Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-01-30
THE MODERN GUNNER.
He Is a Wizard, With Science
For His Confederate.
WONDERFUL BATTERY WORK.

S SS'uSASi otCs
WONDERFUL BATTERY WORK.
Amazing Results Achieved by Our
Coast Defense Experts and the Be-
wildering Array Of Apparatus by
Which Accuracy of Fire Is Attained.
The war department makes little
noise about the condition Of the coast
defenses. Such activity as one sees
about the Notifications reveals little.
The: sun spreads a food Of gold upon
the soft, grassy covering Of their sIop-
ing sides, and somehow one does not
think Of them as impregnable for.
tresses. Such guns as one sees look
innocuous enough. They do not seem
as formidable as one imagines they
ought to look. In fact, however, these
fortresses are mailed fists with vel
vet covering Army officers assert
that no hostile war vessel could reach
the upper bay of New York harbor If
it could be seen. 1t would be annihi-
lated before 1t reached the Narrows.
Gunnery has shared in the modern
tendency to specialize and to become
highly scientific in its practice. Gun
ners are now specialists. A battery is
highly organized mechanism. work
ing almost automatically. In the old
days the men who fred the guns used
to see what they fred at. Today, with
guns capable of throwing a thousand
pound shell as far as the eye can see
on a clear day.the men who discharge
the guns no longer necessarily see the
object which is to be struck by. the
giant hail they release. Until the shot
is fired the gun itself cannot be seen
above the parapet.
Hitting the target has become al
most an exact science. By mechanical
means the striking of target has be-
come so nearly an infallibility that the
tugs which tow the floating targets are
separated from them by only 600 feet
Of line. The men upon the tugs have
no more expectation Of being struck
gun. They never have been struck, al.
though the different batteries have
frequent practice. The song of the
shell to, the men on the tug is not like
the song Of the Lorelei, for death does
not follow in it's wake. To be sure,
like motoring. one has to become &C.
| customed to face what seems like i'm
pending death. Faith In the gunner,
as in the chauffeur, and in the gun, as
! in the motor car, is an essential
What is done by the guns in some Of
our forts is illustrated by what has
recently been accomplished at two Of
| the forts along the Atlantic coast. At
Boston target four and half miles
from the fort and moving along the
horizon at the rate of five miles an
hour was struck by every shot fred
from ten inch battery in less than
four minutes, the number Of shots
being six. The following day bat
| terry Of twelve inch guns performed
the same feat, punching the shots
more closely than did the ten inch
guns The shots of both batteries were
SO close together at the target that
they might have been inclosed In a
rectangle 10 by 20 feet.
Battery Parrot, at Fort Monroe,
recently was called upon to fire at a
moving target an unknown distance
| away. Actually 1t was about three and
one-half miles away. Pyramidal in
shape, it looked as it moved across the
water about as leg o. mutton sail on
a skiff would appear at distance of
four miles. Every shot was hit, and
the fourth and last destroyed the tar
4 get. The entire round was fred in /
| minute 9 seconds.
One Of the firing tests is called ''fire
command" In this test the gunners
are expected to change the fire from
! one target to another Of the three In
the string as directed and hit It with
| out changing the speed of the fire. The
targets are supposed to represent the
vitals Of warship. This mythical
vessel is considered to have a free.
board, or height out of water, Of TWEEN
ty-four feet. In estimating the hits,
the basis is that Of representative
battleship. A shot which does not ac-
tually hit the target, but which would
have pierced vessel had 1t been
where the target was, is counted hit
Officers on the tug towing the targets
work out the score by means Of the
range rake" This is an implement
which looks like q garden rake with a
short handle. The spaces between the
teeth each represent a given number
Of yards. When shot strikes the off.
GERS sight along the handle and note
how many spaces to the right or left
of the center the shot hit.
A gunner of the old school would
turn gray If he had suddenly to adapt
himself to the new methods in the
face Of the enemy. s. Hair line tele
scopes. surveying instruments. barom
eters, thermometers, thermometers
| weather vanes. tide gauges and STOP
4 watches are required to secure the
requisite results. The accuracy Of thu
fire is obtained only by taking Into
consideration such details as the curva
ture of the earth. the speed of the tar
get or the hostile ,warship, the range
or distance Of the object from the gun
the pressure or density OF the air. thu
speed and direction Of the wind, Thu
temperature and age of the powder
z 49, - = = A.