Dreyer Table Mark I*

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The Mark I* Dreyer Table was a moderately improved version of the Mark I table. It added a helm-free capability and a more comprehensive means of outputting gun range. The few ships to receive it were completed too late to see wartime service.

Mark I* Dreyer Fire Control Table as it appeared by 1918, front
Mark I* Dreyer Fire Control Table c1918, schematic
Mark I* Dreyer Fire Control Table as it would have been crewed in 1918

Particulars

The Mark I* was very nearly identical to the Mark I table, with 2 exceptions:

  • The Mark I* added a gyro-compass input to keep own heading updated on the dumaresq as was done first on the Mark III table.
  • The Mark I*'s gun range was conveyed to a Range Master Transmitter on the T.S. bulkhead.

Its dimensions were almost the same as those of the Mark I table, except the worm shaft bringing in gyro-compass data to the dumaresq added almost 2 feet to the height:

Overall Dimensions
Width 5 feet, 8 inches
Depth 5 feet, 1.5 inches
Height of Range Rate Grid 3 feet, 4 inches
Height of top of dumaresq 5 feet, 9 inches

Deployment

Aside from 2 deployed in monitors, the Mark I* tables were primarily deployed to Hawkins class cruisers completed after the war.[1] As the cruisers were all completed postwar and the monitors completed in the last weeks of the war, the Mark I* table is a historical footnote in World War I naval history.

As the ships using the Mark I* were completed so late, it is likely that they boasted the latest refinements from first installation, such as a Standard Bearing Plot or G.D.T. for their bearing side, and a range typewriter for plotting ranges[Inference].

Ship using Mark I* table Date equipped
Glatton ???
Gorgon ???
Cavendish on completion[Inference]
Effingham on completion[Inference]
Frobisher on completion[Inference]
Hawkins on completion[Inference]
Raleigh on completion[Inference]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Handbook of Captain F.C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, 1918. p. 3.

Bibliography