The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-28

ception every ship that was on fire was
soon headed in for the beach II is fal-
lacy to think that fire drll is all matter
of form on the steel ship. SO quickly and
rapidly does the fire spread that il seems
that even the steel itself must be burn
ing. The importance also Of keeping
watch i'm every compartment for fire was
shown.
There was the greatest difficulty during
all the action i'm getting messages to and
from the different parts of the ships. The
noise and conclusions were too great to
allow of the use Of any kind Of voice
tubes, and messengers are slow ana un-
reliable. and in danger of being killed A
serious error was made by the messeng-
ers on one ship. An order which was in
tended for the secondary battery only
was taken to the turTet The messenger
told the officer in one of the twelVe-inch
turrets to point on the torpedo boats, and
a chance at the Colon was missed. Un-
less some better means OF communication
Is invented, officers. shut Off as they are
from any direct orders, must be left to
act largely at their own discretion. This
at times would be most unfortunate, as
in the sighting hoods OF turrets especially
the view Is so limited that it Is often diff
cult to keep even the target In sight,
much less to have the complete range
over the horizon that Is so necessary for
accident, some quick method of reporting
promptly to the captain Is needed.
This fight probably gave a severe blow
to the use of coming towers. So far /
can learn of no case where they were
used during the engagement the captain
preferring not to cramp himself and be
confined In such narrow quarters where
he could see little of what is occurring
Every one has 20 rely chiefly on his eyes
for a knowledge of how the fight is going
and In the coming tower the range Of
view is about as limited as IN the sight
ing hood
It was also shown that a practical bat
lie range-hnder has yet to be introduced
Those In use are so delicate that they
cannot withstand the discharge of the
guns. They get out of order in action,
so that the old method OF angling on the
masthead hight Of the enemy has to be
relied on. Even the range indicators, sim
pie as they seem to be, We're completely
thrown out by the gun blasts, and ev-
cry one to a greater or less extent had
to use his own judgment in giving the
range, and without smokeless powder the
opportunities for a prompt correction Of
range were rare. ] do not think that the
old fork system Of establishing the range
has gone out for good.
A fun knowledge of the nature Of the
blasts from the different guns is valuable
ships IL will be all-importaut. Some Of the
rapid-fre guns suffered so from the blasts
of the turret guns that the gun crews were
actually blown away from their stations
In other cases the smoke of the firing was
so great that the gun pointers were blind
ed by il. The taste and smell of the gun
powder was so Objectionable that many Of
the gun crews found It necessary to wrap
towels about their mouths. If this Is the
case with the ordinary old brown cocoa
powder, It must be much worse with the
smokeless. Indeed, It would he a necessity
to have the fumes from the smokeless
powder made harmless In some way, other
wise ii will be impossible to keep any of
the guns manned during rapid Ere. This
suggests the use In the shells of some ex-
plosive giving forth poisonous fumes
Another interesting thing brought out by
the action was the extreme short time the
Spanish ships were under our fire before
something happened that demoralized the
crews. II would show that every man on
the ship must be so trained in his duties
that he knows exactly what to do in case
of accident, for there win be no time TO
wait and summon assistance.
The value Of cofferdams was conclusively
shown by the swelling up Of the ceIiulose
so that It closed the six-inch hole To be
sure. the hole was only occasionally sub
merged, and the cofferdam itself was not
penetrated.
one of the great dangers to be avoided
was shown to be splinters A great num-
Der of the wounded were laid out by splin-
ters, rather than by the fragments Of she'll
or shot Steel splinters are very bad If
one could get a ship that was absolutely
splnter-proo and freproof, il would be a
long stride I'm the direction of the ideal
something "unsinkable and unlckable"
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