The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-26
TRAINING GUN CAPTAINS.
THE AMPHITRTTE AGAIN IN PORT
ROYAL SOUND.

Matters of Special Interest Com
nected with Her.
Port Royal Dec. 25.-The good shin Am
phitrte of Uncle Sans navy. once more
finds herself safety anchored in the quiet
waters of Port Royal sound, where she
has now been coming for the past three
winters or more, for the purpose Of per-
suing, undisturbed by the outside world,
her allotted mission.
For the object in view. perhaps no bet
ter place along the whole Southern coast
could be picked out, combining as il does,
so many requisites for successfully car
rying on the work in hand; for here are
not only roomy inland waters of sufficient
depths to maneuver about in, but COM
plete freedom from the many demoraliz-
ing distractions and Interruptions incident
to large cities, and lastly a superb win
ters climate so necessary for outside
work on the waller.
1t is particularly agreeable to the good
people of Beaufort and Port Royal to have
the Amphitrite here. 1t has become al
most an adage hereabout that only those
officers who are particularly efficient aud
capable are assigned TO this important
duty; and the addition of so many charm
ing ladies' 0he wives of the officers) is
naturally looked forward TO with pleasure
by Beaufort society.
There have been several changes in the
personnel of The ship since her last visit
Capt e. Houston is now in command,
with Lieutenant Commander l.. b. Barry
executive officer and Lieut.. j. A. Hooger-
VERT navigator. The watch officers are:
lheuts ii. w. Jones. A. 3. Halstead,
Charles 3. McVay, Dugald MacDougald,
r. II. Christy and Ensign Kenneth N.
Bennett
As is doubtless well known. the Amphi-
trite IS the gunnery ship Of the naval ser
vice whose special object it is to train
gun captains for the navy. For this she is
particularly we'll adapted, being roomy
and comfortable in her quarters for both
officers and crew, while her battery of
tour lO-inch turret guns. with their ac-
companying mechanism and mounts, with
out being OF the latest type or desiga.
nevertheless is sufficiently modern TO sat
istactorily answer all the purposes of in
structton. Besides these she has two
4-inch guns-a good secondary battery
and, Of course, the latest design of small
arms, while the tug Chickasaw with its
one and siX-pounders, is attached to the
ship as tender, while in the waters Of
the sound, for subordinate firing under
ways.
Although for many years mast. what are
known as "seamen-guu in the navy,
have yearly been turned out from the ma
val gun factory at Washington, after hav-
ing gone through a course Of instruction
there, and with torpedo work al Newport
it was clearly seen that something more
was wanted besides this valuable class Ct
petty officers, whose particular functions
are TO care for and repair the battery with
ali It's delicate mechanism and its compli-
Gated mounts; TO attend to magazines and
shell rooms, including their dangerous
contents and high explosives. and TO ma
nipulate and run torpedoesa and rtorpedo
boats rather than to fire the gun itself or
handle the guns crew. Accordingly, for
this latter object, it became necessary to
create the gun captain" whose especial
mission would be to hit the target with
turret guns, while underway or, uNi-
mately, in time of battle, during the SUI
preme test 10 successfully sight and fire
a battleship's monster, guns, coming as
near TO bullseye as possible, under all
the trying conditions of these few critical
moments, when all is lost or won in near
ly as little time as il takes to tell il,
To attain this ne plus ultra OF a turret
gun captain, of course, the candidate is at
the same time fitted to perform all the
manifold other duties connected with a
-
to afterwards fill in the service at large
the various petty officers billets of the
seaman branch on board modern man-of-
war. But to be a turret gun captain, par
excellence, ultimately, firstly and lastly
that he must be, so long as the worlds
battleships are armed with their enormous
10, y and 13-inch guns, and defended by
cumbersome armor that these and only
these can pierce.
4bo II,
class of from forty-hve to fifty of the most
intelligent and likely young men, to be
found in the general service close at hand,
are selected from among the various yes
sells, and sent 10 the Amphitrite where
for three or four months, they are put
through a very carefully devised course
of both practical and theoretical instruc-
ton Cbut mostly PRACTICAL. as laid down
and taught by am efficient corps of Of
fcers, after which, il qualified, they re-
ceiVe certificates to that effect. which
carry with them, of course, increased pay
and preference To note the instruction
more in detail, it may be stated that the
class Is divided into five sections, CORE
spending to the number of instructors,
and also into periods of TWO weeks work.
during which the sections engage in the
various drills, both on board and ashore,
at small-arm target firing, aiming drills,
moving practice on the tug, nomenclature,
working turrets and instruction generally
in the complicated mechanism Of turret
ships, besides daily health drills and prac-
teal instructions in "aids to wounded"
etc, by the ships surgeon.
At the end of each two weeks period
the instructors change about with new,
tasks for the section, which
thus results in each man being marked
by every instructor in turn, thus insuring
a more correct estimate of his qualihca-
tons. In addition it may be noted that
written journals are daily kept by the
class and marked upon Finally. the
tenth and eleventh day of each two weeks
period are passed by the ship itself, off
Bay Point or Martin Industrial Light ship,
weather permitting, for the purpose of en-
gagingo in moving practice, az target fir
ing, with sub-calibre attachments fitted TO
the 10-inch guns II must be remembered,
however, that the bulk of the target fir
ing, under way by the ship as well as
the record firing with service charges, is
for the final two weeks Of the
course which is entirely given up to this
and made necessary by the progressive
nature of the course.
nj. l. a,