The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-03-19
EIGHT SECONDS
FOR Shell TO HIT
Ship Moves Two City Blocks
Before Being Struck.
German Ship Butcher Was Hit
At Distance Of $4,000
Yards.

London, March 13.-The first
shell which the Lion, of Sir David
Beatty's fleet, sent into the German
ship Butcher, which was sunk in the
North sea battle of Sunday, January
"a. was fired when the ships were
1900 yards apart or nearly ten
miles.
1t required eight seconds for this
first shell to reach its mark from
the time it left the mouth of the big
gun on the Lion. The mark looked
to the naked eye to be the size of
the lead in a pencil. From the time
the shell left the Lion to the time il
hit the Butcher, the latter boat had
travelled two city blocks, and when
the gunner on the Lion fired his
shell the gun pointed not at where
the Butcher was at that particular
instant, but where il would be eight
seconds later.
In other words, the shell was so
accurately timed that the Butcher
ran in underneath the shell as it
fell and took it on her deck as if
she were trying to save it from fall
| ing into the sea.
Let's imagine a gunner figuring
out his chances for fighting the
Butcher.
| "She's travelling at the rate of
half mile a minute, and I'll have
to allow for that" he says. Were
travelling at about the same rate, but
in different direction and, if load
my gun now we'll have travelled a
half mile before | shoot il, so / must
allow for that. She looks like a
mosquito from here, but I've got to
hit her in the center where the shot
will count.
And what's more, can't see her
hull at all; that's only her highest
upper works and her smoke that /
see. She wabbling, too, in the sea,
and I've got to allow for that.
can't point my gun at her and shoot,
because it will take eight seconds
for the shell to reach her. I've got
to figure it out so that the shell will
be in the air ready to meet her
when she comes up to it,"
It's beyond the human brain or
the human eye TO make such calcu-
lation as our imaginary gunner is
trying to force on himself. In fact
there is no such gunner There is,
indeed, no one man who serves a
gun on one of the gigantic battle
ships of today
Placed in the fighting masts, high
above the deck, are the Instruments
which make all the calculations that
are necessary for getting a shell to a
right place at the right time. These
instruments make allowances for the
speed of the ship which is firing, for
the speed of the fleeing ship, for the
rolling of both ships, and even for
the wind and the moisture in the at
mosphere. It's like working a prob
lem in arithmetic. The instruments
indicate certain set of figures.
Without even looking at their tar
get, which they can barely see, or
indeed which they do not see, owing
to the fact that they are closeted in
the great steel turret the men at
the gun thrust the shell into it's
breach, cram in behind it the sacks
of cordite and stand aside: Some
where on the ship, some fire control,
a man with set of levers or electric
buttons, causes the great gun to
move about like a live thing and
elevate or lower its slender tip as
required.
A second later the shell is in the
air. 1t climbs to a height of per-
haps a mile and half. It's target,
swaying with the roll of the sea, now
on a wave top and then in a valley,
rushes along toward the point where
the two shall meet.
The ship and the shell meet. The
explosion of the shell is terrific. It
twists and wrenches steel as il 1t
were in foil.
But there is one more astonishing
thing to happen before the effect of
this long shot has died out. Thirty
two seconds after the shell strikes
the men on the victim ship, If they
listen, can hear the sound of
heavy muifled boom. 1t is the ex-
plosion of the gun. ten miles distant,
which sent the shell. The messen-
ger of death Travelled five times fast
er than sound itself.