Admiralty for his work but ruefully pointed out in his autobiography that on returning to England he discovered his idea had been "... pirated and patented by someone else ... the Admiralty did not supply it to the Service until twenty-five years afterwards." Returning from Australia via South Africa Scott found himself having to deal with a fire on board when moored in Simon's Bay. From this he learned that the "smoke cap" supplied to wear in smoke-filled environments was of little use and the alternative, wearing a diving suit, was little better because of the weight of the helmet when on dry land. Scott set his ingenuity to the problem and devised a light metal helmet and short coat with waist belt and wrist bands to prevent smoke contaminating the wearer's breathing air which was piped in. This proved effective and once more Scott wrote to the Admiralty with his design and once more it was rejected (on the basis that the Loeb smoke-cap was satisfactory). It was thirty years later that the Admiralty changed their minds. On their journey home the Inconstant was ordered from Gibraltar to Alexandria. Scott was present at the 1882 British naval bombardment of Egyptian forts at Alexandria, and while witnessing how inaccurate the British gunners were, began to form his own ideas on the nature of naval gunfire. He was commended once more for his ingenious work in dismounting enemy heavy guns from the captured forts for use by the army. In 1883 Scott was posted to the gunnery school at . After six months he was transferred to HMS Excellent once more. Here he once more took up his idea of creating the gunnery school on Whale Island. In spite of the unpromising prospects, he created a detailed plan which he submitted to the commander of Excellent Captain John Fisher. After careful scrutiny Fisher put the plan forward to the Admiralty with his recommendation. The plan was accepted and work started immediately. In 1886 Scott was promoted to the rank of commander and joined HMS Edinburgh as second in command. Scott attempted to implement some of his ideas for gunnery improvement by holding regular firing practices, but was forced to direct most of his crew's energies towards the traditional naval task of cleaning the ship: During Edinburgh's time with the Mediterranean Fleet, Scott noted the difficulties experienced by the flagship in making