Year: 1879

An Artillery Offiercr's Adventure I'm


der Fire in the See--SWimming to


the Target.


In the year 1871 was going through
what is technically known as the ''long
COURSE" a curriculum of instructions in
gunnery, theoretical and practical; the
former at Woolwich, and the latter at
Shoeburyness- part lasting six
months. We had been enjoying our.
selves at our seaside residence for three
out of these six months exceedingly for
we had been fortunate enough to have
gone there in the summer months, and
between boating and bathing and playing
lawn-tennis, in a modified form known as
'sticky," in courts constructed out Of the
boards of old targets past work, the time
had passed very pleasantly. It was now
August, and very hot one; the sun
bnrned in the heavens like red coal, ana
sco1ched up the scanty water that the
sana-beds contained, till we had to send
miles away to fetch what was required
for the use of the barracks. Work of
any kind was an effort. One felt inclined
to spend the day swimming lazily about,
or sitting on warm rock after the fash
ion Of Tennyson's norman. It was one
of these aquatic excursions which got me
into the greatest scrape have ever been
IN, or that I shall ever be in, I hope, as
the sensation was anything but pleasant.


I must premise that was very fair
swimmer, having learned that art,
amongst many other useful things, at the
academy, and progressed favorable in it
during course Of seaside fort residences.
My great ambition had always been to
swim round the 1900 target some day
when the tide was ir, and at length /
determined to make the attempt, The
feat seems easy enough, no doubt, but l
was not Captin Webb; and amongst my
fellow officers there were few who would
have attempted it, so felt rather, in
clined to be able to say that I had been
there. Confding my intention to no one,
I started one day from the gun-pier just
before slack water, counting on getting
back before the tide turned again.


It was hot day, as I have before said,
and I swan very slowly; however, l
arrived at my destination without much
difficulty. The framework on which the
target foated offered pleasant resting
place, and lay down on it lazily, intend
ing to take some five minutes breathing
time, and then strike out for home. But
alas for the feebleness of human resolu-
tons! Between the warm sun and the
long swim and the recumbent posture.
had not been there two minutes before
was fast asleep. I had curious
dream. had been reading a
rather wild book of speculative astrono.
my that morning, and had been some
what struck by the writer's theory that
the end of the world would come through
the fiery vapors and lava of the interior
Of the earth breaking through the thin
crust thereof. I dreamed now that such
a catastrophe was imminent and that
was calmly inspecting a pressure gauge
to ascertain how long the globe would
yet endure. Higher and higher ran the
warning hand upon the dial, and at
length, with mighty crash, the world
exploded, and I was hurled, not into
chaos, but into the water CT the estuary
of the Thames!


Thoroughly awakened, as the reader
may suppose, l rose to the surface, gulp-
ing down mouthful of water swallowed
in the surprise. As clutched the frame,
work beside me, I was conscious of a
dazzling red flash like sheet-lghtning,
followed by tremendous report and a
rafting all about me. as though shewe1
of hail were falling. had seen toe
much of artillery not to know what this
astonishing meteor was-a shrapnel shell
Perhaps there msy be some of my
readers ignorant of ewhat such a missile
is: for, indeed, it is of somewhat late
invention. Let them imagine, then, a
cylindrical shell Of iron, ogival- headed
and containing as many bullets as it vii
conveniently hold, comfortably set in 8
bed of resin. At the bottom thereof is a
small charge of powder, ignited by
time-fuze bored to burn any required
time. On this delightful machine ex
ploding out fly the bullets, and, by the
inexcrable laws Of dynam1cs, partakins