The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1898-09-06

ship Without an exception every ship |
thal was ON fire was soon headed in Tor
the beach. Ii is fallacy to think that |
lire orill rs all a matter OF form on a steel
ship. So quickly and rapidly does the
lire spread that IL seems that even the
steel itself must be burning. The inn
portance, also, OF keeping watch In every
compartment for fire was shown.
There was the greatest difficulty during
all the action In getting messages 10 anu
from the different parts of the ship. The
noise and conclusions were too great toi
allow of the use of any kind of voice
tubes, and messengers are slow and UNI
reliable and in danger of being Killed. Al
serious error was made by the messen-
gers 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 Finch tur-
rets to point on the torpedo boats and n
chance at the Colon was missed. Unless
some better means of communication IL
invented, officers, shut OF as they are
| from any direct orders, 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 espe-
cially the view is so limited that IL 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 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 preferring
| 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 a knowl-
| edge of how the fight Is going, and in the
/ coming tower the range of view is about
| as limited as in the sighting hood.
l 1t was also shown that "a practical bat
Il tie range-hrder has yet to be introduced.
Those in use are so delicate that they can
| not Withstand the discharge of the guns.
i 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, were completely thrown
out by the gun blasts, and every one %
| a greater or less extent had to use his
own judgment in giving the range. and
ties for a prompt correction of range Were
rare. do not think the old fork system
OF establishing the range has gone out
for good
| 4 full knowledge of the nature of the
blasts from tn, different guns Is valu-
| able to the crew. and to the designers OF
| of the rapid-fire guns suffered so from
the blasts of the turret guns that the gun
crews We're actually blown away from
| their stations. In other cases the smoke
of the firing was great that the gun
| pointers were blinded by 1t. The taste
and the smell of the gunpowder was sc
| Objectionable that many OF the gun crews
found it necessary TO wrap towels about
| their mouths. If this is the case witt
the ordinary old brown cocoa powder. u
must be much worse with the smokeless
| Indeed 1t would be a necessity to have tins
| fumes from the smokeless powder mad'
harmless In some way, otherwise 1t vii
be impossible TO keep any OF the guns
| manned during rapid fire. This sug
| gests the use in the shells OF some eX
plosive giving forth poisonous fumes.
Another interesting thing brought GU
by the action was the extremely shor
time the Spanish ships were under ou
fire before something happened that de
moralized the crews. 1t would show tina
| every man on the ship must be so trained
to his duties that he knows exactly VIVA
| to do in case of accident, for there vii
be no time TO wait and summon assist
ance.
The value of Golfer dams was conclus
lively shown by the swelling up of the Gel
lulose SO that II closed the six-inch hole
To be sure the hole was only occasional!
submerged, and the Golfer dam itself wa
= not penetrated.
One of the great dangers to be avoided
d was shown to be splinters. A great mum
a Der Of the wounded Were laid out b!
h splinters rather than by the fragment
, | OF shot or she'll Steel splinters are Yer.
. bad. II one could get a ship that was an
a. solutely splinter-proof and fireproof, !
> would be a long stride in the direction
y the ideal-something unsuitable and un
h lickable.'