For a moment the schooner was hidden from view, but when the mist cleared away it was found that her main-mast had toppled over the side. At a distance this seemed to be all the damage inflicted, but a closer inspection showed that all the wood-ends on deck had been loosened, that the cabin fittings had been thoroughly shaken up, and that water was running into the hold.
Soon afterwards a fourth shot was fired. This landed very close to the starboard side of the vessel, and on explosion seemed to lift the Silliman out of the water.
The hull was very badly shattered; the water-tank, which had been firmly fastened to the schooner’s bottom, was blown up through the deck and floated on the wreckage, and the stump of the main-mast was capsized. The bow was held above water by barrel buoys, and the fore-mast, which had heeled over to an angle of forty-five degrees, was sustained by the steel rigging that had become entangled in the pieces of wood floating to windward.
MACHINE AND RAPID-FIRE GUNS.
Of the machine guns, the Gatling, Gardner, Nordenfeldt, and Maxim systems are the best known. The adoption of the Accles feed in the Gatling eliminates largely the liability of cartridge jams, and increases the rapidity of fire at all angles to twelve hundred shots per minute; when this rapid delivery of fire is not needed, Bruce’s slower feed may be substituted. The Gardner gun is an effective weapon, but it has less rapidity of fire and smaller range of vertical train than the Gatling. The Nordenfeldt rifle-calibre gun has not obtained the prominence of the others, and the Maxim, in which the energy of recoil is ingeniously applied to the work of loading and firing, is growing in favor. The Hotchkiss revolving cannon was a wonderful step—the 37, 47, and 53 millimetre calibres firing 1 pound, 2½ pound, and 3½ pound explosive projectiles, with muzzle velocities of about 1400 feet per second. “The heavier nature of revolving cannon,” declares Commander Folger, United States Navy, “proved somewhat unwieldy, and the change to the single barrel of increased length, and using a heavier powder charge, was a natural one, and in keeping with the growing ballistic power of large guns. Though no longer denominated machine guns, the term now being generally applied to a cluster of barrels, the rapid-fire guns are a direct outgrowth of the larger calibres of machine guns, and are classed with them as secondary battery arms. There are now in the service of all the great military powers rapid-firing guns of 47 and 57 millimetre calibre, firing respectively explosive shells of 3 pounds and 6 pounds weight, at muzzle velocity of about 1900 feet per second. This will give with the 6-pound gun a range of about 2½ miles at 10 degrees elevation. These guns will deliver, under favorable circumstances, perhaps ten aimed rounds per minute, and the shells perforating the sides of an unarmored vessel, and bursting, after passing through into, say, twenty-five fragments, each with energy sufficient to kill a man, we have here a weapon of unequalled destructive capacity. It is beyond question that the conditions of combat between ships and forts are definitely changed by the advent of these guns. Even armored vessels with covered batteries are at a disadvantage, as a hail of missiles will seek the gun-ports and conning-towers wherever an enemy, from the nature of circumstances, takes close quarters. Experiment abroad has also demonstrated that the projecting chase (forward body) of a large gun is extremely vulnerable, and liable to injury from the fire of the larger rapid-firing pieces.
“This system, which is just now so important an adjunct to the main battery of ships of war, is of but recent development. The first order received for a weapon of this kind by the Hotchkiss firm came from the United States, and the guns now mounted in the new ships Boston, Atlanta, and Dolphin were delivered under it. Three calibres were obtained, viz., the 6, 3, and 1 pounder, as they are known in the United States navy, their usual names in other countries being the 57, 47, and 37 millimetre guns. Since their introduction the demand for larger calibres by most of the prominent naval powers has been so pressing that the Hotchkiss Company has produced a 9-pounder and has a 33-pounder in course of manufacture. It is believed that this last calibre represents about the limit of utility of the Hotchkiss system, though the gain in time by the use of ammunition carrying the charge projectile and fulminate in one case will recommend it for use with much larger calibres, even where two men may be required to handle the cartridge.”
The most important trials of rapid-fire guns during the past two years are thus described by Lieutenant Driggs, United States navy:
“The various systems now in use, or being developed, are the Albini, Armstrong, Driggs-Schroeder, Gruson, Hotchkiss, Krupp, Maxim, Nordenfeldt. Of these the Armstrong has not been favorably received on account of the cumbersome breech-closing arrangement. This consists in two side levers attached to and turning about the trunnions; a cross-head connects the two levers, and by an eccentric motion one of them is pressed against or removed from the breech of the gun, thus closing or opening it. The Bausan has two of those guns, but with that known exception few, if any, have been put in service.