Tombstone epitaph., 1917-10-07

OF men came on board a dreadnaught
the other day. Though willing. they
had only a mere idea OF naval disci-
pline : they had only been at the train
ing station for few weeks. They
didn't ask who the "topside guy was
walking up and down the deck with
an opera glass under his arm doing
no work" They knew that he was
the officer OF the deck. But in man-O'-
war terms. they were just green.
The first thing was to show them
gun: the second. which was the busi-
ness end Of the gun. and where the
gun was loaded. And in the doing the
loading machine was introduced. Q
continuance which Stimulates the
breech OF a gun. In which the blue
jacket lad is taught to pump in pro-
jectiles and powder at the rate Of IS
minute. Then sub-caliber work.
which means that small gun clamped
on the big one is fired at a small tar
get close aboard.
With all hands properly keyed up
and full Of pep and hope. there was
the hrst target practice. Not one OF
the rockies had ever heard anything
bigger go OF than q Fourth Of July
firecracker. Three gun crews were to
fire at the target In what is known as
| short-range practice. which consists Of
firing at a mark not very large and at
moderate distance. The doors Of each
gun compartment were closed. so that
each gun was comparatively isolated
from the other and from communica-
ton with the entire ship except BY tel
ephone or voice tube. Several runs
were made across the course: ranges
were taken down; the sight-setter set
his sights. and outside Of actually fr-
ing the pieces II was the FIRST touch
in the test.
One Of the precautionary measures
which is always taken In target prac-
tice is that after a round is fired the
first loader looks through the bore Of
the gun to see that there are no IN
burned powder grains or parts of the
powder bag or any smoke or flame left
in the gun. An automatic air-blast
drives the gases out Of the muzzle.
thereby preventing premature explo-
sion. Neither the shell nor the pow
Ger charge are put In the breech until
this man sings out "bore clear" But
bow and drifted the smoke into the
gun parts and the muzzle OF the gun,
taking II longer to clear the bore.
The youngsters knew and had been
told what fiarebacks meant and that
| any premature explosion would send
all hands to kingdom come The order
commence firing" had been given. Al
most instantly the gun pointers found
their range and had the crOss-wlres In
the sights right on It, Number one
gun fired right after number two. As
the breech Of number two was thrown
open some smoke and powder gases
| from number one were blown into the
muzzle. The second loader, whose
| duty II was to examine the bore, took
good look through II, and, seeing
that the bore was apparently filed
with smoke. sang out: Bore not
clear"
Now. the lad with the powder charge
felt instinctively that something was
wrong. Anyway. his routine was in
| terfered with. In his arms he had the
powder. He knew its potential energy.
He knew the danger. So he threw
himself fiat on the deck and wrapped
himself around the powder bag just
like an elephant wraps his trunk
| around a peanut. He had to shield II.
He believed that the life of the shin
depended upon him.
| With only a months training the
boy had already the instincts Of q
man-o'-war's man. He was willing to
sacrifice his life to save the ship, and
he DID II upon his own responsibility.
without anybody's say-so. He had a
ready learned Initiative.