From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter to the British Power Boat Co. Ltd. regarding the prototype power-driven gun mounting and the Admiralty's lack of interest.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 175\3\ img284 | |
| Date | 28th December 1940 | |
| b Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}10/ML. 28.12.40. G.S.Selman, Esq., The British Power Boat Co.Ltd., HYTHE. Southampton. Dear Mr. Selman, Thank you for your letter of the 19th. of December. We expect to have our first prototype power driven mounting with the automatic gun, functioning in about three weeks' time. We will give you the weight when we have actually measured it. If we told you anything at the moment, it would be a very rough guess. The horse-power required by the auxiliary pump will be 3 to 4. To give you an idea as to when these installations are to be fitted to the boats is very difficult. The Admiralty have written to us and specifically told us that they are not interested in an automatic gun and they have never shown the slightest interest in the power driven mounting. However, possibly if they see the thing installed they may become interested, and then we can consider ways and means of getting some into production. It all seems unnecessarily slow however. Anyhow, as soon as we have a satisfactory working model we will contact you again. Yours sincerely, | ||