"2800 yards, to the right beneath the first gun-turret of the Satsuma," called the lieutenant to the two gunners. They took the elevation and then waited for the ship that was rolling to port to regain the level after being lifted up by the waves. Detached clouds hurried across the field of the telescope, but suddenly the sun appeared like a bright spot above the horizon and dark brown smoke became visible. The foremast of the Satsuma with its multicolored signal-flags appeared in the field of vision.... A final quick correction for elevation ... a slight pressure of the electric trigger. Fire! The gray silhouette of the Satsuma, across which quivered the flash from the gun, rose quickly in the round field; then came foaming, plunging waves, and columns of water that rose up as the shells struck the water.
The loud reverberation of the shot—the first one fired on the American side—acted as a nerve-tonic all round, and all felt as though they had been relieved from an intolerable burden.
While the right gun was being reloaded and the stinking gases escaping from the gun filled the narrow chamber with their fumes, the lieutenant looked for traces of the effect of the shot. The wind whistled through the peep-hole and made his eyes smart. The shot did not seem to have touched the Satsuma at all. The foam seen in the bow was that produced by the ship's motion.
"Two hundred and fifty yards over," came through the telephone, and on the glass-plate of the distance-register, faintly illuminated by an electric lamp, appeared the number 2550.
"2550 yards!" repeated the lieutenant to the captain of the left gun, giving the angle of direction himself. The Connecticut again heaved over to port, and the thunder of cannon rolled over the waves of the Pacific.
"The shell burst at a thousand yards!" called the lieutenant. "What miserable fuses!"
"Bad shot," came down reproachfully through the telephone, "use percussion fuses."
"I am, but they're no good, they won't work," roared back the lieutenant. Then he went down into the turret and examined the new shell on the lift before it was pushed into the breech.
"All right," he said aloud, but added under his breath, suppressing an oath: "We mustn't let the men notice there's anything wrong, for the world!"
Another shot rang out, and again the shell burst a few hundred yards from the Connecticut, sending the water flying in every direction.