ABSTRACT
While Pollen always remained an outsider, Lieutenant Frederic Dreyer soon gained a reputation as a promising member of the Royal Navy’s gunnery elite. The second son of the Danish-born astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer, he entered Britannia in 1891 and his early career culminated in 1901 when, on the demanding advanced course for gunnery and torpedo lieutenants at Greenwich, he came first in his class of three. Following his 1903 appointment as Exmouth’s Gunnery Lieutenant, his ship recommissioned as the flagship of the Channel Fleet and Dreyer quickly became a valued adviser on gunnery matters to Vice Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson. Dreyer also distinguished himself by placing the flagship first in Battle Practice and the Gunlayers’ Tests for three years (1904-6) in succession.1 He represented the C.-in-C. on the Calibration Committee chaired by Percy Scott (Captain Edward Harding was also a member) and, in May 1905, first met Arthur Pollen, who had been invited to witness the Bantry Bay calibration trials, and who gave Dreyer a copy of Fire Control and Long Range Firing. The two met again in the spring of 1906, when Pollen presented plans of his system to a group of naval officers, after which he was given a tour of Exmouth.2 On 31 October 1906, he sent Dreyer a copy of the Jupiter Letters with a request for ‘any reflections you may have’. The latter replied, apologising for the delay, on 15 December,
but as regards giving you an opinion, as I have never seen your gear and do not know how you have actually overcome the many great mechanical difficulties… I must put that off until I have the pleasure of again seeing you.3
