Conway Maritime Press - Warship 44

An unrecorded tiial against an MMS. Autltor's collection
underwater explosions at a distance which will not rupture
the hull or injure the crew but impose a nasty jolt on
equipments. These, too, show thatthe \947-50 trials taught
many useful lessons.
Overall structural design has advanced and control of
details has improved. Modern steels are better able to resist
explosive loads at low temperature as well as in warmer
waters. Equipment is more robust and better mounted.
My thanks are due to the Chief Superintendent and his
staff at ARE Dunfermline (formerly NCRE), to Mr J. C.
Lawrence, Lt Cdr J Maber and to Lt Cdr MR Wilson (Naval
Historical Branch), for assistance in preparation of this
article.
Postscript
Ttris series of articles has covered the trials of weapons
against RN ships from 1830 to 1950, with afewgaps. Sofar,
the period 1860 to 1880 has not been dealt with and, one day,
work in that era will be discussed. One day, too, details of
trials since 1950 will become available and a postscript to the
series may be written.
There can, however, be no end to the struggle between
attack and defence, atleast as far as conventional weapons
are concerned. Weapon desiglers as well as ship designers
are highly skilled and imaginative and a temporary success
by one team will soon be matched by a development fromthe
other.
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