The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-25
HOW THEY LEARN TO SHOOT.
TIE PRACTICE THAT MAKES THE
AMERICAN GUNNERS SUPERIOR.

tice Three Times a Dny-The Pre-
liminary Trimming and what Fol-
Iows-Even the Cook and the stew
ard and the Coal Passer Had Their
Daily Target Practice-Costs Honey
But the Results Were Attained.
The expert mark smanship of the men In
the American navy as demonstrated by the
naval battles during the present war with
Spain, has been the cause Of much com
ment not only al home bat among Euro
pean nations where big armies and nayies
are almost absolute necessities.
But little has been said as to why this
Workmanship Is as expert as 1t Is, and
why the American shot hits ten times
where the Spanish shot hits once. Lieut..
L. A. Anderson, who came to Savannah
as prize master of the Adula, from the
cruiser Marblehead, ha seen much active
service since the war began, and knows
what the navy had to do to perfect itself
In the art of firing. A representative of
the Morning News saw Lieut.. Anderson
yesterday, and asked him about the prac-
tice the men in the navy have to go
through with, and what is done to bring
them TO such a state Of perfection.
1.-The proficiency of the American gun
ners," ne said, lis due not alone to the
practice they had Immediately preceding
the war, but to the constant practice they
have from the time they go aboard snip,
and to the attention that is always paid
to good craftsmanship. OF course in times
of peace there Is less target practice than
there was Immediately preceding the war,
but there was enough Of it TO keep the men
I'm good training, and attention Is always
paid to the elementary principles which
teach them how to handle the sights on
gun.
Some three months before war was de
clared, however, all other classes of drills
were subordnated to target practice. on
board the Marblehead, and it was so on
the other warships, we had target prac-
tice three times a day. 1t is what is known
as sub-calibre practice, or firing With the
rifle in the large gun
But before that l may say that when
men first come aboard ship, the first thing
they are taught is how to handle the
sights on gun. They are given a rifle,
which is rested steadily on some solid OBJ
ject, and their ability to use the sight on
the gun is tested. sometimes they get
three or four sights right together, and
others will have quite a divergence. The
next step is the practice with the small
parlor rifle, so-called, at different dis
tances. After this comes the practice with
the regular Lee rifle, the weapon used by
the seamen and marines. This is at a
target some 800 yards or more from the
vessel, and is similar 10 the target prac-
tice in the army, except that the men
aboard ship have to calculate on the mo
ton of the boat.
I'm this work, which for three months
prior to the war was "a matter of daily
exercise, tho record of almost every man
was kept I kept the record Of every man
in my division, and l think a good many
are able to judge pretty well how man
can handle gun, and they are graded &C
cordngly.
THE sub-caliber practice was had three
times a day during the period mentioned.
or morning, afternoon and night AT
night we used the Searchnght, and, strange
to say, much of the shooting by that was
better than during the day. For this prac-
tice two disks, are inserted in the gun, one
on the breech and the other TOWARD the
muzzle. There are apertures exactly In
the center of these disks, and through
them the ordinary Lee rife is fastened.
The target, a block of wood with small
flag standing up from 1t, Is set at the
desired distance, and the regular gun sight
is used. With the 5-inch gun, for instance,
according to the table furnished by the
department, the 5-inch gun for a sub-cai-
her shot is set for 300 yards, whereas for
the regular shot it would be set for LEO
yards. The men take their turn at the
gun, and l have seen them knock the
Flagstaff off time and again. Bullets hit
the target and fall all around 1t. A rec
ord of all these shots is kept, the same
as in other cases. For the Il and 1S-inch
guns on the battleships the sub-caliber is
the size of a 1-pounder.
Three times each quarter there is
regular war practice so to speak. These
are as near as possible under the same
conditions as are met in regular warfare.
Two of these are the sea practices, in
which no record Is kept, except a general
record made up from the judgment of the
officers, on account Of the circumstances
under which il takes place. The target is
moored a a distance of from 800 to $500
yards, and the warship passes il at full
speed, with every gun firing at IL as rap
idly as II is possible to fire them. The
fun charges are used, and in the case of
the Marblehead I have often seen regular
hail of 5-inch shells exploding upon aud
around the target The 5-inch guns are
rapid fire guns, using ammunition in one
cartridge, the she'll being about five feet
in length, and / have had men who fired
shots from this gun at the rate Of three in
thirty seconds, and with the most remark
able accuracy.
In which the firing is done under similar
conditions, but in such a manner that each
shot can be plotted, and il can be shown
'iust what effect it would have upon an
enefQys vessel were it in the place of the
target This practice is had only once a
quarter. The target Is moored as in the
other cases. ana two boats with the prop-
er instruments are fixed at the required
distance from the target, the angle Of the
lines which they make with 1t being 60 de-
grees. An equilateral triangle is thus
formed, and by observers in these boats
observations are made upon each shot. the
vessel from which the shots are fired pass
ing along the third side of the triangle
which is used as the base line. In that
way remarkably accurate record of The
shots made is secured.
1T is in this way that the men i'm the
navy have been trained, and this same
work has been done on every man-of-war
The prizes offered Of $40 and IS for the best
and second-best marksmen in a gun squad
have been an incentive, and there is no
doubt that the men have worked hard to