal Navy built during the First World War. She was originally laid down as an improved version of the s. Her construction was suspended on the outbreak of war on the grounds she would not be ready in a timely manner...
for a year before serving as Aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to HM the King
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. In late 1923 he was promoted Rear-Admiral. In 1924 he became a Lord Commissioner of Admiralty as Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff and instituted the Tactical School at Portsmouth.
In 1927 Dreyer returned to sea as commander of the Battlecruiser Squadron
Battlecruiser Squadron (United Kingdom)
The Battlecruiser Squadron was a Royal Navy squadron of battlecruisers that saw service from 1919 to the early part of the Second World War.- Formation :...
, flying his flag in HMS Hood. In 1929 he became a Vice-Admiral and the following year became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. He had previously entertained hopes of becoming the commander of the Atlantic Fleet
British Atlantic Fleet
The Atlantic Fleet was a major fleet formation of the Royal Navy.There have been two main formations in the Royal Navy officially called the Atlantic Fleet. The first was created in 1909 and lasted until 1914...
after his tenure at the Admiralty. However, the tainting by association of the Board of which he was part by the Invergordon Mutiny
Invergordon Mutiny
The Invergordon Mutiny was an industrial action by around 1,000 sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet, that took place on 15–16 September 1931...
in 1931, with the consequent effect on that fleet, meant that Dreyer was destined never to command it.
In 1932 he was promoted to full Admiral and in 1933 given command of the China Station
China Station
The China Station was a historical formation of the British Royal Navy. It was formally the units and establishments responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, China....
where he served until 1936.
He retired in 1939 only to volunteer as a Convoy Commodore
Convoy commodore
A Convoy Commodore was the title of a civilian put in charge of the good order of the merchant ships in the British convoys used during World War II. Usually the convoy commodore was a retired naval officer or a senior merchant captain drawn from the RNVR...
in the Royal Naval Reserve
Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...
upon the outbreak of the Second World War. He was on the staff of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Home Forces in 1940 as an advisor on anti-invasion measure, before becoming Inspector of Merchant Navy Gunnery (1941–1942). He then was appointed as Chief of Naval Air Services
Fifth Sea Lord
The Fifth Sea Lord was formerly one of the Naval Lords and members of the Board of Admiralty that controlled the Royal Navy.-History:In 1805, for the first time, specific functions were assigned to each of the 'Naval' Lords, who were described as 'Professional' Lords, leaving to the 'Civil' Lords...
(1942) before his final brief appointment as Deputy Chief of Naval Air Equipment in 1943. He then returned to the retired list for the second time.
His memoirs were published as The Sea Heritage: a Study in Maritime Warfare (Museum Press, 1955)
Family life
On 26 June 1901 Dreyer married Una Maria Hallett (1876–1959), daughter of John Thomas Hallett, vicar of Bishop's Tachbrook, Warwickshire; they had three sons and two daughters. His elder brother was Major-General John Tuthill Dreyer, RARoyal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
, with whom he worked on his fire control devices.
All three sons and his two sons-in-law were naval officers. His second son was the late Vice-Admiral Sir Desmond Dreyer
Desmond Dreyer
Admiral Sir Desmond Parry Dreyer GCB CBE DSC DL was a senior Royal Navy officer who went on to be Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel.-Naval career:...
, GCB, CBE, DSC who also became as a gunnery officer and won his DSC
Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...
at the Battle of the River Plate
Battle of the River Plate
The Battle of the River Plate was the first naval battle in the Second World War. The German pocket battleship had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September 1939...
, going onto become Second Sea Lord
Second Sea Lord
The Second Sea Lord and Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command , commonly just known as the Second Sea Lord , is one of the most senior admirals of the British Royal Navy , and is responsible for personnel and naval shore establishments.-History:In 1805, for the first time, specific functions were...
.
Honours
In 1914 Dreyer was awarded the civilian CBOrder of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
for his services to naval gunnery. Following the Battle of Jutland he was awarded the military CB for the behaviour and shooting of Iron Duke in the battle. After the naval mission to the Empire in 1919 he was made CBE. In 1932 he was promoted to KCB and to GBE in 1936.
