ABOARD A BATTLESHIP.

Northern Advocate, 12 April 1911, Page 6

ABOARD A BATTLESHIP.

When a modern battleship fires her big guns in actual battle, the scene is one of almost indescribable strain and terror. Imagine, says the writer in "The State," the sensations of an adventurous mortal, taken into that "steel-walled pen," who sees in each gun in turn the enormous mass of steel at the breech flung aside, the eight-hundred and fifty pound shell raid the gigantic case full of explosive driven home by the hydraulic ram, the reverberating Big Ben-like clang of the closing breech, and then the awful pause while the layers are aiming. This is the worst moment, when the muzzles of the guns are moved slightly back and forth, by the beautiful mechanism —the worst moment, J moan., for one who perhaps has only up till then endured the noise of ymaUer guns. Fearful ideas crowd on one; what if that breach blew out! Wii;u if they haven't closed it properly! What if— but, crash goes the shot, and all is oblivion, at any rate as regards one's aural apparatus. No ear-protecting arrangements will altogether nullify the body-and-soul-shattering effect of such explosions and one only wonders how the ship holds together. After a few such shocks a kind of endurance faculty is acquired, but an appalling headache is inevitable, and some men get toothache and other pains, besides bleeding at the ears. But this last comes oftener from the slapping effects of smaller guns. Now let us apply our imagination to the position of the crews of two such guns in a barbette during a hot fleet-action in war-time. The two guns will be firing at full charges, perhaps the two together at the rate of three or four rounds per minute. When the range becomes closer, small projectiles may find their way through the embrasures or' sighting ports. Then it will be strange if some of the enemy's shells do not strike the armoured wall outside, and burst on impact with a rlin which will drown even the noise of the gun discharges. The whole cellarlike space will be filled with acrid and irritating smoke and nitrous fumes. And all these physical ills will be augmented and ministered to by constant and racking mental stress, which, owing to the issues at stake, will certainly be greater than on any occasion of practice. No conceivable situation could be so calculated to bring the best qualities of anyone to the surface, and he who stands the test will be in very truth a man.