The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-17

Necessarily the deck of vessel at sea
offers a much less satisfactory platform
from which to shoot than the solid foun-
dation provided in a land fort, since even
when the ocean is calmest, the vessel
must constantly roll from side to side.
Theoretically, the best time to fire would
be at the moment between rolls, when the
deck of the ship is perfectly level, and in
a general way it may be said that an at
tempt is made to do the shooting at that
instant. 1t is practically impossible, how
ever, to fire invariably when the decks are
horizontal. No matter how careful the
gunner, the piece is almost always explod-
ed just before or just after the proper
instant.
1T was noted by the sea fighters in the
revolution that projectiles from guns fir
ed when the ship was heeling from the
enemy in the upward roll were hurled
higher in the air than was intended, and
that well aimed shots were thus often
sent harmlessly overhead, or, at best,
took effect only in the rigging instead of
the huh of the enemy, where they would
do most damage. On the other hand, IL
was observed that shots fired when the
vessel was heeling toward the enemy on
the downward roll, though frequently
striking lower than was intended by the
marksman, almost invariably took effect
This was rendered the more certain
from the fact that the spherical projec-
tiles then I'm use would ricochet along the
surface of the waves If they struck the
water exactly as a stone will skip along
the top of a pond when properly thrown
from the hand of a small boy. The ad-
vantage taken of this fact by the Ameri-
cans in the war of 1912, who invariably
sko1 g..
the effectiveness of their gunnery inn
mensely, while, by the same token, the
British rule to fire as the vessel heels
from its opponent, orr on the upward roll
rendered large proportion of British
shots quite harmless. The British notion
has always been that firing on the up-
ward roll, when the heeledover side of the
vessel afforded the broadcast mark. had
tendency to protect the ship, because the
smoke of the discharge would hide It
somewhat from the enemy's sight, but
Yankees have never taken much stock in
that contention.
The great value of a downward roll rule
was first demonstrated in the fight be-
tween the American frigate Constitution
and the British frigate Guerriere on Aug
49, 1872 Although the American ship had
a slight advantage in size and number of
guns and men, yet after the vessels drew
falling short, ninetenths of all the shots
from the American guns took deadly effect
while not more than half of those from
the British pieces did any damage
The number of killed in this engagement
was not large on either side, but the fight
was one of the most holly contested in all
naval history. 1t lasted only forty min
utes, and at its close the British com
mander, Dacres, was obliged to surrender
Internationally to his American opponent
Capt. Isaac Hull, for the simple reason
that the guns on the British ships We're
practically all disabled, since much of the
rigging had been shot away close 10 the
deck.
Modern cylindrical projecties do not
ricochet along the water as uniformly as
did the old-time spherical cannon balls
The modern projectile proceeds with a
Whirling motion, and this sometimes
causes it, when striking the water. to
swerve to the right or left, sometimes to
jump straight up in the air. and some
times even TO dive straight down to tho
bottom OF the sea. Yet, il is the opinion
OF two or three naval and gunnery experts
with whom the writer has discussed this
question that the rule TO wait for the
downward rolf will be maintained IN The
coming war with Spain, IL war there is 10
De- An Officer in the Navy.