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I cried, as a shell struck so close to the Arizona, second in line, that the "spotting" officers on the fire-control platform high on her foremast were drenched with salt water. I can give here only the main features of this great battle of the Caribbean, which lasted five hours and a quarter and covered a water area about thirty miles long and twenty miles wide.
The fire-control refused to act, the wires and speaking-tubes were destroyed, and each gun had to depend on itself. The electric installation had been put out of commission on the Louisiana by a shell bursting through the armored deck and destroying the dynamos.
His last shots must have had effect, though, or they would never have made it back into the warp. Thane turned away wearily from the fire-control panel. The whole encounter had lasted less than twenty seconds, but the strain of fighting against the Stoltz effect and of manually computing twelve variables had been wearing. He saw that the Third Officer was now standing close to Astrid.
The great transport was cutting its sturdy way through three dangers: the submarine zone, a terrific storm beating from the west against its prow, and a night as dark as Erebus because of the storm, with no lights showing. I had the midnight-to-four-o'clock-in-the-morning "watch" and on this night I was on the "aft fire-control."
Stepping over smoldering ruins and through passages filled with dead and wounded men, over whose bodies the water splashed and gurgled, the admiral at last reached his post below the armored deck. To this spot were brought the reports from the fire-control stationed at the rear mast and from the last active stations.
After the gun is tried, however, we may have to change our original estimate, not only because the estimate may have been in error, but because the requirement of operating the gun may have changed. For instance, the requirements of fire-control have within very recent years compelled the addition of a considerable number of men to the complements of battleships.
"Indeed, this was the most remarkable thing. It was battle practice with the other fellow shooting at you!" The fire-control officers, who were aloft, all agreed about one unexpected sensation, which had not occurred to any expert scientifically predicting what action would be like. They are the only ones who may really "see" the battle in the full sense.
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