THE DAY OF THE GUN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 169, 22 August 1914, Page 14

THE DAY OF THE GUN.

FRIDAY IN THE FLEET. Friday has always been reckoned an unlucky day by seamen —why no one really knows. In the British Navjr Friday is known as the day of the gun. Every day throughout the week is devoted to some particular work on board Britain's bulldogs, but Friday is the most interesting of all, for during the whole of that day the fleet, in every part of the world, is doing, during peaceful days, what it has just been called upon to do in real earnest owing to the nations having thrown down the gauntlet (writes E. J. Hill ia a Sydney journal). Every Friday, after divisions, the crew of each ship in the British Navy is mustered into quarters, or, in other words, divided up according to that portion of the ship's armament they have to man. On the-flagship, for instance, "quarters" are made up of barbette crews, 6in gun crews, magazine, torpedo men, and so on, though in almost every part of the great vessel men - are at their stations, from the bridge to the ammunition chambers, far down under the waterline. What Makes the Man? There was an old saying in the Navy that "attitude and action in the art.of gunnery, and whiskers, make the man,'' but we have to-day reached another period in our naval history, yhen holes in a target make the man. It is only with this latter class of man that our Navy to-day concerns itself. A visit on board the Australia on a Friday is an eye-opener to a mere landsman. Everything on board seems in the wildest confusion; there are men in lines; men in groups, men in shirts and trousers; men standing still as if carved in stone, and others /lashing hither and thither, making up an animated scene which impresses one vividly with the importance of it all. Actually, i;here is no disorder; every man knows his place and his work. Each has his own particular job to attend to, and the training he has>received enables him to dovetail in with his mates, so that the whole is a homogeneous compilation working harmoniously together when the guiding hand puts them in operation. -On the flagship the . guns are arranged in barbettes, one pair above the other, and shut up H in these barbettes are the gun crews, who must go on loading and firing, as a part of the big lighting machine, and they know little and care less about what is going on outside - their own particular province 1 . Their work is to go on loading and firing, as directed, within their own little steel-enclosed shell. Working the Guns. Each has his allotted duties. .The big shells, come swinging up from the bowels of the .leviathan through doors, which, once the shell has arisen, automatically close down again until another is wanted. As the breech of the monster is opened, the shell is placed in the gun, and a charge of powder is rammed in after it; the breech is slammed to, and the gun is

then ready to fire. Every gun is working. against every other gun, and to . such - a state of perfection have the - crews been trained, that many .shots can be got off in a minute from the ' biggest gun.

Passing along the deck one notices some men hard at work. on a . Maxim. One man keeps up the supply of belted ' ammunition —each belt holding 250 cartridges —while another works the gun which, as Kipling tersely puts it, "squirts death through a hose." The belt is placed box beneath the gun, and the recoil pulls it over, and brings a fresh cartridge to the breech, and as long as the supply of loaded belts holds out™ so long will the manipulator pour forth one continuous stream of lead. On the main deck are the big barbettes, where eight 12-inch guns repose in pairs. Through a small opening in the solid steel walls one enters the barbette, where a few electric lights make splashes of golden glare on those long grey engines of war. Behind each gun is the sighting hood; this is a little * railed-off platform, and from it, with the aid of a single lever, the 12-inch guns can be raised, deflected, and swung to either port or starboard, as the bridge may direct. The whole barbette or turret can be swung either left or right, at the will of the man controlling it; in fact, so simple is the mechanism that a child could easily work it. Simplicity the Main Object. Simplicity is what is aimed at with regard to big gun mechanism —simplicity and labour-saving wherever possible, and to such an extent has this latter been brought that to-day, instead of a gun crew having to handle the big' shells, as they handled solid shot in Nelson's day, the shells are brought into position bv means of electric hoists, dropped 011 to a shell-tray or cradle, which is brought round opposite the breech when opened, and the shell is shot home. On Friday not only is every gun being worked in anticipation of the real things but the whole vessel (and every vessel in the entire British Fleet in all parts of the world) is being worked as if in action. The vessel is formed into a series of water-tight compartments so that in the case of a shell bursting in one of them, the rest would not be affected, even though the compartment ¥ struck filled with water. Auxiliary Steering Gear. It is quite possible, too, as in such

an engagements as Togo and Rozhdestvensky fought in the Korean Straits, that the steam stearing gear on the bridge might be shot away. Of all the helpless things a big warship that cannot be controlled is the worst. This has not been overlooked by the Admiralty designers, and all our ships have been fitted with auxiliary steerihg gear in—sometimes —as many as five places. This precaution has been found necessary, and even hand-steering gear is to be found at the rudder-head in case all steam connection has been disabled.

Not only arc the guns on the alert on Fridays (and since the latest cables on every day), but each vessel is fitted out with torpedoes and torpedo tubes. These are not a portion of the show on deck. Far down below the water-line they have their home. They have a compartment to themselves, and hung overhead in this steel chamber are suspended many parts of these devastating engines of submarine warfare.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of safety." That has been the motto of our Navy sinco we realised its importance. In the piping times of peace this vigilance has taken the shape of unremitting toil which finds some particular thing to do on every day of the week. Friday has always been the day of the gun. It is reckoned an unlucky day among old sailors, but we have passed the days of superstition, and are living in the days when the best'man behind the gun must prove himself the winner, no matter what particular day of t-he week he may have received his training upon.