The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-08-27

ship. Without an exception every ship
LHe't was on Ur" was soon headed Tn for
tae beach Tt is "a talanE 10 lnl1h that
AIe at4.L - all "a matter on form on steel
SNIP. 30 luf-t,i. ANA I-ls4-y does tine
Hie spread mat II seems tlat even lnt
steel it@e-L must Ice burning The am
ugrLaDle, also. OF Eee ping watch iu every
comlal tuvlt for are was shown
There was the greatest aluuultE during
all the action III getting messages 10 ana
from liLr 4l4tvleHt parts OF tAe snip lAr
noise and conclusions were TOO Erear To
allow or Jhe use ~ any N.ua oj voice
tubes, anu messengers are SLOW ANA u4-
reliable and iu danger OF being killed A
serious error was made los tle meSsen-
gers on one snip. An orler which was
intended for the secondary battery only
was taken 10 the JurreJ- The messenger
told the officer IN one of the Pinch tuT-
retS 10 point on the torpedo boats and a
cnance at the colon was missed Mess
some better means of communication il
invented, officers, shut on as they are
from any direct orders. must be left 10
act largely at their own discretion. This
at times would be most unfortunate, as
in the sighting hoods OF the turrets espe-
Clally the view Is SO limited that II Is
often difficult TO keep even the target in
sight, much less to have the complete
range over the horizon that is SO neces-
airy for proper gun control. Then, too.
in case OF accident some method of re-
porting 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 We're used dur
ing the engag ement,the Captain preferrIng
such narrow quarters, where he could see
so little of what is occurring. Every one
mas 10 rely chleHy on ms eyes Tor Know
edge OF how the night Is going, and IN the
coming tower the range of view is about
as limited as in the sighting hood.
1t was also shown that practical bat
I tie range-hnder has yet 10 be introduced.
Those in use are so delicate that they can
not Withstand the discharge of the guns.
They get out of order in action, so that
the old method of angling on the mast
head height of the enemy has to be relied
on. Even the range Indicators, simple as
they seem to be, We're 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 oppOrtuni-
ties for a prompt correction of range were
rare. I do not think the old fork system
of establishing the range has gone out
for good.
\ fun knowledge of the nature of the
blasts from the different guns is Valu-
able to the crew, and TO the designers of
the ships it viii be alI-important Some
of the rapid-fire 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 the smell of the gunpowder was so
Objectionable that many of the gun crews
found it necessary TO wrap towels about
their mouths. II this Is the case with
the ordinary old brown cocoa powder it
must be much worse with the smOkeless.
Indeed it would be a necessity to have the
fumes from the SOOILpIpSS DOwdeT made
harmless in some way, otherwise it Will
be impossible to keep any of the guns
manned during a rapid fire. This sug-
gests the use in the shells of some eX-
plosive 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-
mOralized the crews. 1t would show that
every man on the ship must be so trained
to his duties that he knows exactly what
to do in case of accident, for there will
be no time to wait and summon assist
ance.
The value of Golfer dams was conclus-
lively shown by the swelling up of the cell
lulose so that it closed the siX-inch hole.
To be sure the hole was only occasionally
submerged, and the Golfer dam itself was
not penetrated.
was shown to be splinters. A great num-
Der of the wounded were laid out by
splinters rather than by the fragments
of shot or shell. Steel splinters are very
bad. If one could get a ship that was alb
solutely spIinter-proof and fireproof, it
would be a long stride in the direction of
the ideal-something unsuitable and I'M
lickable.'