Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1898-05-25
WERE TESTED.
The Huge Guns at Fort Point Fired For
the First Time.

the First Time.
Galveston, Tex, May 21.-The big
guns of the Notifications at Fort Point
were fired yesterday afternoon for the
first time. Notice of the fact was given
in the afternoon paper, in order that
the people of Galveston might not be
frightened, under the supposition that
the roar of the cannon was on board
Spanish battleships But, strange to
say, the cannonading was not heard
in the city, except In the extreme east
ern portion and near the waters edge.
Two boatmen, who were on the qui
yive for the shot, were standing on the
bay front at the foot of Eighth street
They said that they heard two faint
shots at an interval of about thirty
minutes. Some people who were at
Twelfth and Market streets during the
evening declared they heard twelve
distinct explosions. Both were wrong
There were just three shots. The wind
was blowing at terrific rate across
the point, and the sound waves were
swept by the city. This accounts for
the fact that the explosions were not
heard more distinctly.
Capt. WilliafHcs ezier, who is on the
staff of the commander of the depart
ment of the gulf, United States army,
and who is the inventor of the Crozier
disappearing carriage, the type used
on the rifles at Galveston, and Col. f..
G. Smith, inspector for the department,
arrived here Thursday morning for the
purpose of inspecting the Notifications
and making rigid test of the guns.
They spent the day at Fort Point, and
in the evening made the tests,
A reporter endeavored to obtain a
passport to Fort Point for the purpose
of witnessing the firing of the big
bankers, but his request was politely
but firmly turned down. From one Of
the laborers at the fort he secured n
little information. According to his
story two of the mortars were fired,
one in each pit One of these was set
off about o'clock. They were ranged
to the southwest at an angle of As de-
grees. A full charge of powder was
used when the mortar was fired. 1t
recoiled, then sprang upward, like u
bucking broncho, the laborer said, and
then settled back to it's normal posi-
ton. The conclusion, he said, was not
as bad as most people might suppose.
He said solid shot was placed in each
of the mortars.
Next the big ten-inch rifle was fired.
It was loaded with a full charge, and
with a solid projectile. 1t was put at
very severe angle, being pointed at
the north jetty, about three miles dis
tant, from which it is supposed to have
clipped some of the surface stones He
said when the great gun was fired it
acted almost like it had human intelli-
gence, and glided gracefully back into
it's place. The conclusion, he said, was
more severe than from the mortars, but
still not SO terrific as he had been led
to suppose.
Several of the windows In the houses
around the battery were broken out,
and a bottle of medicine in one of the
officers quarters suffered a fracture.
The test of the guns was entirely
satisfactory. Lieut.. Burgess, who is
here in charge of the torpedo work, Is
engaged in putting inpermanent cables
to the torpedoes in place of the tenn
porary cables laid few weeks ago.
The company of artillery at Fort
Point is to be moved to point near
the quarantine station, where better
camping grounds are to be had than
near the battery.