T

HE EVENTS of the SpanishAmerican war raised immeasurably the world's estimate of American naval gunnery, and they also served as an incentive to deepened interest on the part of Uncle Sam's gunners in that target practice which is largely responsible for the Yankee reputation for the best marksmanship in the world. Of course it is not meant to imply that either creditable target practice or excellent marksmanship under war conditions dated only from the recent conflict; but, perhaps, the events of the past half-dozen years have won more general and more generous recognition from other leading nations than had previously been accorded.

The Man Behind the Gun

American naval gunners have won fame in every war in which the nation has engaged, by reason of the accuracy of their aim. Upwards of a century ago the men of the infant United States Navy gave an illuminating object-lesson of the superiority of sea fighters who have been trained by regular and continuous target practice over those who have not obtained this essential element of preparednessfor the British, although the supposed champions of the high seas, had at that time but a single ship on which target practice had been indulged in, or whose guns had even been fitted with sights.

The battle of the Yalu in the ChineseJapanese War, with its disclosure of the new modern conditions in naval warfare, was a spur to the later advance and development of naval gunnery under the Stars and Stripes; and how effectual has been the progress under present-day conditions, was eloquently attested at Manila and Santiago.

upon a moving target, and hit it nine. times out of ten even though the gun itself is mounted upon a moving and swaying platform-is an art that comes from practice rather than from chance, and the price of which is unremitting hard work. The training of the naval man in the all-important "rapidity of fire and accuracy of aim," begins as soon as he enters the Navy, and is kept up as long as he has aught to do with the work of pointing and discharging Uncle Sam's most potent peacemakers.

Courses of Instruction

The man behind the gun in the United States Navy as now constituted, is not only a seaman, qualified by a regular apprenticeship in the Navy, but is also an expert mechanic, an electrician, a student of the principles of steam engineering, and a man of thorough practical and theoretical knowledge of high explosives, torpedoes, and submarine mines. Since 1882 the United States Government has maintained regular schools for its gunners in connection with which the men

not only acquire all the knowledge that can be learned from books, but also get practical instruction in the ordnance factories where our heavy weapons are manufactured.

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The classes in gunnery are open to any young men who have served their time in the Navy as apprentices and received the rating of seamen, provided their records are good and they have shown themselves fitted for the advancement they seek. In the instruction courses the future gunner's work is divided under te heads-task, subject, and log. For each week of the course, there is a serie printed questions ranging in nun be from fifteen to sixty. Opposite ca question is set down the place where information can be obtained-whether 11 shop, drill, books, or from the instructor. Each question the ambitious sailor must set down in his log book, writing the answer out in full. He is marked on the completeness and correctness of his log.

Once each week the gunnery class undergoes examination on the work of the preceding seven days, and each student is

rated according to his individual showing. The "task" portion of the curriculum consists of the assignment to the embryo gunners, of work to be performed each week in one or another of the shops where the manufacture of naval ordnance is carried on. For instance, a pupil may be assigned to construct a miniature gun, even to procuring the metal from the foundry and casting the gun mount, himself. In this manner he familiarizes himself with the machines in the shops, including lathes, shapers, and milling machines, and not only comes to know their uses but is able to use them himself.

In this very practical instruction work, guns are taken apart and reassembled, and the name of each part learned. Blue prints are also introduced, and the seaman taught the rudiments of technical draftsmanship. The young man who aspires to be a gunner works hard from 8 A. M. until 4:15 P. M., six days a week; but at the end of a four months' course he is able to go into a shop and reproduce any portion of a gun that has been

broken. This portion of his new duties mastered, the young gunner is transferred to the governmental school at Newport, Rhode Island, where three months are devoted to the study of electricity and high explosives, particularly with reference to torpedoes and submarine mines.

The young man who has successfully passed the examinations at the conclusion of the gunnery course, and is ready to take up his duties as a gunner on a cruising warship, comes to the scene of his future activities qualified to do almost anything with a piece of naval ordnance except to shoot accurately with it. This ability comes only from target practice under conditions not to be found at any land station. Thus it comes about, that, with his appearance on shipboard, the newly qualified gunner enters upon a postgraduate course which is possibly the most valuable feature of the whole intensely practical system of instruction.

The guns of the United States Navy are divided into three classes-"heavy" guns, embracing 8-inch and larger rifles,

including, of course, the big 12-inch and 13-inch guns of our battleships; "intermediary" guns, ranging from the 4-inch to the 7-inch size inclusive; and "secondary" guns, embracing all the weapons of calibers below the 4-inch. Some versatile gunners may have a certain degree of proficiency in handling guns of all the different classes; but the tendency, as in every other present-day field of endeavor, is toward specialization, and the average expert gunner manifests his maximum skill in the manipulation of guns of a single caliber, or at least of one general class.

Inasmuch as ammunition for the largest naval guns represents an expenditure of approximately $500 per round, it goes without saying that gunners, in much of their training, cannot be permitted to use the charges that would be employed under actual war conditions. As a substitute, the Navy has what is known as "sub-caliber" practice. By this method, a small gun-ordinarily the Morris tube, which consists of a small gallery rifle is fitted on or inside the heavy weapon; and practice starts with firing at a small

target placed at reduced range. Of course the accuracy of eye and steadiness of nerve requisite in naval gunnery can be demonstrated in sub-caliber practice quite as conclusively as in the handling of the 12-inch or 13-inch rifles; and if a gunner has demonstrated his ability to hit a six-foot target at 100 yards with a missile from a one-pounder gun, it is fair to assume that he may be trusted to hit a full-sized ship a mile distant if he employs a breech-loading rifle of the first

class.

The Dotter

Another plan for training men in gunpointing is by means of what is known as the "dotter," a mechanical device of British invention, which causes a small target to move across the face of a gun with combined vertical and horizontal motion. The trick consists in making the gun follow the target, and, when the sights of the gun are on the bull's-eye, pressing the button, which causes a pencil to dot the target and thus register a hit.

Hence the name of the "dotter."