Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/403

 Rapid-Fire Guns J Save Lives

���In Line Shooting with the Rapid-Fire Guns a Projectile About Six Feet L ;..

The End Which Is Inserted in the Gun Is a Cylindrical Piece of Steel Slightly Smaller

Than the Bore of the Gun. The Line Is a Hemp Rope About the Size of a Wash Line

��THE three and six-pounders with which all the sea-going cutters of the scr\'ice are armed now are used to shoot lines to vessels in distress. For years they had served as nothing more than ornaments on the decks of the cutters; for it never was necessary to use them in the enforcement of customs and navigation laws. They were carried mainly for their moral effect.

These guns have been found far more effective in line shooting than the line guns formerly carried — small brass cannons of the type seen a t life-saving stations along the coasts. Although the cannons were in use for many years, they were never en- tirely satisfac- tory. It was almost impos- sible to aim

���The Old 56-Caliber Sharpe's Carbine Is Also Used Now as a Line Shooter. A Blank Cartridge Is Used to Fire the Projectile to the Vessel in Distress

S89

��them with any degree of accuracy, and accordingly line shooting with them was a "hit or miss" matter in the majority of cases.

In line shooting with the modern rapid-fire guns, a projectile about six feet in length is used. The end, which is inserted in the gun, is a cylindrical piece of soft steel slightly smaller than the bore of the gun and about a foot in length. It is tapered down to a rod

about a half inch in diame- ter and five feet or more in length. There is a forged eye at the end of the rod to which the end of the line is tied.

The line is a loosely-twisted hemp rope aliout the size of a wash line. About one thousand five hundred feet of

�� �