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Show FIRING CUHS AT SEA. To one unaccustomed to the experience, ex-perience, it is anything hut pleasant pleas-ant to be on board aline of battle ship at sea when the big guns are being fired. Before they are discharged dis-charged the decks are cleared for action, and all the chairs in the cabin are laid down and tied together, to-gether, while every hit of movable furniture is secured. The doctor goes round and makes sure that every man has had his ears stopped j with cotton wool. The concussion ! when the charges are fired is tro- ' mendous, and the iron clad quivers ' from stem to stern with the vibrations; vibra-tions; in fact, the shock of the ex- plosion is o reat that every pane of glass in the skylights is invariably invari-ably shattered, and much of the ornamental wood work is splintered. splint-ered. After a few hours of this rough play the carpenters have a , busy time in making things look ; presentable once more, for the ship resembles a wreck when she has i finished her practice. Nobody likes it. The sailors standing by the big guns sometimes find them-neh'es them-neh'es thrown all in a heap across the deck, and after an hour or two otlicers and men become as black as sweeps. It is impossible to be well out of the way of the annoyance, annoy-ance, though perhaps the one place in. the vessel where the guns trouble the crew the least is down in the engine room, which is below the level of tho deck upon which most of the armament is put. Ex. |