“The gun was the first breech loader, the first to have a laminated barrel and the first to be fired electrically,” Rayns continued, “and it could fire a round a minute.” An American asked whether the gun was ever fired in anger. “Not really, although it did once fire at a fishing boat which had not given the right signals in time. It fired live rounds in target practice, although that, too, was not in anger. A target was towed behind a tug, but because the target was an expensive contraption the gunners weren’t allowed to hit it, and the gun was therefore fitted with an angle-of-deflection device. This worked well, except once the gunners got it wrong and hit the tug.”