The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1915-11-04
MORE, NOT BETTER.
Our BattleshipS Show high Efficiency
at Target Practice, but We Need
More Of Them.
BY SAM w. PECK,


A few days at sea with the bat
tie fleet during target practice
would be quite enough, | think,
to convince the average landsman
that modern sea-fghting has been
brought to high state of efic-
iency and that our need lies not
so much in having better ships
for we have succeeded admirably
with those we have-but in hav-
ing more of them. At least that
was the impression that Secretary
of the Navy Daniels got recently
during the period which he spent
aboard the dreadnaught Michigan
at the battle practice of the fleet.
And perhaps that is why he turns
a deaf ear to those of our coun-
trymen who, being very much
from Missouri" have not had
his opportunity to "be shown. i"
The place chosen for this work
is thirty miles off the Virginia
Capes and is known in naval par
lance as the Southern Drill
Grounds. 1t is out of the fire.
quented paths of ocean traffic and
is comparatively shallow. Hun
dreds of tons of steel lie on its
bottom, representing thousands
of dollars of the public money ex-
pended in the development of a
high efficiency. Except for occa-
sional heavy fogs in spring and
fall, conditions here are ideal for
heavy firing. Many excellent
records have been made in recent
years.
Preparations for the strenuous
work of fighting are always care
fully made a great while ahead
of the actual event. For many
weeks in advance there have been
battle and loading drills, drills
for spotting ranges and sight
setting and maneuvers in fleet
formation. The shells are gotten
ready for their work-great
twelve-inch ones that weigh nine
hundred pounds and cost eight
hundred dollars each; eight-inch-
ers of almost equal weight and
cost, then the sevens and threes,
these last constituting what is
called the secondary battery. The
three-inch shells are ready loaded
with cordite-a very high explos-
ive-and look for all the world
like giant rifle cartridges.
Several days before the actual
firing every wooden article on
the ship is tagged overheard" 4"
this taking the place of the sum-
mary disposal of these articles as
would be practiced in time of real
warfare. Everything which
might be endangered by the ter
rife shock of the heavy firing is
carefully slowed away. Pictures
have been taken from the walls
and placed between blankets;
lighting fixtures have been taken
down and every port has been
closed. All heavy objects are
lashed fast while the ships pets
the cats, dogs and parrots which
may be found on every man-o'-
war-are taken far below decks
where the conclusions cannot
penetrate. Sick members of the
crews have been transferred to
the hospital ship which is already
far out of range of the booming
guns. With the piping of the
boatswain's mate and his cry of
Clear ship for action " all
hands set to work to prepare the
vessel for firing. This takes but
a short time since there are some
nine hundred trained-to-t -the-min-
ute men to do it, and soon we
are under way to take our posi-
tion in the column.
The column formed, Full
speed ahead" is the command,
and with every man tense at his
station, the battle colors high at
each masthead and the wake
trailing off behind in a churning
foam, we approach the range.
Far off on the horizon the tar
gets may be seen, distant about
ten miles. They are tall and
wide, a sort of latticed woodwork
that is designed to stand heavy