Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-07-28

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 1t Is often diff
iicult to keep even the target in sight,
much less to have the complete range
over the horizon that is so necessary for
proper gun control. Then too. in case of
accident some quick method of reporting
promptly to the captain Is needed.
COMING TOWERS UNUSED.
This fight probably gave severe blow
to the use of coming towers. so far | can
learn there was no case where they were
used during engagement, the captain pre-
fcrring not to cramp himself and be con-
fined in such narrow quarters, where he
could sec so little of what Is occurring.
Every one has to rely chiefly on his eyes
for Il knowledge of how tho fight is going.
and in the coming tower the range Of
view Is about as limited as in the sighting
hood.
WANTED-A RANGE-F1NDER
1t was also shown that n practical battle
range finder has yet to be introduced.
Those in use are SO delicate that they can
not withstand the discharge of the guns
They get out of order i'm action, so that the
old method of angling on the masthead
/ height of the enemy has to be relied on.
1 Even the range indicators, simple as they
seem to he. were completely thrown out
by the gun blasts. and every one to a
greater or less extent had to use his own
judgment in giving the range. and without
smokelcss 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.
EFFECT or BLASTS FROM THE
GUNS
/ A full knowledge of the nature of tho
blasts from the different guns Is valuable
to the crew, and to the designers of the
ships it will he al-impcrtant. Some uf the
rapd-hre 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 blinded by it. The taste and smell of
the gunpowdcr was so objectionable that
many of the gun crews found 1t necessary
to wrap towels about their mouths. If this
Is the case with the ordinary old brown
cocoa powder il must be much worse
with the smokclcss. Indeed. 1t would he
- necessity to have the fumes from the
smokclcss powder made harmless I'm some
way. otherwise 1t will be impossible to
keep any Of the guns manned during a
rapid fire. This suggests the use In tho
shells of some explosive giving forth
poisonous fumes.
Another interesting thing brought out
by the action was the extremely short
time the Spanish ships were under our
fire before something happened that de-
mora,izcd the crews. 1t would show that
every man on the ship must be so trained
I'm his duties that he knows exactly what
to do in case Of accident for their VIII he
no time to wait and summon assistance.
VALUE or COFFER DAMS
The vale of Golfer dams was conclusive
~ shown by the swelling up of the ccllu
lose so that II closed the siN-inch hole To
be sure the hole was only occasionally
submerged. and the Golfer dam Itself was
not penetrated.
DANGERS FROM SPLINTERS
One of the great dangers To he avoided
was shown tn he splintcrs. great mum
Der Of The wounded were laid out by
sp'inters. rather than by the fragments
Of shell or shot. steel splnters are very
bad. II one could get a ship that was an
soutey splintcr-proof and iireproof /
would he long stride in the direction q
the ,deal--somcthins unsuitable and un
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