Evening star., 1917-05-24
u. .S.FLEET GREAT
WORKSHOP OF WAR
Ships, Ready for Battle, Now
Turning Out Men Who Can
Fight and Run Freighters.
YOUTHS EXPERT GUNNERs
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press
WITH THE UNITED STATES At
LANT1C FLEET. May 24.-The big
sh'ps OF the most powerful fleet ever
unoer the American flag, when visited
oy correspondent of the Associated
Press, through arrangement with the
committee on public information, were
working day and night to bring about
me defeat of Germany on the sea.
READY for battle. they are spending
men.
me heet. temporarily. is great
workshop of war. Already il is turn
ing out one of its finished products
men who can fight. They are serving
the guns on American armed merchant
ships. It's other product--men who can
run g. the great merchant ships the United
states will use to feed the allies-wiIl
oe ready as soon as the ships.
flve-inch guns. the kind principally
used against submarines. are there by
the hundreds. On the decks great tur-
rets house long. fourteen-inch and
twelve-inch rifies-three or two to a
turret- On high platforms guns used
TOT defense against airplanes point to
the SKY. Brass is always shining steel
new. decks are always white with
scrubbing.
Have Lost Shipmates.
The men behind the guns have lost
shipmates in the war-they were guns'
crews on merchantmen sunk by Ger
man submarines. And other shipmates
now are on duty aboard the destroyers
operating with the British and French
| fleets. The men with the Atlantic fleet
are working to prepare themselves to
avenge the killing of their mates.
Here's what happened the other day.
crew was practicing with a hve-inch
gun. A bluejacket about seventeen-he
still had down on his chin-was point
ing. He grasped handles on a BROAD
brass wheel: his eye was steady at
| rubber cup at the end of a long sight,
| through which he saw the target. His
duty was to keep the gun on the tar
get SO 1t might be fired at any time.
Around this beardless youth were
grouped other gun crews ready to fire
when his crew had completed it's pc.
riod.
The breech snapped open. the load was
back in place afd then a buzzer.
operated from the Ntre control station.
| sounded; there was q flash. a roar. the
hiss of a projectilef speeding through
the air and the louder hiss of COM
| pressed air blowing smoke out of the
gun. Miles away the projectile struck
Guess that's bad" said an old man.
o'-war' man, looking on admiringly at
1
| the range and the pillar OF white
water leaped into the air.
| "How would that do for Fritzy? Sup
pose that had been submarine
The bu.zer. the roar Of the gun and
the hiss of air Interrupted him.
| Another hit! Gee whiskers. that's
shooting!-
Rockies at Loading Machines.
On the after deck latest arrivals
aboard the ship were set to work that
day, and every other day, in fact. upon
the loading machines. They consist
slide that carries away dummy pro-
jectiles and powder bags.
Officers with stop watches in their
hands set one crew after another to
work. the idea being to develop ex-
treme loading speed by competition.
The newest members of the ships COM
panies work for days at these loading
machines The next step in their train
| ing carries them to the guns. But they
are not yet ready to fire the regular
charges. One-pounders, that go off
with a sharp crack, are dashed on top
of the big guns and the crews go
| through all the motions of firing. but
instead of big shell. little one
get when the buzzer sounds or when
the turret captains in charge of the
bigger rifles yell Fire."
After period of firing with the sub
caliber arrangement. the crews get
down to real battle practice. There are
few buster places than a turret in ac-
tion. Concave steel walls are all
around, and a steel roof is just above
| the heads of the gunners. The pointers
sit far forward. underneath the barrels
Of the gun. Little seats like those on
a motor cycle are there for them and on
every side are instruments. As the tur-
rets begin to fire. lift, bearing the
huge projectile, bangs up from below.
great bags of powder slide from the
magazines into a long brass trough.
Husky bluejackets toss the powder into
another brass trough that IS slipped
INTO position at the gigantic breech.
The projectile, almost as large as a
man, meanwhile has been rolled into
the trough. long automatic rammer
has jumped from the rear and showed
it into the barrel The powder bags
are driven home, man at the breech
swings a lever, ton of steel swings
up with a hiss Of compressed air. The
breech block turns and locks. buzzer
sounds, the charge is ignited and with
rush of air the guns recoil about a
yard and then jump back into posi-
ton There is loud "swish-swish"
as the guns come back and then go for
ward Inside the turret not much
more than that is heard.
Different Outside.
Outside, it is much different There Is
a flash. a roar. a ring of smoke and the
loud whistle of the pro5ectile rushing
through the air. So great is the con.
cussion that every man outside has cot
ton or some other substance in his ears
to save his ear drums from being
broken.
Fifteen seconds from commence flr-
ing" to fire" is considered pretty good
time for the big guns in the navy. They
have new guns crews in training now
who never saw salt water until three
weeks ago who are doing the thing
easily in sixteen seconds.
Some nights the ships of the fleet
cruise in waters nearby for night bat
tie practice. other nights they are an
chored in the base waters, where crews
are drilled at torpedo defense. The
guns are manned and dummy torpe-
does and submarines are picked up by
the searchlights and theoretically de-
stroyed.
The feet has gained efficiency in tor
pedo defense. They tell story in the
OF an American submarine
which decided to change its anchorage
without giving notice. The feet is
dark after a certain hour at night. Not
a light shows. but the watch is in
tensely alert.