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156 Indian Head, it had passed its proving tests triumphantly. Fifty-four feet long, 63 tons in weight, it had fired its 1,400-pound shell with a velocity of 2,600 feet a second and an energy of 65,000 foot-tons. At a distance of 10,000 yards, the projectiles were capable of passing clean through 16 inches of Krupp armor. Elevated to its limit of 15 degrees, the gun could place a shell on a ship twelve miles distant.

And there were forty of these guns that could speak at once, and twice a minute each, in the first four ships of our line.

Astern of the Texas, I saw those stately ships, the Arkansas and Wyoming, mounting, each, twelve 12-inch guns in its six turrets, with a battery of twenty-one 5-inch rapid-firers to repel torpedo attack.

Seventh and eighth in line were the twin sisters, Utah and Florida, each carrying ten 12-inch guns and sixteen 5-inch. Last