River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-05-04

Iy up NeW York harbor re-
emily the Michigan brought back the
trophy for the year. Her gunners had
broken every record. The American
navy is pre-eminent on all the five
oceans for it's unerring craftsmanship,
but the Michigan's guns and the men
behind them now stand at the head OF
the roll of fame for accuracy and dead
ly skill. In the battle practice the
Michigan made IL hits out of 26 shots
Her gunners made four bullseyes sim
ultaneously at 10000 yards, a feat that
is unique in the annals of naval gum
merry.
TO fully understand what 1t means
TO make four bullseyes at this distance
of six nautical miles the reader should
consider these facts: A target rises
above the sea less than the height of
three-story house, and is just about as
long as a city dwelling of this sort.
Only the center of the target-the big
round spot of canvas sewed to the net
ting between the supporting masts-
can be seen even through good glass.
All that the naked eye can distinguish
ut q distance of six miles is just
tiny, blurry speck on the horizon.
It would be counted good shooting
on solid ground to hit speck like
that far away. But when the Michigan
knocked the targets to pieces she was
driving through the sea at the rate of
mile in four minutes. There was
heavy swell on out in the blue water
and she rolled and pitched so that aim
ing the great guns was as difficult as
shooting sparroWs with a revolver
from the back of a bucking horse.
Though the Michigan smashed all gun
merry records that ever were made the
other big men-of-war were not far be-
hind Taking them collectively, there
never was such an aggregation Of levi
athan sharpshooters sailing under any
nations flag.
That was the spectacular part of the
battle practice. What precedes 1t and
leads up to the tremendous climax of
a broadside OF 12-inch guns is no less
interesting. In the hazy and liquid
gold of dawn the bugle sounds to gen
eral quarters" In a twinkling the
great steel fortress is stripped for bat
tie Everything movable or likely to
be torn away by the tremendous con-
cussion OF the huge guns is slowed be-
low decks Then the men are lined up
and inspected Every one of them
must have had a fresh bath and be
dressed in clean clothing-these are
the new antiseptic rules to discount
accident.
Then the alarm sounds its deep, toe
sin-like strokes; the spoilers and the
telephone force clap on their leather
headgear, like that worn in football
games, and shin up to the foretop
through the funnel smoke. Up there
the concussion is the worst. The sail
ors wear celluloid ear protectors that
go inside the ear and are almost in
visible. Then, as the big ship gathers
momentum with every second, come
the instructions to man the starboard
batteries and the information that six
saIVos are to be fired, 40 seconds
apart. The targets have to be picked
up blindly, for the ship is playing at
grim war.
The plain red pennant, the signal
for commence firing" hangs like a
stain from the yards. Then comes the
loading signal from the ordnance Off
GER: the stand by" bells sound their
shrill peals. The spoilers stand rigid,
staring through the soft rubber eye
pieces of their binoculars, waiting the
announcement Of the final range and
detection.
Slowly, far below, the moving tur-
20 I'D
like intelligent creatures. The big
fo'castle deck is an empty, slim, fiat
cigar-shaped finger. There is hoarse
hiss Of the air blasts clearing the
bores. Then-"Fire!"
The shock OF the broadside tears
into ribbons the bridge screen; it shat
tiers the four-inch-thick glass in the
portholes. 1t is like the explosion of
a powder magazine. Complete unison
in a broadside is impossible, however,
with each firing key in a separate
sApd. and the buzzers allowing four
seconds in which to press them
Therefore the shock might have been
worse. In the dead seconds between
the salvos the eye follows the travel
ing shells, seemingly endless mo-
ments, until they bloom out in a gar
den of mighty geysers of foam around
the targets. There is a burst Of throaty
cheers from here and there between
decks that tells of a riven target
Down in the turrets of the great 12-
inch guns the gun pointers say they
hear practically no noise at all of the
explosions. Their attention is concen-
trated on the three-foot recoil of the
big monster that they have to neigh
Dor with willis at work.
The men in the turrets go about
their Iabors with the rapt attention of
bookkeepers trying to strike difficult
trial balance. There are leaders, she'll
men, sight setters-one manipulating
the reflections with lamp strapped
on his forehead-all stripped to the
waist. Most of them are gay with
tattoo marks-peacocks and Goddesses
ct Liberty being the favorite designs.