Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-07-19
DAY ON A BRITISH WARsHIP.
Largely All Work and No Play for
Jack-A Sample Schedule.

now I1dHy men are IIleTe on DOdrQ
that ship" was a question recently
asked Of the writer; his interlocutor
pointed to first class battleship lying
at anchor in bay on the Irish Coast.
Counting everybody, officers and men,
some seven hundred and fifty was the
answer. 'Then what" continued this
man of the inquiring turn of mind, con
earth can they find to do all day long;
do they sit and twiddle their thumbs
waiting for an enemy to come along
with whom they can fight?" The man
who asked for this information was
merely typical of other "shore going
"The London Globe" consider that
seven hundred and fifty men confined
in space of roughly 440 feet in length,
50 feet in breadth and 20 feet in depth,
must be principally employed in falling
over one another; they do, but it is in
their anxiety to get on with the next
job. There, on the southern coast of
Ireland, where the land stretches
league long fingers into the sea, and
where the sea has eaten it's way in the
course of the countless ages deep into
the heart of the land, is the celebrating
range, situated at the head of one of
these bays Celebration may be shortly
described as the means used by the
modern naval artillerist to sight his
guns, so that when the sights are fixed
for certain range and the guns are
fired, the Drojectiles from each separate
gun will strike the same Identical spot !;
in the vernacular of 1.-The man in the
street." this takes a bit of DOING" but
like most other things committed to the
hands of the navy, it is done and done
we'll Also it is one of those things which
prevent much twiddling of thumbs
on board. Blessed is the sound of 1.-THE
eight hour day. To the trade union agi-
tator and persons whose principal pre-
occupation is to do no work at all; such
folks had better steer clear of the mod
ern navy, where strenousness is the
note all the time, and where, strange
as it may seem, no one seems the worse
for the upsetting of a cherished theory
that no one should work for a longer
period than that halIowed by the condi-
tons of those just mentioned. On board
a battleship the work is done when it is
finished, no sooner and no later, and
the great difficulty is to find sufficient
time in which to do all that has to be
done.
At 5 A. M. the hands were turned up,
at 5.45 the great gray battleship had
dragged her 12,0OO-pound anchor from
its muddy hold, and was steaming
down the bay, while yet the msts of
the morning foated in pale blue
wreaths over the hills, now turning
from black to orange-tawny in the
light of the morning sun; presently it
was full daylight, cold and clear, with
the promise of a lovely spring day in
the air, but conditions were not exact
1y as could have been wished by those
as halfway down the bay
her forefoot was lifting perceptibly to
the tilt of an oncoming swell. Outside
the wind blew keen and fresh from the
West-northwest. and in from the broad
Atlantic came in rhythmic succession
those great rollers which may be the
heralds of the coming storm or the be-
lated battalion's of one which is past.
Tie target, small wooden platform,
with TWO upright posts upon it, to
which. by the four corners, was secured
a scrap of red bunting some feet by 2
feet was swung over the side, and from
this ridiculous contraption the great
ship steamed solemnly away. The fir
ing was what is known as sub-calibre,
which means that a 3-pounder is fixed
in the axle line of a 12-inch gun the
of which weighs $50 pounds)
or 9.2inch gun (proiectils, $50 pounds)
and that while the actual big gun is
pointed and aimed the shot which is
fired is the inexpensive three-pound or
six pound one.
For all her 10000 tons. the swell had
got hold of the ship, and there was
what is known as "a good deal of mo-
tlon; but this had ne effect upon the
vessel out of the practice Hour after
hour the vessel circled around this alb
surd scrap like red pocket handker-
chief, which half the time was invisible
between the crcsts of the waves, and
the long lean guns spat their tiny pro-
]ectlleS far across the intervening
waste. Four miles to leward the sea
and banged and shattered it
self on the shores of this ironbound
coast. for the march of sub-calibre
practice. cease fire." sounded, the ship
headed for the target, and it's possible
three shillings and sixpence worth of
wood and canvas was carefully picked
up, Tor the navy is very economical,
but with this overture of five or six
hours the days work had begun. There
were torpedoes to be run, but torpedoes
nave to be picked up, and for this a
steamboat Is necessary, and you cam
not hoist out steamboat weighing fif-
cen tons in heavy swell, SO the ships
1ead was pointed shoreward, and she
steamed right to the head of the bay
again before it became sufficiently
smooth for the boat to be hoisted out
All the afternoon, in the comparatively
smooth water within the confines of the
Day, the ship ran backwards and for
wards, while the torpedoes sped to
heir far distant mark. to be 'flelded"
,y the steamboat and returned and
loisted in; the day changed to vicious
squalls and pelting rain. but the only
notice vouchsafed to the weather is
When it actually interferes with work
o be done. At $50 p. NJ, some thir-
cen hours after she started, the ship
vas at rest again with her anchori
lown.