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378 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
ago. One of the South Carolina's turrets
'recently scored sixteen hits out of sixteen
shots in 4 minutes and 31 seconds—in
1898, five and one-third minutes were
allowed between shots—and the Arkansas
made six perfect shots with her 12-inch
guns in 57 seconds. Both of these records
were made at long ranges and the
fact that they have been duplicated by
other ships of the Navy proves that they
are not due to unusual luck.
In short, the efficiency of the Atlantic
fleet has risen from 3.5 per cent in 1898
at 3,000 yards range to approximately
95 per cent today, at 14,000 yards. This
tremendous increase is, of course, partly
due to the improvement in the guns, the
powder, the appliances for "pointing"
and the other instruments of precision
used in connection with these: but the
major portion of it may be traced to the
great increase in target practice and the
incessant effort to obtain efficiency in
every unit of the fleet.
In going into battle the officer in command
is held directly responsible for the
moment of opening fire. Upon his judgment
hangs the question of risking his
ammunition at a long range, so as to
score the first hit, or reserving it until
he is sure that his guns will register a
vital shot. If he chooses the first course,
he runs the risk of wasting his ammunition
and not having a sufficient supply
when the battle grows more furious. If
he elects to wait until the range is
shorter, he may be raked by the longrange
fire of the enemy. He is expected
to choose the psychological moment, the
exact safety line between the two alternatives,
and then issue the order which
will send the big projectiles on their
way.
Meanwhile, ever since the first indication
of the enemy's presence, an officer
stationed at a long horizontal tube known
as the range-finder has been calling off
the distances mechanically indicated by
this device, in wdiich the angles sighted
at the two ends of a base line of known
length are used to calculate the distance.
The range is transmitted by telephone to
the gun turrets and the muzzles of the
big 14-inchers are elevated or depressed
to correspond with this information.
The instant the order "Commence
Firing!" is received, a single shot, known
as the "ranging shot," is fired and, from
his post high up in the skeleton mast, an
officer known as the spotter watches the
flight of this projectile through his
binoculars. Of all the individual positions
on a battleship this is probably the
most important, for upon the judgment
of the spotter depends the accuracy of
the shots which follow. By years of
constant practice, however, he is able to
tell with a wonderful degree of precision
just how far the ranging shot missed its
mark and instantly to direct the degree of
change necessary in the positioning of
the guns.
During the trials on the San Marcos
(formerly the Texas, of Spanish War
fame) in 1911, the last time that an
American Fleet ever fired upon a battleship,
the North Dakota opened fire at a
ten mile range and scored a perfect hit
with the "ranging shot". Then the Delaware
placed 33 per cent, out of a possible
43 per cent, of her shots in vital portions
of the old Texas at ranges of from seven
to ten miles and the official report of the
New Hampshire's firing upon this occasion
reads : "The Nezv Hampshire placed
her salvos anywhere she wanted to and
when the gunners wished to have some
hits in the conning tower and the turret
armor, in order to observe their effect,
they had no trouble in placing these shots
at from 10,000 to 12,000 yards range precisely
at the point desired."
And this, it should be remembered,
was six years ago. The Navy's target
practice has improved greatly since then.
While the spotter is reporting the
changes necessary on account of the
results of the ranging shot and those
which follow, the man who operates the
range-finder is also calling off the increasing
or decreasing distances between
the two ships, paying especial attention
to the speed of his own vessel and that
of the enemy—the former being a known