The Florida agriculturist., 1889-05-01

soon as 1t was light enough to see the
repeller the Adamant began firing great
guns at her. She was too far away fo1
the shot to strike her, but to launch and
send boat of any kind into a storm OF
shot and shell was of course impossible
The cannon suspended over the stern
of the Adamant was also again brought
into play, and shot after shot was driven
down upon the towing crab. Every
ball rebounded from the spring armor,
but the officer in charge of the crab be-
came convinced that after time this
constant pounding, almost in the same
place, would injure his vessel, and he
signaled the repeller to that effect.
The director of Repeller No. hadbeen
considering the situation. There was
only one gun on the Adamant which
could be brought to bear upon Crab K.
and it would be the part of wisdom to
interfere. with the persistent use of this
gun. Accordingly the bow of the re.
peller was brought to bear upon the
Adamant, and her motor gun was aimed
at the boom from which the cannon was
suspended.
The proiectile with which the cannon
motor bomb. 1t was simply a heavy
solid shot, driven by an instantaneous
motor attachment, and was thus impelled
by the same power and in the same man
ner as the motor bombs The instantane-
GUS motor power had not yet been used
at SO great distance as that between the
repeller and the Adamant, and the occa.
sion was one of intense interest to the
small body of scientific men having
charge Of the aiming and firing
The calculations of the distance, of the
necessary elevation and direction, and
Of the degree of motor power required,
were made with careful exactness, and
when the proper instant arrived the but.
ton was touched, and the shot with
which the cannon was charged was
instantaneously removed to point in
the ocean about mile beyond the Ada
mant, accompanied by a large portion OF
the heavy boom at which the gun had
been aimed.
The cannon which had been suspended
from the end of this boom fell into the
sea, and would have crashed down upon
the roof of Crab x, had not that vessel,
in obedience to signal from the repel-
Ter, loosened its hold upon the Adamant
and retired short distance astern. Ma
terial injury might not have resulted
from the fall of this great mass of metal
upon the crab, but it was considered pru-
dent not to take useless risks.
The officers of the Adamant were
greatly surprised and chagrined by the
fall of their gun, with which they had
expected ultimately to pound in the roof
Of the crab. No damage had been done
to the vessel except the removal of a
portion of the boom, with some of the
chains and blocks attached, and no one
on board the British ship imagined for a
moment that this injury had been occa-
stoned by the distant repeller. 1t was
supposed that the constant firing of the
cannot had cracked the boom, and that
it had suddenly snapped.
Even if there had been on board the
Adamant the means for rigging up an
other arrangement of the kind for per-
pendicular artillery practice, it would
have required long time to get it into
working order, and the director of Re-
peller No. Z hoped that now the British
captain would see the uselessness of con-
tinued resistance.