The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-05-14

cepU Iue engine room. IL would re-
quire years of education to thoroughly
understand what this sailor showed me.
| was in the turret to one of these II
inch guns. You may ask what turret
is. Well suppose you imagine loco
motive on turning table, let the II inch
gun be the locomotive and the turning
table the turret, only the turret is en-
closed by thick nickle steel. | saw down
at the back of the breech of one of these
II inch gun to the ammunition room; to
give you any idea of how they load these
guns, suppose that right at the breech
of the gun there would be an eleva-
tor running up and down from the amuni-
ton room. You all have seen an eleva-
tor work, but here they are called
electric hoists, and as Mr.. Barrows used
to say, they work to hair. They are
so constructed that the shell that is on
the carriage comes up behind the gun
to the exact position then as the shell
lays on the carriage, the breech of the
gun being open, there is what is called
an electric rammer that shoves the shell
into the breech.
The New Jersey is one of the large
new ships, carries four II inch guns
and eight inch guns, and II six inch
guns. Now that this article may not
be too long, will give you some of the
answers that the sailor gave me. In
target practice they imagine them
selves in battle and handle these guns
and vancouver the ship swith all Bswift-
ness possible. They fire two inch
guns and two 8 inch guns at the same
time. One shell for II inch gun
weights 115O pounds, takes 240 pounds
90 low Tho oe CT. :.
inch guns and two s inch guns is S15O0OO,
it takes 20 men to each s inch gun.
They will fire seven shots in 50 seconds.
Every man aboard is drilled to fill
every position on the ship, lin an emer-
gency) those that are more expert at
any given work are chosen to fill that
position in action but should these be-
come disabled any man aboard can take
another's place. Every officer from cap
tain down to midshipman has six
months experience at running the en-
CINE and caring for the boilers. Total
men on the 16 battleships 1900, cost Of
the fleet toward million, amount of
coal used by, the New Jersey in "a
hours 50 ton. She takes on board in her
ming tower where the captain stands
| WiOA OhO oIlp 10 III dCUlOLs 1lS lids d
system of telephones connected with
every part of the ship, the coming tower
is circular and protected by thick steel
with port holes so the captain can look
in every direction and he has the whole
ship right under his control by the
electric telephones reaching to every
place. l saw the mariners compass,
looked into the wireless telegraph room,
where man sat with the instrument
strapped to his head taking messages
from | don't know where. A man is
continually on duty night and day
They can talk with the officers at
Washington, and are in constant touch
with the head officers of the govern
ment.
At noon l ate of the sailors grub, as
did many others, good wholesome food
meat and potatoes and coffee, they know
how to cook sure. There is black
smith shop aboard. had quite chat
with him of course, they carry experts
in all trades. At last | went on upper
deck and as no one was here to stop me
l climbed the mast to crosstrees, in
order to get good view of verything
Now boys, don't think that they have to
climb the mast like you climb big
smooth pole. There is cable ladder
but it swings around some when you
get up about so or IS feet above deck
the view from here was great. After
being aboard one of these ships yor
cease to wonder at their cost, the New
Jersey was six years in building. so
was told. When you look at the vast
outlay of money and what it costs tt
maintain these ships you have some con
ception of the strength of our govern
ment. But, Oh! it seems to bad thai
there should ever be occasion to use
these terrible engines of destruction
hoping that there never will be re
main, Yours respectively.
G. W. HoADLEY.