The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-09
TITS THE GUNNER WINS.
ACCURACY AND RAPIDITY OF FIRE
 ESSENTIAL TO VICTORY.
old Ideas as to ships Guns and What Constttuted a Sailor Die Hard i'm tho English Navy-To Gain Reward.

l Though the principal object of bat
 tie ship or cruiser is not only to carry
 guns, but also to use them sufficiently when required, it Is curious that this
 has not in the past received full recog-
 nitnon, at any rate in our own navy. l therefore read with satisfaction, | though tinged with doubt, in "Notes on
 Naval Progress for 19O1," issued by the
 naval intelligence bureau at Washing ton: The question of good shooting is now regarded as of paramount im- portance by every nation which pos sesses warships. Naval battles are de- cided by the accuracy and rapidity of firing more than anything else Strange enough it may seem, there has
 been from time immemorial prejudice
 against gunnery in the minds of ma
 jority of our officers, who, for some ob-
 scure reason, long considered it incom-
 patible with the other attributes of a
 seaman. l wildly remember, as the
 gunnery lieutenant of a ship, the as-
 tonishment of the navigating officer
 one of the old sohool--at my bringing
 our cutter in first at a sailing regatta.
 He did not think that any gunnery
 Jack could be sailor in the sense of
 Knowledge of masts and sails Wheth-
 CT 1t was equally strong in the time of
 Nelson do not know, but gather there issued to the Mediterranean fleet by Sir John Jervis, afterward Lord St. Vim cent, when he took command in 1795:
 "He had observed that in all warfare where artillery is used the greatest suc- cesses were found on the side of the best gunners and also that, of all exercises, those that seemed the most important namely, the military drills-appealed to him to be the most neklected. It Is of the first importance that our crews should be perfect in the use of their guns. I therefore wish that every day, whether in harbor or at sea, a general or partial exercise should take place on board every ship in the squadron Under this strict and vigilant supervi- sion the gunnery of our ships much im- proved. It was in rapidity of fire that our eeamen excelled, due to their phys ical strength and activity
 When ships engaged at pistol shot, or even closer distance, minute accuracy of range became of minor importance Every shot told, and as one of the French naval historians has recorded that their best-served guns only fired one round every three minutes to the English one per minute, we can realize the effect of half an hours cannona- ding in those days Unfortunately, when no longer unded the eye of man ike Jervis, captains relapsed into their old attitude of indifference to gunnery, SO that on meeting an enemy brave and l better trained enemy on the other side | If the Atlantic in 1912 we lost single | ship actions.
 In his hist ory of that war, Theodore | Roosevelt says: "A continuous course ,f victory, won mainly by seamanship, | lad made the English sailor over self-confident, and caused | Jim to pay little attention to manoeu- ,ering or even to gunnery. While the American seamen were constantly fir ng at marks, the British seamen, eX- ept in particular cases, scarcely did so nce in year Many captains never