Dreyer Fire Control Table
The introduction of centralized fire control for warships gave a significant improvement to the accuracy of gunnery. The increasing range of naval guns led by several years the necessary advances to control their fire. Over a ten-year period techniques such as centralised spotting of fall of shot, mechanical computation of rate of change of range (rate), mechanical clocks to calculate range over time for any given "rate" and long baselength optical rangefinders were introduced. In order to make sense of such data, manual plotting of rangefinder ranges, from single or multiple rangefinders as well as other data began to find favour. The Royal Navy sponsored research into these techniques, and two groups emerged, a commercial group led by Arthur PollenArthur Pollen
Arthur Joseph Hungerford Pollen was a writer on naval affairs in the early 1900s who recognised the need for a computer-based fire-control system...
, and a Naval group led by Dreyer. Both camps aimed to produce a combined mechanical computer
Calculating machine
A calculating machine is a machine designed to come up with calculations or, in other words, computations. One noted machine was the Victorian British scientist Charles Babbage's Difference Engine , designed in the 1840s but never completed in the inventor's lifetime...
and automatic plot of ranges and rates for use in centralised fire control. Both systems were ordered for new and existing ships of the Royal Navy, although the Dreyer Table, as the Dreyer system was called eventually found most favour with the Navy in its definitive Mark IV* form.
The addition of director
Director (military)
A director, also called an auxiliary predictor, is a mechanical or electronic computer that continuously calculates trigonometric firing solutions for use against a moving target, and transmits targeting data to direct the weapon firing crew....
control facilitated a full, practicable fire control system for World War I ships, and most RN capital ships were so fitted by mid 1916. The director was high up over the ship where operators had a superior view over any gunlayer in the turret
Gun turret
A gun turret is a weapon mount that protects the crew or mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon and at the same time lets the weapon be aimed and fired in many directions.The turret is also a rotating weapon platform...
s. It was also able to co-ordinate the fire of the turrets so that their combined fire worked together. This improved aiming and larger optical rangefinders improved the estimate of the enemy's position at the time of firing. But with the longer practical ranges came the increased time of flight. The Fire Control System now had to account for more variations and more complicated corrections than was originally planned. The Dreyer Table had some mechanical flaws, particularly when additional loads were introduced in the form of unauthorised accoutrements concocted by individual gunnery personnel, but on the whole performed in a satisfactory manner. The system was eventually replaced by the improved "Admiralty Fire Control Table
Admiralty Fire Control Table
thumb|Admiralty Fire Control Table in the transmitting station of [[HMS Belfast |HMS Belfast]].The Admiralty Fire Control Table was an electromechanical analogue computer fire-control system that calculated the correct elevation and deflection of a Royal Navy cruiser or battleships' main armament,...
" for ships built after 1927, although Dreyer Tables went to war a second time in World War II, notably in Britain's unmodernised battleships and battlecruisers.
The choice between the Dreyer and Pollen systems was controversial at the time. The Royal Navy had repeatedly tested Pollen's designs and had given him what it considered very preferential terms for them. Pollen
Arthur Pollen
Arthur Joseph Hungerford Pollen was a writer on naval affairs in the early 1900s who recognised the need for a computer-based fire-control system...
in 1925 won an award for £30,000 from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors
Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors
A Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors is a periodic Royal Commission of the United Kingdom used to hear patent disputes.On October 6, 1919 a Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors was convened to hear 11 claims for the invention of the tank....
for elements of his Argo Clock that had been used without his permission. At the same time Dreyer applied for a similar grant but due to the fact that in 1915 he had been awarded £5,000 for his services to fire control his request was denied.
While Dreyer's table certainly owes some of its features to Arthur Pollen, it was still his creation and for all the claims of the navy protecting its own, Pollen's inventions received a fair trial at the Admiralty—a fact which he himself admitted.
Published works
- The Sea Heritage: a study in maritime warfare. 1955
- How to Get a First Class in Seamanship. 1900