The daily Alaskan., 1913-01-13
LOADING BIG GUNS
They Get Quick Action on the
 Modern Monster WarShip.
STORY OF A PRACTICE DRILL.

What Happened After the Order to
 "Firsl" Was Very Different From
 What Would Have Occurred Had
 cordits and ProieetiIss Been Used.
 The order is given to load. Some one touches lever, and with a hiss a mass of bright steel turns and twists back, and the breech of the gun gapes open. Another touch on the lever, and from beside you a hydraulic ram shoots out like a golden tongue into the breech and immediately shoots back again. All is clear Now, at your very feet a hole gapes in the floor of the turret, there Is slat and crash of metal, and as you look down into the hole you see a small lift travelling up with incred- ible rapidity and internal clatter bear ing on 1t the immense projecdle, weigh ing more than seven hundredweight, and. in another compartment the two cartridges Of cordite.
 Up comes the lift, locks itself with a crash and spills out the projectile on metal tray in line with the open breech. The golden tongue of the rammer shoots out again and pushes the pro jectlle into the gaping breech, extend ing itself apparently indefinitely until the projectile has disappeared The lift shifts a little, bringing into line with the gun ItS other compartment which contains the two half charges each cylinder holding lS0 pounds Of cordite Out shoots the ram again, with no more respect for them than it they had been sponges, and pushes them steadily home behind the projec- tile. and, having done its deadly busi- ness, retlres again out of the way to be ready for another cycle of the same op- eratlOns
 Half a turn of the wheel, and the breech block swings home with a sigh and a click. Right gun loaded, sir Now you wait In suspense, and a voice in the coming tower gives the range $500 yards. The gun layer in his quiet corner has all this time never taken his eye from the glass. He turns one wheel. and the whole turret swings round over the ships quarter; he turns another, and with a little hiss and sigh of imprisoned water the whole mighty tonnage of the gun, sweetly balanced on its trunnlons, rises and titS itself to the push of the hydraulic press
 The range Is decreasing by some thir- ty yards a second. since the target is a ship approaching us at a speed equal to our own-ffteen knots-and as the falling ranges are given the gun metal wheel Is turned an eighth or a quarter of an inch, and the muzzle of the gun sinks down a little as gently as fall ing leaf. The sights are reported "on,' the gun laid. and the word we have al been waiting for is sharply given "Flrew The gun layer pulls a trigger DO bigger than that of pistol and
 The projectlle was dummy one made of wood covered with leather, and there was no cordite in the car tridges. If 1t had been otherwise the pictures that adorned the commanders room, the mirrors and toilet accesso- ries on the cabin tables and the va. rious elegant adornments of the cap taln's suit would unless they had been previously packed away have come crashing down from their places, and the navigating commander, who hap pened at the time to be explaining to an unwilling listener on the quarter deck by what skill and foresight he had avoided setting the ships stern on to the breakwater at Portland, would have been blown ofr the deck.
 These things were unnecessary, for I quite understood. The click and si- lence that followed the word "FiTe| were quite eloquent enough to me of all the shattering damnation they rep resented-a projectile weighing $50 pounds hurtling to its mark at the rate of almost a thousand yards a sec Ond.
 But we in the turret would have known nothing. for before 1t had reach ed the target the breech block would have opened to the screech of the air blast which cleans out the burning fragments of cordite In the breech, the rammer would have shot ln with It's mop and out again, the ammunition hoist would have come clattering and screaming up, another projectile would have rolled into the tray with another two hundredweight of death packed behiad It, the rammer would have pushed 1t home with a kick, the block would have swung to again, the great gun would have been sighted and swung in the air, again the word would have been given. and again the frag- ment of concentrated power that men had toiled in factories and drawing of fees. in laboratories and foundries to perfect would have been sent winging through the sea air to spend itself i' destruction.
 And only one man in the turret would have seen It's fate; only he with bis eye to the telescope, who had seen the hull of that ship in the distance cover ing the threadlike cross on his glass as be pulled the trigger, would see and
 .HnNF