Note.—The weight of charges for shells will vary slightly from those given in the table according to the size of the grain and density of the powder.
106. All empty shell, whether in store or in transportation, shall be most carefully protected from dampness, and their fuze-holes invariably closed with wooden plugs. Whenever these plugs are removed for the purpose of fitting the shells for service, they are not to be thrown away, but preserved for future use. If by any accident the shell should be damp in the interior, they are to be heated and dried, on the grillage prepared for that purpose.
107. The number of shell to be kept fitted at the Navy Yards will be determined by special directions from the Bureau.
In fitting shell to receive the bouching, great carelessness has been observed. The hole should be tapped with a full thread, and the proper shoulder left at the bottom to prevent the bouching from being driven in by the shock of firing and causing premature explosion.
108. All shell shall be filled with musket-powder of the highest initial velocity. The shell must be filled, and the powder well shaken down, leaving only room for the insertion of the fuze. A wooden plug the size of the lower part of the fuze will always determine this. The very common, but slovenly, practice of filling the shell, and then pouring out a quantity sufficient to allow the fuze to be inserted, is expressly prohibited. Shell have also been returned with the powder in the vicinity of the fuze compressed into a solid mass, owing to the fact that sufficient room had not been left for its insertion. No shell shall be fuzed unless it has been filled.
109. The date when shell are fuzed or filled, as well as that on which any of these arrangements are changed, or the shell are examined before issue to vessels, together with the initials of the officer superintending these operations, should be legibly written and pasted on the shell, or stencilled on the box.
110. The Ordnance Officer, or the Gunner of the Yard, is to see the shell supplied to all vessels properly conveyed on board, superintend the stowage, and furnish the Commanding Officer with a statement showing the number of each description of shell and fuze, and a plan of their stowage.
111. The condition of the shell, and especially of their fuzes, is to be frequently and carefully examined into, taking out a fuze occasionally so as to detect any injury which may arise from moisture, and to have such as may be found damaged replaced by the spare fuzes.
Boat shell and their spare fuzes are also to undergo a similar examination.
Shell have been sometimes returned with their fuzes entirely destroyed by moisture!!