The Pollen Papers by Sumida, John Tetsuro;

Short description:

This is a Navy Records Society book.

Long description:

Arthur Pollen (1866-1937) trained as a barrister but eventually became a successful businessman. In 1900 he became interested in the problem of aiming naval artillery after witnessing a practice firing at sea. From that time he formulated his ideas for a system of firing accurately at long range and in 1906 he persuaded the Admiralty to co-operate in the development of his proposals.

However, Pollen’s ideas were not adopted as an influential group of naval officers supported another system, the Dreyer method of fire control, although some of Pollen’s ideas were used. In 1913 Pollen finally abandoned his attempts to get the Admiralty’s support. Promising negotiations with foreign navies were disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. The volume consists of correspondence between Pollen and various naval officers as well as technical papers before 1916.

The poor performance of British gunnery, particularly at the Battle of Jutland, led the Admiralty to order a redesign of fire control equipment in 1916 After the war Pollen was awarded £30,000 in compensation for ideas which were used without his knowledge or permission. From 1927 Pollen’s ideas lay behind standard fire control equipment issued to British ships.

Table of Contents:

General Introduction, I The Pollen System of Telemetry (February 1901), II Memorandum on a Proposed System for Finding Ranges at Sea and Ascertaining the Speed and Course of any Vessel in Sight (July 1904) 14, III Fire Control and Long-Range Firing: An Essay to Define Certain Principia of Gunnery, and to Suggest Means for Their Application (December 1904), IV A.C.: A Postscript (Mid-1905), V The Jupiter Letters: Extracts from Letters Addressed to Various Correspondents in the Royal Navy principally from HMS Jupiter (May 1906), VI Note on the Possibility of Demonstrating the Principle of Aim Correction Without the Use of Instruments Designed for the Purpose (Sent to the Director of Naval Ordnance, July 1906), VII Some Aspects of the Tactical Value of Speed in Capital Ships (November 1906)*, VIII Notes on a Proposed Method of Studying Naval Tactics (Spring 1907), IX An Apology for the A.C. Battle System: Being Notes for a Lecture to the War Course College, Portsmouth (August-December 1907), X Notes, Correspondence, Etc., on the Pollen A.C. System, Installed and Tried in HMS Ariadne (December 1907-January 1908)* , XI Extracts from a Letter to Capt. Reginald H. S. Bacon, CVO, DSO, Royal Navy. Dated 27 February 1908 (February 1908), XII Reflections on an Error of the Day (September 1908)* , XIII Notes, Etc., on the Ariadne Trials (April 1909) 194 X THE POLLEN PAPERS XIV Memoranda and Instructions Introductory to the Use of Pollen's Tactical Instrument (May 1909)*, XV [Pollen] To Rear-Admiral the Hon. Stanley C. J. Colville, CVO, CB (July 1910), XVI The Quest of a Rate Finder (November 1910) XVII Of War and The Rate of Change (December 1910-January 1911) XVIII The Gun in Battle (February 1913) XIX The Necessity of Fire Control (September 1913) XX [Untitled Paper] (May 1916?)