THE DAY OF THE GUN.

North Otago Times, Volume C, Issue 13146, 29 August 1914, Page 3

THE DAY OF THE GUN.

FRIDAY IN THE FLEET]', Friday- lias always -been; reckoned; an unlucky day by seamen—why no one really knows. In L the British Navy Friday is kn'own .as tiie day of the gun, Every day throughout tho Avoelc is devoted ,t6.spiiie particular work bji lioard Britain's bulldogs, but "Friday is, the moat interesting of all, for during the whole of that day the fleet, iu every part of the .world, is doing, "during peaceful days, what .it has jiist been called upon to do ,in real earnest pwing to the nations, having thrown .down the gauntlet (writes E. Ji Hill in a Sydney journal). v ■ Every Friday, , after divisions, the crew of each ship in the British Navy is mustered into quarters, or, in othei words, divided up according to thai portion of the ship's armament they have to man, On the flagship, for in stance, " quartersarc jiiade up ol Ijarbette crows, Gin gun .crews,, maga zino men, torpedo, men, and v so on though in almost overv part of ; tlk great-.vessel mop are at their stations ■from' the bridgo to the amiinuiitioi chambers, far 'down under, the water line.

What Makes tho Man? There was an old saying in the Navy that- "attitude and action in the art of gunnery, and - whiskers, make the mail," biit wo have to-day reached another period in our naval history, when ( 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 oil board the Australia on a Friday isan oyC;opcher' to a mere landsman, Everything on board seems in the wildest confusion; there are men in lines; .men in groups, meii in shirts and trousers; men ;stnnding still as,'ilea r,vcd, iii stone, and others dashing hither and thither, -niaking up an animated scene which impi.'csses.one. vividly with the importance of it. all. Actually,' there is no disorder; every nian knows his . place and his work. Each has his' own particular job to attend to,- ami the. training ho has.received enables him to dovetail" iii with; liismates, so tliat the whole is -a homogeneous compilation working harmoniously together when the guiding hand puts tliein in operation. .

On the guns are arranged ill barbettes, one pair above th'e other, alld shut up 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 cure'less about what is going (in outside their own particular province, Their work is to go on loading and firing, as directed, , within their own little stccl-cncios'cd shell, Working tho Guns,

Eacli has his allotted duties. The big shells come swinging, up from the bowels' of the leviathan through doors, which, onto the shell has arisen, automatically close down again until another is wanted. -./Vs t' ic ■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 Blammed 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 somev.men hard-at work on a Maxim. One man keeps utp 1 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 in a 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 railcd-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 is what is aimed at with regard to. big gnu mechanism—simplicity and labour-saving wherever possible, and to such nu 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 by. means of electric hoists', dropped on to a shclbtray or cradle, which is brought, round opposite the breech when opened, and the'shell is shot home.

Oil J'ridsiy not only is every gun bein}; worked in anticipation-of the real thing, but the whole vessel (and every vessel in the entire British Fleet in all parts, pf the world) is being worked as il' in action. The vessel is formed into a series of water-tight compartments so that in the case of a shell bursting inone.of them, the rest would not be affected, even though the c.Oiiipartiiient struck lilled with water.

It is .quite .possible, too, as in sue.li an enticements as Togo and Kozhdestvenskv fought-in the Korean Straits, that the steam stearing gear on the b,ridge might lie 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 steering gear in—sometimes—as many as live 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 are the guns on the alert on Fridays (and since'the latest cables on J every day), but each vessel is Jitted out • with torpedoes ainl torpedo tubes.-These are not, a portion of the show On deck. Far down below the' water-line they have their home.' Tliev have aVompartnient. to themselves, and hung overhead iii this steel chamber are", suspended many parts of these devastating engines of submarine warfare. / I 'Eternal vigilance, is the, price t)f safety.That' has been, the motto of our Xavy since we realised its importance. 'ln the piping times of peace this vigilance lias taken the. unre'inittiiig toil \viiieh fiiids some particular thing, to do on every day of ■ the'AVeek. Friday lias always been the day of the gun. It is reckoned an unlucky day aiiiong | old. sailors, but p-hiivp passed the days of i superstition, and, archiving in the days I when the .best man behind the guinniisti prove hijnselt the. winner, no: matter | ••what particular dav;ot the week;ho niay~| have received his training upon. • i