What missile skills do you recommend?

I started flying a Drake the other day, as a friend of mine recommended it as an excellent means of hunting down battleship rats. He checked my skills and thought I was 'good to go'.

So I went, and... well, it was pathetic really. I fired the missiles, almost 500 of them. And then I turned off the launchers with a sigh. The two battleships I'd been firing at still had their shields at about 40% and it didn't look like I was getting any further into them.

So, I put it to you, the skilled and experienced missile pilots out there. What skills should I have for Heavy Missile Launchers that will ensure I have the best possible means of quickly killing rat battleships?

Please note that my shield tanking is fine (how else could I sit there for so long, pointlessly firing missiles at these battleships? No, it's just the missile skills I need suggestions on.

I need to raise some money fast, and battleship ratting seems like a good way of doing it.
Your comments and suggestions will be very welcome. :)

Things are about to get interesting

About 2 months ago I was talking about being an anti-pirate. That hasn't really worked out, because I've been sitting around in stations poring over skill books. Back in February this year I decided to become a Force Recon pilot. Now THERE is some intensive training requirements!

But after a solid 6 months of training, I'm excited to find out I'm only a couple weeks away from jumping into my very first fully-equipped Force Recon. A Rapier, to be exact. About 2-3 weeks after that, I'll be able to jump into an Arazu, which will be my preferred stealth ship. I've been hanging out for an Arazu for a long, long time...

I recently flew my very first battleship, a Megathron, and was really excited about that little adventure! But I'm now very happy to be able to fly every single Tech 1 combat ship from frigates all the way up to battleships. For all races!

I can jump into any battleship, and start flying it. Admittedly, fitting it with the relevant racial fittings might be a bit of a problem, but not a big one... I can fly fully fitted Minmatar and Gallente battleships, and will soon work on the fittings for the Caldari and Amarr.

It's all very exciting! I'm not sure how much of this excitement a girl can handle...

Back to the topic - things are about to get interesting. Tomorrow I'll be finished with my cloaking training. I need to make some money to afford the Force Recon ships, so I'm going to jump into a cloaked Raven battleship and head off into null-sec to seek out some dirty rat battleships and blow them to hell! I hear there are huge bounties on their heads...

Once I'm in a Rapier, I'll be seeking out targets here and there, and blowing them to hell before they're even aware I've suddenly appeared!

Well, that's the plan, at least...

If any of you have tips on fittings and tactics for the Rapier or Arazu, PLEASE help me out by telling me about them in the comments. All your assistance will be greatly appreciated, especially since it'll help keep me alive!