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August, 1914 tom of the ship, protecting the turret handling mechanism and. giving an armored passageway forthe hoisting of ammunition. At the*base of this on one side is the shell room where the great shells are carefully placed in large racks and on the other side the magazine where smokeless powder con- THE MARINE REVIEW carrying both guns, while each gun is elevated or depressed independently of the other. The sights are equipped with powerful telescopes containing delicate cross wires and are so attached to the gun that they can be adjusted to the effect of varying wind, make range, up for speed, etc. Tao actually THE OHIO TOWING THE TARGET AT WHICH THE UTAH SHOT, SHOWING THE EFFECT OF A WELL-DIRECTED SALVO tained in bags about 14 inches in diameter, 12 inches high, weighing 75 pounds per bag is stored in cans, there being two bags to each can. The magazine is connected with the handling room by a chute which is fitted into a heavy steel door in which there is a hole just large enough to let the powder slide through this being covered by a swinging plate which drops into place as soon as the powder has passed it, providing a flame-proof shutter keeping the magazine shut off from the handling room at practically all times. Various devices are used to hoist the ammunition to the breach of the guns, but it is noticeable that the tendency now is to go back to. the old method of passing it up by hand and thus to get away from a large amount of complicated machinery which may 80 wrong at the critical moment. When the gun is loaded, the breach block is swung back, the shell weighing approximately 900 pounds is hoisted first and rammed home. Two bags of Powder are then rammed in behind the shell, two additional bags behind these two, making about 300 pounds for the discharge of a 12-inch gun. The breach 1s closed and locked, cap put in and the Sun is ready for firing. A snappy gun 'rew will load in from 40 to 50 seconds With the shell in the shell room and the powder in the magazine. Twenty Seconds is sufficient to load the second time, as a part of the work is being done While the first shot is being fired. The entire turret swings in azimuth aim these big pieces requires in addi- tion to the meh figuring the range and setting the sights, three men, namely, a trainer, who by swinging the full tur- ret (two (guns). trom. left to. right, brings the vertical cross wire of the telescope to the center of the target and a pointer for each gun who brings 291 The targets are rectangular, 60° feet wide by 30 feet high made of upright 4x4 feet with cross battens, the whole being covered with ordinary fishnets. They are floated on rafts formed of solid (12x12 timbers, the raft being about 5 feet wide by 100 feet long and drawing 25 -feet of water, entirely awash except for a small piece at the bow and stern. Each target is towed by a battleship, the line being 400 yards in length and sometimes when you are towing and the big shells are dropping all around the target, you wonder whether this tow line isn't a bit short and whether some trainer might not make a mistake of a quarter of a point in directing his fire and put the shell into you instead of the screen. Actual target practice is the culmina- tion of a long season of training. It is obvious that it cannot be indulged in very often. The firing of the big guns even with slightly reduced charges is an expensive proposition and _ requires a good deal of sea-room for it is not safe to discharge guns shooting ten or fifteen miles promiscuously. In _ addi- tion to this, the life of one of them is only about 125 shots after which it has to be bored out and re-lined. The re- sult is that several interesting devices have been invented to train the men without incurring these disadvantages. Jin many cases a one-pound gun is se- curely strapped on top of the 12-inch guns. A small target 1S used at a short range and the big gun is aimed at it, precisely the same as would be done A 21-INCH TORPEDO BOAT ABOARD THE UTAH the horizontal wire of the telescope of his 'own gun to bear on the target. These men's sole work is to keep their respective cross wires constantly on the proper part of the target so that when- ever the gun is ready to be fired, her sights will be steady on the mark at which she is to shoot. if it were actually going to be fired. When tthe trigger is pressed, how- ever, the one-pounder alone is dis- charged and the result of this fire tells accurately what would have happened had the big gun been discharged. In other cases a rigging known as a "Dotter" is attached, which, upon the