Dreyer Table Mark I*

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 Table as it may have appeared in 1918, front
It is unknown if any were actually configured with the Standard Bearing Plot depicted here.

Mark I* Dreyer Table c1918, schematic
This depicts it with a Standard Bearing Plot which may have been obsoleted.

Mark I* Dreyer Table as it might have been crewed in 1918
It is unknown if any were actually configured with the Standard Bearing Plot depicted here.

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

Whether any of these tables were placed in ships, and for how long, seems unclear, though five to seven ships appear possible. In 1918, two coastal battleships just reaching completion and five as-yet incomplete cruisers are noted as planned to receive the tables, but the three of these vessels that survived to 1930 are then noted as having other Marks.

Aside from two deployed in monitors, the Mark I* tables were primarily to be deployed to Hawkins class cruisers completed after the war. 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, and it is possible the cruisers never received the tables, as by 1930, Hawkins was noted as carrying a Mark IV* table, and

If any ships were so equipped, the lateness of their supply means 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	Perhaps upon completion,[Inference] out of service prior to 1930 source documents
Gorgon	Perhaps upon completion,[Inference] lost very soon thereafter
Effingham	Perhaps on completion,[Inference] by 1930 had Dreyer Table Mark III*
Frobisher	Perhaps on completion,[Inference] by 1930 had Dreyer Table Mark III*
Hawkins	Perhaps on completion,[Inference] by 1930 had a Dreyer Table Mark IV*
Raleigh	Perhaps on completion,[Inference] lost before 1930 source documents
Cavendish	As this ship was completed as an aircraft carrier, doubt about her Dreyer equipment is greater still.

See Also

• Mark I Dreyer Table
• Dreyer Fire Control Table

Bibliography

• Admiralty, Gunnery Branch (1918). Handbook of Captain F. C. Dreyer's Fire Control Tables, 1918. C.B. 1456. Copy No. 10 at Admiralty Library, Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
• Brooks, John (2005). Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland: The Question of Fire Control. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 0714657026. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).
• Brooks, John (2001). Fire Control for British Dreadnoughts: Choices of Technology and Supply. Unpublished PhD Thesis. London: Department of War Studies. King's College, London.