CHAPTER 2 Part 5 -- England Expects that Every Man....
FIVE
Rear Admiral Moore was the first to speak. In fact, it seemed as if the others had been waiting. “Do we keep much cordite around the barbette while in action?” He asked softly, facing Mr. MacDougall as he spoke.
“Moorre than it's designed for, sirr. Moorre than we need for almost any eventuality – as farr as I can see, sirr.” He looked at the Gunnery Officer.
He picked up the answer for Moore's question. “The other ships have extra charges open in the barbette or even the turret so they can make the maximum rate of fire. Mr. MacDougall's assessment of the situation looked good, so we cut that back. We have a couple of extras, no more. I must say that when Gunnery Officers meet, the other G.O.'s have sometimes needled me on being such an 'old woman' about it, but right now I'm glad we are here to talk about it.” His mouth, but not his eyes, smiled grimly at the thought. “Damned glad.”
Moore sensed something in there, but he didn't quite know what. So he asked the next obvious question. “How much does having extra charges available help the rate of fire?”
MacDougall and the youngest of the turret officers looked at each other. MacDougall had the bit in his teeth by now, and he clearly had the Admiral's ear: “We don't think it helps at all, sirr. Leastways not at long range and not much if it does at all. We looked at it one day and at longerr rranges the time of flight and spotting mean that you might not fire at quite the maximum rate anyway, unless you want to waste shells. It might make a difference at close range, but the whole system was designed to work at up to a given rrate. and by and large it does. If you have an erro-rr in drill somewhere then the extrra charges might help then, but only if the erro-rr is in particular spots. That's the only rreal difference. Sirr.”
“So now with this action behind us you can take the records of our shooting and calculate all the intervals, and see if it would have mattered for this long-range duel?” asked Captain Halsey.
“Aye, sirr.”
Moore already had the same feeling that he had had when he took command. He was onto something – something more than having too many cordite charges laying about loose – and once again he knew what it was. The others watched conflicting expressions flash across his face, and forbore to speak.
“Captain Halsey. We'll meet in my cabin in five minutes. I would like to see you and your Paymaster and Gunnery Officer, my Staff Commander, and of course Mr. MacDougall. And...," he looked back to the youngest of the turret officers, "Lieutenant Walke* – you helped Mr. MacDougall with his rate-of-fire calculations so we will need you, also. The rest of you, get some food and rest now, your talents will be needed soon. In fact, please pass the word for my steward to have some food for us in my cabin.”
The sombre mood of their recent realization was causing them all a brief hesitation, except for Captain Halsey whose unusually crisp, “Aye, Aye, Sir,” spurred them all into movement.
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*Ficticious character. Edit: a name had to be introduced so it would be more natural to refer to him in the text.