Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-31


guns go off many, many times So do smaller guns all Of
them burning the governments the taxpayers money
Consider that thousand dollars goes up in smoke
every time two twelveinch turret guns bech On the
superdreadnaught Florida there ten of these guns.
During target practice they each fired about six
times. Sixty shots at five hundred dollars shot comes
to thirty thousand dollars Rather different from the
@three shots for five galleries at Coney Island! Add to
this the powder burned by the other guns and you have
bill of forty thousand dollars for every dreadnaught.
There being the average five Ships the bill for little
target practice to two hundred thousand dollars
There hundred and twenty vessels of
navy assembled last year in New York Harbor. If it
five dreadnaughts two hundred thousand dollars
to sharpen their eyesght what would be years bill for
the whole navy Estimates place it at million dollars.
PUT before watching the maneuvers on the range,
= seeing what is done and how the men 60 about it,
how the revised firing drills of the dreadnaughts
Quoted, let us consider briefly the power of our
navy With the dreadnaught has changed. Do
you know that the united tonnage of the Delaware and
the Florida is greater than the entire battleship
tonnage of navy at the time of the Spanish War?
The fleet that blockaded Santiago called formidable
1t had the superb Iowa. the doughty Indiana the Nassa
chusets the Oregon the old Texas several cruisers Yet
dreadnaughts the Florida and the Della
ware, to combat this feet they would blow it to atoms
And they could smash Deweys Manila fleet thrown in.
One who has never seen the new dreadnaughts in
action cannot conceive of their armament their awful,
destructive potentialty Take the Florida 1t has ten
twevench guns, sixteen ive-inch, four fournch two
twenty-one-inch torpedo tubes. The shock of pro-
ecte from of its big muzzes is equal to that of
heavy locomotive and five striking the Wall of
China at speed of seventy miles hour. Conceive
the weight OF great transantic steamer OF dread
naught, OF a big tramp steamer. Pile each upon the
other One of the Florida guns possesses force capa
BILE of lifting them all one foot.
The shells go half mile second At range of three
hundred yards they pierce eighteen and half inches
of steel armor. At five miles their energy is enough to
cut through fourteen and half inches of Harveyized
nickel steel. If they able to maintain the speed
that theirs upon leaving the gun they could 60 round
the earth nearly twice IN twentyfour hours. They
could go the and back in ten days. Such guns
and equipment cost one hundred thousand dollars EACH
If it possible to keep ten Of them firing for hour
at the of three shells minute they would burn up
two million dollars worth of POWDER or about oneth
of the entire vessels cost.
So much for these monster guns. Now let us see
them in action
IN summers day we steamed away from Old
- Point Comfort and out into the heavy swells of
the Capes. There riding rolling untraversed area
of the ocean, found the batteshps five gray shapes
low in the water sturdy sullen lifting slowly above the
horizon to meet U.S. An hours steaming and our little
yacht drew beside the towering Florida monstrous
castle of steel that to be home these few days.
visit to the Captain presentation of credentials and
shown to quarters. By the time grips had
been unpacked night had the rim of the sea-
lights twinkng in the ports, and supper ready
There was no time to inspect the ship; for target
practice to begin that very night Soon the five
inch guns would begin their deep barking and imaginary
torpedoboats would be shelled and driven back Going
deck, saw lighted signal sernaphores moving on
the masts of the other Ships stiff ery arms like those
of mechanical toy soldier Then, word having been
received that the target RATS ready the dread
naughts steamed toward them
Finally the Delaware the last of the column,
off to starboard at ten knots while the of the
line reduced its speed to five Steaming steadily the
Delaware entered the range and there came to US
the booming of its guns. Ceasing firing watched it
steam past u.s. turn to starboard approach the targets
that the umpires and spoilers might have better
view of the havoc of its guns Then returned taking
its position at the head of the column. Soon our
searchlight playing the targets 1t revealed
repairs being made Men in small boats from
tug. New screens were stretched the booms.
Every little detail perfectedwe ready fire.
was on the bridge as we approached the range. |
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