that rank on 15 February 1899 and promoted to lieutenant on 15 February 1900. Following promotion he was posted to the Devonport destroyer Osprey on 15 March, and on 12 June that year he was appointed to the torpedo-boat destroyer Fervent. Gunnery officer Following this period at sea, Lieutenant Dewar was selected to specialise in gunnery duties. His time training at HMS Excellent, the gunnery school at Portsmouth, coincided with that of the captaincy of Percy Scott, the renowned gunnery expert. His performance on the two-year course was so impressive that on graduation he was given command of a ship. From 21 July 1903, Dewar was Lieutenant and Commander of the Chatham-based destroyer Mermaid. Dewar became the gunnery officer of the armoured cruiser Kent on 24 August 1905, where he remained until 1908. Dewar's dedication and standard of training became evident when his ship led the Fleet in battle practice firings and gunlayer's-test. He was reassigned to Excellent on 19 January 1908 for instruction duties. Soon he was sent to sea again, being made gunnery officer of the battleship Prince George on 8 February 1908. He rejoined Excellent on 22 December that year. On 11 June 1909 Dewar was "lent" as gunnery officer to the protected cruiser Spartiate for the annual fleet manœuvres. Once the manœuvres were finished, Dewar was made assistant to the Inspector of Target Practice, an important gunnery position at the Admiralty on 17 July. In the same year, he was asked to lecture on the Imperial Japanese Navy, which he had previously had experience of, at the Royal Naval War College at Portsmouth. During his talk, he exhibited an unpalatable forthrightness by saying that the Royal Navy needed more intellectual officers like Togo Heihachiro, implying that there was a dearth of such officers. The President of the College, Lewis Bayly, abruptly terminated his lecture. On 1 January 1910, Dewar was once more given sea duty as first lieutenant and gunnery officer (referred to as "1st and G") of Dreadnought. Dreadnought was still one of the most prestigious postings in the fleet despite the growing number of newer dreadnought battleships and battle cruisers entering service. It was Dewar's misfortune during this service to be taken in by the Dreadnought hoax on 10 February, in which he escorted a party of practical jokers, that included Virginia Woolf, pretending to be Abyssinian royalty, on an official visit to the