The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-05
OUR GUNNEB}S' STBgIGHT SHOOTING
British Naval lien Are Alarmed at the Com
paratively Poor Showing of Their Gunners

merry practice" inJher majesty's navy is
regarded rather more as a necessary
evil than as q duty that. for the good Of
the service, should be Of first place i'm
portance. Here 1is his calm statement
regarding the gunnery practice in the
royal navya sod
1T is USUAL thing for the signal to
be made, Spread for target practice;
rejoin by such and such a time the
consequence being the practice Is car
ried out in "a hurried. panicky way.
without sufficient supervision or cor
recting Of erors made, in oder to get
it over Who has not heard some
thing like the following: Why don't
you fire that glh?' Cant see the tar
get, sir Never mind that, fire at the
splash Bangt And away goes
pounds and pounds of the unfortunate
ratepayer's money into the sea. The
allowance Of ammunition is very small.
only eight rounds quarter being al
lowed for such guns as At or 6-1nch
quick firing gum ten rounds for the
lighter quick firing, and four rounds
for the 12-inch wire and upwards. The
allowance for the heavy quick firing
represents four rounds each for Nos. l
and 2, or less than minutes firing
once every three months. If, in add
ton, this allowance is exceeded when
prize firing Gwhen the number Of
rounds fired in the two minutes al
lowed is unlimited the amount fired in
excess OF the allowance has to be de-
Quoted from the next quarters allow
ance; or, suppose a. smart AT guns
crew fire 16 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, quick
firing guns has to come the amount
fired from these guns in boats, likewise
the amount fired in night practice,
which leaves about four rounds for No.
1 to fire at his quarters practice. 1t is,
to say the least Of it, hard to train
man to
PICK UP HIS RANGE
quickly, and keep it on such an allow
ance, which might well be doubted; and,
If expended in an intelligent way, the
increased proficiency would we'll repay
the extra expense in wear and tear Of
ammunition. The four rounds per
heavy turret gun give four rounds to
the captain of the turret and two to
the captain Of each gun, no other man
of the turret's crew getting a chance.
I'm addition to the ammunition
proper. however, the admiralty allows
an immense amount of tube cannon
ammunition, which is intended for indi-
vidual instruction of unframed, or par
TALLY trained men, and should be ex-
PENDED as such. 1t Is, however, 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 1t done The
range suitable for heavy gun practice
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
supervision becomes impossible; the re-
suit is, man comes up to his gun,
blaZes away his ten rounds or so with
a fixed sight, which is probably wrong,
and departs as wise as he started.
IF the admiralty and admirals in
srecting paid any attention to the gun
merry efficiency Of the ships in commits
sion they would compel the captains
and officers to develop that efficiency
to the utmost in their power, and es-
tablish healthy rivalry Ait present
in the Mediterranean far more trouble
of gun bright and furnishing it
(Which is absolutely contrary to regu-
lationsl, than to ensuring that the men
are well trained in the use of it,
ACCOUNTABLE PRACTICE.
These criticisms are severe enough,
but the officer quoted goes further He
declares that returns Of the practice at
the targets are Judged" or. in other
words, the figures are given as first
class when, in reality, the practice has
been abominable, thus deceiving the
admiralty officials, and giving the Brit
ish public an entirely erroneous idea
Of the skill Of their seamen gunners.
1t would be thought that such sug-
gestion as that crews sent out to prac-
tice with small guns at points distant
from the ship throw the ammunition
overheard to save them 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 a writer actually
states gravely that che 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