Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1915-05-13
IS WARSHIPS HEART
Control Room Most Appropriate
Iy So Designated.
There the Commander, During Bat
tie, Issues His instructions to
All Parts Of the Vessel
Really steel BIockhouse.


When a warship sails into action
her heart pulses and throbs as eager
for the fray as the hearts of any of
her crew. Yes, warship has heart.
The heart of warship is the control
room deep down under the deck, sit
uated aft, usually abaft the second
funnel.
Even on big fighting ships the heart
is small. Generally it is only ten
feet by six, and is almost noiseproof
and eerily quiet. 1t is really a steel
vault, entered by a door not unlike
the door of a burglarproof safe.
From floor to ceiling the walls are
lined with dials, wires, gauges, cleo
trio bells, speaking tubes, switches,
and a gr-St amount of other appa-
ratus which keeps the commander in
constant touch with every corner of
the ship. 1t is the most wonderful
and the most fearful room on earth
or sea.
1t is a fortress within a fortress,
a steel cell within the steel walls of
the fighting engine.
To be in the control room during
active service is to feel like being in
a vault with the door locked on the
outside. This little compartment,
which visitors seldom see, will keep
alive as long as there is living soul
on board able to hear and answer a
call.
II &c fbrougb tho noptrol roor, +hot
the commander issues his instruc-
lions, observes and notes how the
battle is going, calls the gun crews
from place to place, directs the en-
gineers, steers the whole fabric, and
supervises everything. If a submarine
is seen in any direction, it is through
4 the control room that it is reported.
A little bell rings, voice far away
| speaks: Submarine on the port bow,
sir! Two leagues Off" In an in
slant the answer thrills the gun
crews: Ware submarine on the port
bow! Enemy's craft! Ready" The
gunners have been ready for some
I time, and when the chief gunner has
laid" the gun to his satisfaction
bang goes a message the enemy will
not forget, if it hits him.
If gun has to cease fire, the or
der comes through the control room
! If the enemy lands a shell on deck
or anywhere in the warship, the doc
tors are notified that they are wanted
at that spot almost as soon as the
men have fallen. II the gun crew are
dead, it is from the heart of the shiI
that the order is given for fresh mer
to fill their places.
Though the captain himself is il
the coming tower above, he know
through the officer in the control room
just what has happened to his shil
and the extent of the damage; and
the captain is killed in the coming
tower or on the bridge, the chief Off
Ger in the control room goes up a
once.
They know that even when thu
coming tower has been smashed b.
shot and shell and the bridge ha
been carried away-as was the cas-,
in the recent fight off Helgoland-
they must sticl: to their switches 81
long as there is an officer alive to di
rect operations. Not until the shi
is blown up or rammed are they a.
lowed to leave that little room, an
then they go down with her.
Up above the control room is tn
coming tower, the brain of the wal
ship as the control room is the hear
1t is a steel blockhouse. If tn
ironclad is a flagship she has tw
floors, the top one being used by tn
admiral, and whenever the action b.
gins the captain shuts himself up i