The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-04-09

NIF NV NAAA' RAaNa - ~ ~
practice Of the great guns on board a
United States battleship no red paint is
reeded to mark the hits. You can see the
orolectiles as they near the target. needle
he things that seem TO fee with the speed
- lsht. You can nee the holes they make
Of YOU take a glass. Their roar Is dull and
The shake Of the ship is a powerful tremor.
Your ears ara not smitten. AZ with the
smaller guns, but the shock is tremendous.
You are close to the manifestation Of a
t.rnAc force. But IL you wish TO see the
hest part Of the work you must go into the
casemate, where the firing is done. All,
there's where team work is going an!
Take a 7 inch gun, The word 20
firing Ia passed. Powder and
nrojectiles are all ready. The gun captain
throws open the breeoh block, The men
In the projectile and place It in the breech.
Scarcely have they removed their tray
t.fore a long wooden hammer is thrust in
and the p~rojeotile, which has been care
hIlly smoothed on and oiled, is u home
and seated. Get out Of the way quick,
rammsr. for the powder bags are being
thrust in! Don't make a false step, for
you may hinder some one who has just one
hing 10 do in the shortest possible time!
The charge Is now home, the gun captain
rhisks the breooh block into place. the
primer ia attached and then the captain
slsps the pointer on the back or cries ready.
III this time the gun ia being trained, the
rsnRs and def@ction have been changed,
aad instantly there il a roar, n binding
Sash. The members Of the crew close to
RE gun move just far enough back to escape
ne recoil, like a pnzefghter when he
throws his head back and escapes a blow
" the fraction or an inch,
Open comes the breech in a fash, then
snorher charge on IL by the various men,
mother slap on the back, another roar
and It's a hit or a miss, Then a third charge,
md another and another. The men sweat
and breathe hard, their faces become
strained and some Of them white. The
fght IL on, and tho work, second by second,
avery one Of them/as valuable as hours
would be ordinarily, ssps the strength and
energy Of the men in their supreme effort.
Every shot a hit!' cries one OF the crew
sultingly.
What was the timer asks another.
so many seconds, says the umpire.
That beats all recordsl" shouts another,
snd then there are cheers and great rejoice
ing. After the first fire scarcely a man hears
The noise Of the gun. It's a mere pop to
them. Sometimes they overreaoh them
selves in the desire to he quick and they
make a miss. They don't hear the last Of
that for some time, but it's all in the work
and part Of the general eagerness to do
well.
r~HUNpERcLAPs oF SINGH GUNS.
Then come the s inch guns. The rum
Id and roar is only n little worse than
the : inch guns. The geysers shoot q little
higher and the echoes from the report
come back to thu ship like so many sharp
thunderclaps, where the lightning is close.
Indeed, " you want to have a better repro
dlction Of thunder than any theatre can
produce Just manage to be on a battleship
while 1t fires of its s inch guns in rapid
succession. It's the kind Of thunder that
comes when hghthing hits and you look
out to see II the tree in your front yard
has been split. Crash after crash comes
hack TO make you duck and dodge until
The ~projectile has finished its thunderbolt
career and darts into the water with perhaps
the ignominious mission Of killing a fish
instead Of shsttering a battleship,
But the ~ inch guns! Pack the
cotton we'll into your EARL Keep your
mouth open! Stand as far away from
thA muzzle as you can On the ship! Secure
all the things in your stateroom, for il
YOU don't you may find your shaving mug
m the floor and your hairbrush mixed up
with the fragments Of your soap dish
close your port or else your trinkets may
no whisked into a heap and some Of them
broken into piecesl The whistle has blown.
The seconds 60 by, Oh how slowly! Will
they never get that gun loadedl Then
ONES a blast. The white fame seemsc
Fighter than sunlight, the roar runs
through YOU like an electric shock, the
decks seem 10 sink and you wonder il the
eruption Of Mount Pelee had more force
than that. You look toward the target.
There goes the projectile, straight through
the bullseye. Then an enormous geyser
lea "a into the air more than a hundred
feet high. Surely that Is Old Faithful!
Then comes another half a mile away.
Then another and another and you wonder
= the projectile is going clear over to
Europe.
ROAR OF I? inch P~RoJEcTILEs.
And with this comes that peculiar roar
hat no other agent OF power produces.
II ia more like the rush Of q limited express
INTO ana out Of ths mouth u a tunnel, YOU
csu hear the chug, chug Of the locomotive.
vow hear the rumble Of a fast train on a
,tn night through a valley. You can
almost see the hills and the little river
AZ the train dashes over bridges and noisy
t~restles. There it goes into the tunnel
again, and before you can speak OF 1t out
u comes with another roar! More bridges
aud t~restles. more tunnels, more chugs,
aud then there comes a steady roar. The
train il going over the hill and out OF the
last tunnel, and you take a long breath.
Before you expel it from your lungs there
IS another shifting fash and you are dancing
nm your toes again. The ship seems to
settle and you get the geyser. the roar
# the fastest train that ever ran. And %
u goes until the whistle blows and you
sVng around 10 look at the target and
then repeat the performance. You now
begin 10 realize what a battleship means,
and YOU are specializing about II when n
Fcer comes around and says:
Pretty fine, Ell? Well, that's nothing to
tsttle practice, when for a certain number