The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-08-17

We received and placed guns of
newer design, filed the magazines with
the highest explosives known to naval
use, and generally made ready for a
hard Job. Our magazines were filed
with shells for our big II end 14-inch
guns. A 14-inch shell can teal a hole
through the heaviest armor plate at
1900 yards. and will do more damage
than you would think.
When we had coaled and had got
u stores aboard, we dressed for ac-
tion-or rather, undressed. The decks
were clear; hatch covers bOlted and
davits folded down; furniture. chests,
tables, chairs were sent ashore, and in
iammable gear, like our rope ham
mocks, went overheard. You could
not find a single wooden chair or table
In the ward room.
When the ship is cleared for action.
a shell bursting inside cannot find
much to set afre, and If one bursts on
deck, there is nothing to burn but the
wooden deck, and that is covered with
steel plate.
Finally, we had roll call-all men
present. Then we set sail for the
Dardanelles as escort to the Duplex,
which had on board territorial and
provincial French troops-Gascons.
Parisians, Normans, Indo-C Chinese,
Spahis, Turcos-all kinds. When we
messed, we had to squat down on the
steel mess deck and eat from metal
plates.
There had been a notice posted be-
fore we left that the Zeppelins had be-
gun sea raids, and we kept a Eve eye
out for them. The news proved to be
a fake, though, and we did not see a
single cigar while we were out.
We made the trip to the Dardanellds
without sighting an enemy craft, keep
ing In close touch with the Duplex.
and busy every minute preparing for
action.
was made gun captain and given
charge Of the starboard bow turret,
mounting two 14-inch guns. 1 had my
men at gun practice daily, and by the
time we neared the Dardanelles, after
five days, they were in pretty fair
shape.
It was about 5 a. m. when we drew
near Cape Helles and took stations
for action. The Duplex was In front
of US. The batteries on the cape
opened up on us, and in a few min
utes later those at Kun Kaleh Joined
in.
AS the Duplex made for "V' beach
and prepared TO land her troops, we
swung broadside on, raking their bat
teries as we did so, and received q
shell, which entered through a gun
port in the after turret and exploded.
Some bags of powder stored there
(where they should never have been)
were fired and the roof of the turret
was just lifted off. 1t landed on deck.
tilted up against the side of the tur-
ret.
On deck the rain of fire was simply
terrific. Steel few in all directions.
1t was smash, crash. slam-bang all
the time, and l do not mind saying l
never thought we would come out
of IL.
Some of the heavy armor plate up
forward was shot away and after that
the old Cassard looked more like a
monitor than anything else to me. As
we drew nearer the shore they began
using shrapnel OF US and in no time
at all III tunnels were shot full of
holes and a sieve was watertight COM
pared TO them.
Naturally we were not just taking
all this punishment without any come
back. Our guns were at it fast and
from the way the fire slaekened IN
certain places we knew we were MAX
ing 1T effective. My guns did for two
enemy pieces that l know of, and per-
haps several others.
The French garbies were a good
deal more excited in action than |
thought they would be. They were
lodging around below decks, trying
to miss the %shrapnel that came
aboard, shouting, swearing. singing
but lighting hard, at that. They stood
the gam just as well as any other
garbies would, only In their own
sweet way-which is noisy enough,
believe me.
One of u seamen was hit $50
times by fragments of shrapnel, so
you can see what they were up
against In the lodging line. A gun
in action is not exactly the
best place On earth for a nervous
man nor n who likes his comfort.
There is an awful lot of heat and
noise and smell and work, all the
time in a fighting gun turret. But
during an engagement l would rather
be in a gun turret every time than
between decks. At that, If anything
does happen in a turret-it is good
night sure for all, and no rain checks
needed.
One of III junior lieutenants was
struck by a fragment of shell as he
at his station behind the wheel