Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-05-22
OUR SEA COAST DEFENCES.

A few years ago the country was
greatly disturbed over the fact that it
had no sea coast defences. Now it
appears that while we have the de-
fences, we lack efficiency in the care
and handling of the guns. Such, at
least, is the burden of a report recent
ly made upon the subject by Captain
William Crozier, his complaints being
based upon what he saw during tour
of inspection made last November.
The matter can best be stated in the
Captains own words:
st have found in many cases that
neither the officers nor men under
stood or attentively looked after the
armament. have many times had
difficulty in getting guns, and espec-
tally carriages, properly cleaned for
firing test. The officers seem
to be without proper standards of
performance, and almost no attention
was paid to rapidity of fire. :.
When it came to the actual firing of
pieces, all efforts at lively work were
often abandoned. There has been
thus far great neglect of the subject of
the pointing of mortars; some batter
les which have been completed for
years have been during the late war
and are now absolutely unserviceable
because of inability to point the NOR
tars at a target" The report attrib-
utes this lack of interest to the long
neglect of the subject during the 20
years following the civil war and to
the lack of liberal policy in the man
agement of artillery matters, partic-
ularly in the opportunities for actual
practice in loading and firing guns.
He suggests, as one important rene
dy, that there should be on the staff
of the commander of the army a chief
Inspector of artillery, who should
make periodical inspections to see
that the various orders respecting the
details of artillery service are faith
fully carried out.
This report will come as painful
surprise, for it shows that we are
backward in a service which we
thought was being brought up to
state of considerable efficiency. The
two defects Of slowness OF FIRE and alb
sence of range finders, are about as
serious as they could well be. Mod
EN- wal ships Will try to run by the
batteries, and their high rate of speed
will carry them through the danger
zone very quickly. Vessels that can
make a mile in less than three min
utes will be difficult targets for guns
which because of slow handling) can
fire but CT shot in every six minutes.
Next to accuracy, rapidity is the great
desideratum in a gun detachment.
Mortars sunk IN deep pits with
nothing to look at but the blue sky
above, are absolutely dependent on
distant ra1 &c finders for locating the
enemy, and giving the proper eleva-
tion and traverse for the mortar, and
battery Of morters without -.ns
for pointing is as useless as rifle in
the hands of a blind man.
It is TO be hoped that immediate
steps will be taken to reform the
abuses which have been SO faithfully
expo sed in this report. 1t is to the
author of this report and to Col. Buff
fngton, Chief of Ordnance, that we
owe much Of the excellent material
to be found in our defences, and we
trust that under the present regime
this important arm of the service will
be brought up to the standard, in per-
sonnet as well as material, of the best
modern practice Scientific American.
Same Old Model.