Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-10-20
Wendell glanced about quickly. l,

was notorious for eagerness to take on
two mems work In an emergency
cheerfully and as though he preferred
1t. His battle station, as he had just
been told. was chief fire control officer
In the tops. His business when the
alarm bells should boom through the
ship and the bugles should blow Gen
eral quarters!' was to lead his spot
ters" to the top of the foremost and
through his telescope watch for the
splash of the Arizona's shells.
At ten or twelve miles distance the
initial range could only be approx
mated, so Starnes as fire control off,
GER would spot the splash of the
great shells as they struck the sea
about the enemy. His duty would be
to estimate the distance of the splash
beyond or short or to the right or to
the left of the target, to telephone his
estimate instantly to the chief fire o n
troll station far below the M and
the water, from which there would go
to the guns the instructions for the
correction of the sights, SO the next
shots would be closer and the next
might hit.
Garry was naturally adapted to this
work and had been trained to extraor-
man of any rank for this work In
the fleet. So the fact Of his being chief
fire control officer In the foretop be-
trayed no weakness Of personnel.
The fact Of Wendell's appointment
as second divisional officer without a
Junior would be different His battle
station, as he had said to Starnes,
would be to command No. 2 turret-the
great turret, housing three fourteen
inch guns-5ust forward Of the bridge
and the coming tower. A lieutenant
of full rank, with a lieutenant Of Jun.
Tor grade, like Wendell, or with an en-
sign rs second in command, belonged
at such q battle station. Wendell had
realized, therefore, that his order to
report for duty as watch and division
al officer was proof of lack Of officers,
but he was used to that fact Often
enough, in battle practice, he had been
senior divisional officer In command Of
a turret. But II varney's loss meant
that he was to have no Junior In the
turret who had been trained at the big
guns the weakness In battle might be
serious indeed.
Wendell, finishing dressing, hurried
to the captains room, where, formally
reporting himself for duty, he was or
dered to Mr.. Stacey, the executive Off
Ger, for assignment to his division
Cries and commoton came from
about the ship, and as Bob turned
from the executive officer to inspect
No. 2 turret. which he was to com
mand In action, the Arizona left the
navy yard. He went out to the quar-
ter deck as the battleship headed to
Hampton Roads and increased speed
as 1t steered into the wide water. A
number Of the ships which had been
In the roads when he had crossed from
Newport News In the launch now were
In the bay and headed out to sea.
Two light cruisers, a half dozen de-
stroyers and the great dreadnaught
Pennsylvania were In motion. The
yellow haze of powder smoke, putting
from the Pennsylvania forward tur.
rets and blown swiftly back by the
breeze, told that 1t was the battleship
which was firing. and now a squirt Of
spray, dashing up a hundred yards
ahead of the Pennsylvania and half as
high as her foremost, told that some
where out at sea a ship of the enemy
was returning the fire. The Arizona
steamed more swiftly after her siSter
ship, and now as the vessel rose and
fell to the swell rolling In from the
Atlantic the alarm bells doomed be-
low and the bugles called all men to
battle stations.
The upper works Of three vessels
the masts and fire control tops and
tunnels of a first line dreadnaught or
battle cruiser, the masts and tops and
tunnels Of two other large war vessels
showed above the horizon to the east.
Twenty-Five thousand yards, or more
than twelve miles, was the estimate
of the distance as Bob Wendell was
standing on the quarter deck with 9th.
Ell gunnery officers ready for battle be.
fore the bugles called them to their
battle stations.
The bulls Of the enemy's ships were
then entirely invisible, and the officers
on the quarter deck of the Arizona
could see nothing at all Of any hostile
vessels except the three. Only Starnes
and the other men In the Arizona's
tops-a hundred and twenty feet high
er-could make out the bulls of the
larger vessels of the enemy and could
see, besides, that they were accompa-
MED by smaller craft. Yet the Penn
sylvania, now barely 1000 yards ahead
of the Arizona, already vas engaged.
Great geysers Of spray spurted up
abeam the Pennsylvania where the en-
emy's shells were striking in the wa
ter, and a gun In the forward turret
of the American dreadnaught was max
ing reply.