The age-herald., 1898-07-06
GUNNERS
 SURPRISE THE WORLD
From the Philadelphia Times.

can gunners has opened the eyes of the naval men of Europe. It has convinced the nation that after all it is the man be- hind the gun, and not the thickness of armor or the estimated horse power of the engines that comprises the chief defense of a ship in a naval fight. It is no new thing for England to get n a state or verging on panic at the condition Of her navy. says the Military Naval Record Periodically a furious onslaught Is made on the naval experts and admiralty officials by some member of parliament or cranky taxpayer, and the whole country trembles at the idea of it's naval strength having been overestimated These scares are useful, for they usually have come foun- dation in fact, and serve to draw out col umns of newspaper articles and corre- spondence which in the end result in inn provement and the allaying of the chronic fear of the taxpayers that they are foot ing huge bills and are getting nothing stable for the defense of the empire.
 Just now the scare owes it's origin to the remarkable accuracy and deadliness of the American gunners. Britons are comparing the records made at Manila with the scoring during the practice fire of the
 DTttiSH CT6WS, anu arc dShlnS Wlin c Sood deal of fevrish apprehension where their own gunners come in. This has started mass of correspondence and special ar ticies on the subject of naval gunnery and naval training, and the subjects of the queen are learning to their dismay that very little, if any, importance is attached to the training of the gunners of what is supposed to be the first navy in the world Among the numerous contributions on the subject the most startling is that of prominent naval officer, who knows where of he speaks, and whose clear cut state ments have caused sensation here.
 According to this authority the gunnery practice in her majestys navy is regarded rather more as a necessary evil than as duty that, for the good of the service, should be of first place importance. Here is his calm statement regarding the gun nery practice in the royal navy:
 'It is usual thing for the signal to be made Spread for target practice; re- join by such and such a time the con sequence being the practice is carried out in Hurried, panicky way, without sui ficient supervision correcting of errors made in order to get it over Who has not heard something like the following: Why don't you fire that gun? Can't see the target sir Never mind that; fire at the splash Bang. And away goes pounds of the unfortunate rate payers money ln- to the sea. The allowance of ammunition is very smatll, only eight rounds a quar- ter being allowed for such guns as a Al or 6-inch quick firing gun. ten rounds TOT the lighter quick firing, and four pounds TOT the 12-inch wire and upward. The allow ance TOT the heavy quick firing represents F1,,, ,.1e-o na1af than a minutes firing once every three months. If, in addition, this allowance IS exceeded when prize firing (when the num- Der of rounds fired in the two minutes al- lowed is unlimited) the amount fired in excess of the allowance has to be deducted from the next quarters allowance has to be deducted from the next quarters allow ance or, suppose a smart AT guns crew fire sixteen rounds, which they should do in two minutes, they get no more practice for six months, which is, as Euclid would say absurd. Out of the ten rounds allowed for the light firing guns has to come the amount fired from these guns in boats, like wise the amount fired in night practice, which leaves about four rounds for No. l to fire at his quarters practice. It is' to say the least of it, hard to train a man to pick up his range quickly, and keep 1t on such allowance, which might well be doubled; and, if expended in an intelligent way, the increased proficiency would well repay the extra expense in wear and tear of ammunition. Tn four rounds per heavy turret gun give four rounds to the captain of the turret and two to the captain or each gun, no other man or the turret crew getting a chance.
 "In addition to the ammunition proper however, the admirality allows an immense amount of tube cannon ammunition, which is intended for the individual instruction of untrained or partially trained men, and cbo ba exnapdpd such. It Is, now ever, too frequently fired at the same time as the heavy gun practice takes place, with every available tube going at once, for the same old story, to get IL dohe' The range suitable for heavy gun prac- tice is, of course quite out of the range for tube cannon while from the number of guns going at once no man can see what his shots are doing, and individual super vision becomes impossible; the result is man comes up to his gun, bfazes away his ten rounds or so with fixed sight, which is probably wrong, and departs as wise as he started.
 'If the admiralty and admirals inspect ing paid any attention to the gunnery ef- fciency of the ships in commission, they would compel the captains and officers to develop that efficiency to the utmost or their power and establish healthy IT. yalry. At present in the Mediterranean far more trouble and time is expended on filling the chase of a gun bright and bur nishing it (which is absolutely contrary to regulations) than to insuring that the men arc we'll trained in the use of it.
 These criticisms are severe enough, but the officer quoted goes even further. He declares that returns of the practice at the targets are ''fudged," or in other words the figures are given as frst-ciass, when in reality the practice has been abomina- ble thus deceiving the admirality officials and giving the British public an entirely erroneous idea of the skill of their seamen eunners It would be thought that such suggestion as that crews sent out to practice with small guns at points distant from the ship throw the ammunition over board to save the trouble of firing it, and return to the ship with the report that so many points had been made, would not be put forward in sober earnest, but writer actually states gravely that ''he does not think this is done now" but he goes on to say that the ammunition might almost as well be thrown overheard as used in the way it is for practice in the royal navy today.
 To sum up the matter Tn the language