Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-19

seen from ships it was felt that all
was up with that ship. and the tendency
was to direct our gunfire on some other
snip Without an exception every ship
that was on fire was soon headed in for
the beach. 1t is a fallacy to think that
fire drill is all a matter of fern On steel
ship. So quickly and rapidly does the
hre spread that it seems that even the
steel itself must be burning. The import
ance. also. of keeping watch in every COM
partment for fire was shown.
There was the greatest difficulty during
all the action in getting messages to and
from the different parts of the ship. The
noise and conclusions were too great to
allow of the use of any kind of voice tubes
and messengers are slow and unreliable
and in danger of being killed. A serious
error was made by the messengers on one
ship. An order which was intended for
the secondary battery only was taken to
the turret. 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. Unless some better
means of communication is invented Off
GERS, shut off as they are from any direct
orGers, must be left to act largely at their
own discretion. This at times would be
most unfortunate, as in the sighting hoods
OF the turrets especially the view is SO
limited that it Is often difficult 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 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 dur
ing the engagement. the captain prefer ring
not to cramp himself and be confined in
such narrow quarters, where he could see
so little of what is occurring Every one
has to rely chiefly on his eyes for knowl-
edge of how the fight is going, an1 in the
coming tower the range of view is about
as limited as In the sighting hood.
IL was also shown that practical battle
ranse-ftnder has yet to be introduced.
Ihose in use are so delicate that they can
not Withstand the discharge of the guns
They get cut of order in action so that the
oId method OF angling on the masthead
nelsht OF the enemy has to be relied on.
Even the range indicators, simple as they
seem to be, ere 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 smokeless
powder the opportunities for prompt cor
rection of range We're rare | do NOT think
the old fork system of establishing the
range has gone out for good.
A full knowledge of the nature of the
blasts from the different guns is valuable
to the crew, and to the designers of the
ships it will be all-important. Some of the
rapld-llte 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 1t. The taste and the 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, 1t must be much worse with the
smokeless Indeed, it would be a necessity
10 nave the fumes from the smokeless now
DER made harmless in some way, otherwise
II Will be impossible to keep any of the
guns manned during a rapid fire This sus
sests the use in the shells of some explo-
sive giving forth poisonous fumes
Another Interesting thing brought out by
the action was the extremely short time
the Spanish ships were under our fire he
lore something happened that demoralized
the crews. 1t would show that every man
on the ship must be trained in his duties
that he knows exactly what to do in case
OF accident, for there will be no time to
wait and summon assistance
The value of cofferdams was conclusive
~ SHOWN by the swelling up of the cellulose
so that 1t closed the six-inch hole To he
sure, the hole was only occasionally suh-
merged, and the cofferdam itself was not
penetrated
one of the great dangers to be avoided
was SHOWN to be splinters. great num-
Der or the wounded were laid out by spliu-
tiers rather than by the fragments of shot
or shell. Steel splinters are very bad IF
one could get ship that was absolutely
spllnter-proof and freproof it would be a
long stride in the direction of the ideal
something unsuitable and unlickahIe ),