MANNING ALL THE GUNS.
GENERAL REMARKS.
237. Arrangements have been made to enable each gun's crew to work together and fire alternately a pair of guns on the same side of the deck. Experience, however, shows that this can only be continued with effect for three or four rounds, and is in general results inferior to those obtained by manning alternate guns with full crews.
QUICK FIRING.
238. The service of the guns consists, essentially, of two distinct parts, pointing and loading. The first of these, pointing, cannot be performed too carefully and methodically, and requires extreme coolness and attention on the part of the Captain of the gun; loading, on the contrary, cannot be executed with too much rapidity, provided neither the safety of the gun nor of its crew be compromised.
It is clear that if two hostile vessels meet equally matched in all the ordinary points of equipment and preparation, and manned by crews equally skilled in gunnery, the advantage will be in favor of the ship that loads quickest; and should it happen that nicety of aim becomes a matter of secondary importance, in consequence of the closeness of the action, then, evidently, rapidity of fire will determine the affair.
These considerations appear decisive, and every care should be taken in the instruction of guns' crews, that pointing be executed with deliberation, care, and method, and loading with all possible dispatch. In order, therefore, to insure the great advantage of rapid firing, officers are enjoined frequently to exercise the crews in setting the cartridge, shot, and wad home together, in one motion, of such guns as may be loaded in this manner, without inconvenience. This is the case with all the guns, chambered as well as unchambered, excepting the 8-inch shell-gun of 63 cwt. of patterns earlier than 1851; it is not recommended, however, to practise simultaneous loading with guns of higher calibre, such as IX-inch and upwards, as nothing will be gained by it in point of time.
To prevent the shot from rolling on the tie of the cartridge and jamming it, the end of the cartridge-bag, outside of the tie, should be shortened as much as security will permit, unless it has been specially prepared for this use, by stitching back the end in the form of a cockade.
With the view of affording the Loader a certain and independent means of knowing when the whole load is really home, the handle of the rammer should have a mark upon it, easily distinguishable either by day or night, and this should be suited to the "ordinary firing" charge of powder, due allowance being made for the others.
COMMAND.
"LOAD IN ONE MOTION!"