Show A BATTLE BETWEEN WARSHIPS one of the most frightful experiences a a mortal cail can pass through and survive Is a pitched battle at fair range between two modern wax warships ships built armed and manipulated according to the latest models and methods such a ship lying peaceful upon a gentle sea presents a scene of wonderful quiet order and calmness its ponderous mechanism adjusted to a hair moves as smoothly as a planet in space the perfection of neatness and cleanis cleanliness prevails everywhere there is a place for everything and everything I 1 is in its place the ventilation is perfect in every part of the vessel and a touch turns on an electric blaze i which illuminates every nook and corner each officer and man has been trained and drilled until they all speak and move with the precision of automatons true there is an air of awe about the bloc big guns how ponderous they are how immense their length and girth one looks at them and tries to imagine what they can do what lotse tb fh make and what force there is to the thit takes place within them even as an a little child looks at the moon and wonders how large it is and how far away but when those guns begin to do the work for which destructive genius created them the beholder realizes how puerile and inadequate was his imagination before a gun is fired every everi man whose duty brings him near it most tightly plug his ears or be permanently deafened by the shock the surrounding air receives as the projectile and its propelling gases leave the muzzle of the gun those who stand near to the weapon at the instant of discharge will likely be knocked down and may be rendered senseless axa this before the enemy has fired a single shot A courage calm and well trained combined with perfect self control and thorough scientific knowledge must be traits of the men who fire the guns what then axe are the qualities required in facing the ene mys fire perhaps immediately after the battle battie opens the funnels are shot away this destroys the draught of the furnaces and a horrible ho stifling smoke fills the vessel between decks ventilation ceases and the air becomes hot to W ut fo cation then it if a shot from the one ene my succeeds in crippling the electrical machinery which furnishes the current for the lamps darkness the blackest blac keat to is added to the smoke and heat beat and the interior of the vessel becomes a literal torturing hell not the least ot 0 the torments the men below are suffering are their agonizing doubts and fears they know nothing of how the battle goes the enemy may be sinking or they themselves may be they cannot tell teh it Is hard to decide who are worst oft off the men on deck or those W below every impact of a projectile of the enemy against the steel walled turret flus the air with a shower of red hot metallic el splinters that sweep it in every direction like a radiating broad broadside broadway WAO killing the men by platoons or man gling them most shockingly the men in the open air have at least ones one advantage over those between decosi they are too busy to spare time to realize the horrors that surround them and calamities occur too fast to be counted au anted the vessel that can fars first cripple its if steering gear while preserving its own so as an to be awe to Is pretty sure to win U e cause a helpless hulk that cannot turn tura nor move itself to is no match for s toe that can describe a circle but the 0 quickest work is done by the ship that can cah first land upon the others fleck deck a short series of dynamite chels tw for these are the means man has hag devised for producing an artificial earthquake and their enormous power rends reads wid and shatters in an instant the strong strongest work of human hands dropped upon by one of them the strongest deck of toughest steel becomes mere cardboard one good thing is that all to is quickly over the employment of the mity mighty forces of the modern battle ship prevents a long drawn contest wt thin a few minutes after the first shot lands upon the weaker vessel most moot of the men on board of her arp dead their suspense Is brief if the ship sinks the tale of what was done on board of her bor mev mav never be told for lack of PL a living witness for tbt doad wounds woun dd fd nd unharmed will likely go to the bottom toe ether dante never abo th hen hell on board alem aern wars blo mip aged in ds diperta pertA action his aaion amazing as were its power swa swan too feeble |