Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-05-24

for them and on every side are instru-
ments. AS the turret begins to fire,
a lift, bearing the huge projectile,
bangs up from below. great bags Of
powder slide from the magazines into
a long brass trough. Husky bluejack-
cts toss the powder into another brass
trough that 10 slipped into position at
the sigantic breach. The p%rojectile,
almost as large as a man meanwhile
has been rolled into the trough. a
long automatic rammer has jumped
from the rear and showed II into the
barrel. The powder bags are driven
home, a man 1T the breach swings
a lever. a ton of steel swings up with
a hiss Of compressed air. The breach
block turns and locks, a-buzzer sounds,
the charge is ignlted and with q rush
of air the guns recoil about . yard
and then Jump back into position.
There is q loud "swish-swish" a.
the guns come back and then 60 for
more than that is heard.
Outside, 1t 10 much different. There
is a flash, a roar, a ring Of smoke
and the loud whistle Of the pFojectile
rushing through the air. So great
is the conclusion that every man out
side a cotton Or some other sub
stance in his ears to save his ear
OTu0lS from DGlNB broken.
Fifteen Seconds for Guns.
Fifteen seconds from Commence,
firing" 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 Sec
onds. .
Some nights the ships Of the fleet
cruise in waters nearby for night bat
tie practice. Other nights they are
anchored in the base waters, whore
crews are drilled at torpedo defense.
The guns are manned and dummy
torpedoes and submarines are picked
ly destroyed.
The fleet has gained efficiency in
torpedo defense. They tell a story
in the ward rooms 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 intensely alert.
One Of the deck officers saw the
submarine outline itself and a gun
quickly was trained. The submarine
was hailed, but the mon on it failed
TO hear. The fact that the submer-
side was running behind the patrols
was the only thing that saved it. A
fve-inch u probably would have
blown it to pieces IL the maneuver had
taken place on the other side Of the
net. Now submarines. don't move
around like that at night. It was
dangerous business.
Inspiring Spectacle.
Before the feet is darkened, the
ships lying. in e direction present
an Inspiring spectacle. Lights. as Of
a. city, show everywhere. Blinker sig,
nails flash on and on-signalling In
the dots and dashes of the Morse code.
Long fingers Of white from search
lights shoot up into the sky-on and
of-on and of-signalling also with
dots and dashes.
other searchlight beams pick up
boats that approach them. some ill.,
Illuminate a landing wharf. Away in
the distance searchlights Of h patrol
boats flash on every now and then:
sweep the waters to discover that
what might have been a periscope is
only a white cap. Then they flicker
out again. From the shore, at night,
boats passing anywhere in the neigh
borhood suddenly find themselves In
the glare Of %searchlights.
While the guns crews are being
trained on some of the ships. aboard
others are being trained men TO run
the hundred or moro German
vessels the United States govern
ment will operate as soon as repairs
made to their engines. and the
fleet Of merchantmen being built to
carry food and supplies to the allies
The fleet is training engineers, cleo
tricians-men to nll every position
The Atlantic fleet is confident that II
will be able to supply a full compile
ment for every ship, for the navy l.
getting men now faster than ever be.
fore, and II the officers are proud Of
their ships, the guns on the decks and
the power of the engines in their hulls
they are douhly proud Of the spirit
Of the new men who are coming into
the navy. A ranking officer said:
THESE new men have come into .he
navy to fight and they want to get into