Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/228

 wish he could see the guns really fired at something! What a noise they would make! And how far their shells would go tearing across the water!

He was especially interested when the captain showed him the range-finder. Never had he seen anything like this before. It was a small horizontal tube, containing prisms and reflecting mirrors. There were eyepieces in the middle of the sides of the tube. When one looked through this range-finder at a distant ship, or target, that target seemed to be divided into two parts, half above and half below a common line. By twirling a screw, and so moving the reflectors within the tube, the parts of the ship moved into place until at last there stood forth a perfect image of a ship. Above this image was a scale, which indicated the range. To find the range, all the commander had to do was to look through this tube at his target, twirl the screw until the image of the target became perfect, and then read the figures that stood just above the image.

The collision drill was also interesting. In imagination, the Iroquois had run into another ship, and a great gaping hole had been torn in her hull. At the captain’s word of command the crew sprang to their places, and a collision mattress was quickly produced and unrolled. This was then lowered over the side, so as to cover the