Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial402dodg).pdf/365

1913.] were yells from the ship to get out of the way, then came a crash! Her bow wave had caught us, and, the next thing that I knew, with plate-holder in one hand, I was struggling with the other to reach the surface of the sea, in which I had been buried fathoms deep. Succeeding in this, I was soon dragged aboard a near-by ship that had seen the accident, and, after congratulating myself for having escaped being cut in two by the bow and sent to the bottom, as were the camera and most of my plates, I began planning how I could save the one plate that I had so jealously clung to when thrown into the water, and which had been the cause of the whole excitement, I was pretty blue and disgusted, for it seemed impossible that the picture could be good; but I rushed immediately to wash the plate in fresh water, in order to prevent the brine from affecting it. On developing it, I drew a deep gasp of relief—the plate had been saved! The picture was a success!

A naval photographer gets many duckings, and, after a time, takes them as a matter of course. Being thrown into the sea is n’t considered by him at all a serious event. It is during battle-ship practice that he encounters. grave dangers, for much of the work done at this time is from the tops of the fighting masts, which are at an elevation of one hundred and twenty feet above the sea.



During different practices, I have taken my position in these masts, in order to get detailed pictures. Once in these basket-like tops, the question is how to “stick.” The gun-fire photographs itself. I suppose you wonder what I mean, but it is just this: every time the big twelve-inch guns fire, the awful concussion they cause invariably gives the snap to the shutter of the camera, and the exposure is made. If this were not a successful method—one discovered by