3-034-562 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Camp at Shoeburyness: the competition for the Army Prizes, 1871. 'For the first time during the seven years in which the National Artillery Association has conducted its quiet but valuable labours an opportunity has been afforded to the volunteers of measuring their skill against their brethren of the Royal Artillery. The means of comparison were not complete, for the regular gunners used a 9-in. gun, and fired at 1200 and 1600 yards, while the volunteers used a weapon which is said to be twenty per cent more accurate than the 9-in., and fired at 1250 and 1500 yards; but, making every allowance for these differences, the volunteers proved themselves the more skilful marksmen...In competing for the Queen's prize two volunteer detachments, with 40-pounder Armstrong guns, made three direct hits and one ricochet hit each; whereas the Royal Artillery with the 9-in. gun obtained only two hits out of five rounds, the number of shots being in all cases the same...The firing by the Royal Artillery at 1200 and 1600 yards resulted in the 12th Brigade obtaining the victory...The time allowed was 10 min. The shot used was the 300-lb. Palliser projectile, and the gun the 9-in. 12-ton muzzle-loader'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.