HOW THE INVADER FARED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6052, 9 November 1906, Page 7

HOW THE INVADER FARED

HIT TEN TIMES IN FIVE AND A HALF MINUTES. Yesterday morning the Potone Nayals concluded tho annual service firing, with ten hits out of twelve shots at a range of about 3700yds to 4100yds, amid unfavourable weather conditions. At the same time, the company heat standard time in getting off the shots. Including tho Nos. 1 and 2 series on Wednesday, thirty-two hits have been made out of thirty-six shots fired under war conditions. Including the four rounds fired on Tuesday for instructional practice, there have been thirty )five hits cut of forty shots. The two big 6-in guns at Fort Kelhurno (Ngaliauranga) have never been served so well, and tho Petono Navals nave put up records both in accuracy and time that will hold anywhere. The battery commanders for tho service firing on Wednesday and yesterday were; No. 1 series (12 hits out of 12 shots), Captain Freeman; No. 2 (10 hits out of 12), Lieutenant Whs; No. 3 (10 hits out of 12), Junior Lieutenant Price. Junior Lieutenant Price has also the satisfaction of knowing that his men yesterday also excelled themselves in point of time. Yesterday, tho two misses were the first shot and the third, which went 120yds over. The second and all the subsequent shots were hits, and good hits. Six shots, or 50 per cent." of the series, were practically water-line hits, and tho other four were close in. It was blowing heavily and raining steadily before the practice, and some doubt" was felt as to whether the firing could he carried out, but eventually there was sufficient improvement to order out the steamer with her Hongkong target (100 ft by 60tt by 30ft), and the shooting began. The twelve shots wore got off in five and a half minutes. One gun was quickerthan the other, and also made no misses. The rate of fire exceeded what is laid down as “the highest rate of aimed fire considered to he possible from guns of this nature. On the whole shooting, tho company comes out with a figure of merit of .890, or firstclass. This would have been higher had it not been that two misfires m one of Wednesday’s senes caused considerable delay in tho service of the gun that missed. These misfires were duo to defective tubes, and were in no'Way tho fault of the men of the company; and though the umpire no doubt made some allowance for them, they reduced the figure of merit very considerably. The speed and accuracy of the company’s fire when the gun does its duty is shown in yesterday’s figures. . The Artillery. Staff Officer (Major Johnston') was umpire. In the theory members of tho company are doing very well. They will be concluded by Saturday, when the camp breaks up. A smoke concert will be held to-night.

HOW RESULTS ARE OBSERVED

WITH “THE MAN ON THE SPOT.”

With reference to big gun. practice, the question is often asked how it is possible to accurately estimate which of tho rounds would have hit a ship of the given dimensions, when firing at what is simply a Hongkong target representing that ship. The plan is ingenious. The target, consisting, of two floating wood-and-canvas erections connected with a line, are towed, behind tho tug-boat, with a tow-line 300 yards long. An observer (called the range officer) is stationed at the stern of the tug-hoat, and an instrument very likean ordinary garden rake is held in a horizontal position over tho stern of the tug, with the teeth turned upwards. The observer, with his eye at, the end of the handle, keeps'the central tooth aligned with the target; and when a shot from the fort fails, ho notes the particular tooth opposite which tho splash occurs. As the distance of the observer’s eye from the tooth is known, also 'the distance of the tooth from the target, it is simple to mathematically Calculate the distance over or short of the target, as the caes may be, that is represented by the space Between each tooth. When tho distance over the target, or short of it, of each shot (properly called “round”) has been thus ascertained, other mathematical calculations have to be made to find the slope of descent of the projectile as it strikes the water. These calculations vary according to tho height of the battery, length of range, etc., and are based on certain well known rules of gunnery. Supposing a shot were to fall twenty yards oyer the Hongkong target, and the slope of descent had been ascertained to represent a fall of one vortical foot in every nine horizontal feet of its flight, it is evident that tho shot would hit the side of a ship fifteen feet high, if such a ship were Th-tho position-of the target. If a shot were to fall one hundred yards over the target, however, it would pass clean over the top of a ehip of tbe same dimensions. Such a shot would*be registered as a miss.