5 
With these guns also the ordinary powder may, or rather must be, used for 
saluting and alarm shots. For the smokeless powder appears little, if at all 
adapted to these purposes. 
Also the old powder ean very often be used for the practice of Fortress Artillery. 
On the other hand, the use of smokeless powder will be the rule with Coast 
Artillery, and, finally, will only be kept for use as bursting and saluting charges. 
It will always be an advantage to the defenders if the ships steaming past or up 
are in uncertainty as to the direction from which they are being fired on, or as to 
which batteries are maintaining the liveliest fire. For in most cases it will not 
be a matter of a long continued, but of a short and lively fire from the Coast 
Batteries, of the most accurately aimed shots from each single gun, and the 
importance of this increases with the size of the gun and the costliness of its 
ammunition. The huge calibres of coast guns develop such a thick smoke that 
even with slow firing the exact laying of the next round is rendered very difficult, 
but with rapid firing any aiming will be rendered almost impossible, for after a 
few rounds the battery would be enveloped in a thick smoke, and when a clear 
out-look was next obtainable the hostile ships would probably have changed their 
position, and the guns of the battery would have to be ranged anew, whilst the 
battery itself would be under a heavy fire from the ships’ guns (to which the 
cloud of smoke hanging in front of the battery offers a convenient mark) all the 
time, even when the ships were in motion. 
It is the same with naval guns. Here especially the quick-firing guns require 
the exclusive use of smokeless powder. With regard to the smoke from the 
guns obscuring or completely concealing the object, especially in the case of fire 
from very big guns, the same remarks hold good as in the case of Coast Artil¬ 
lery. Here also will it chiefly be a matter of a short, but rapid and very well 
directed fire, so that the use of smokeless powder appears all the more indicated 
in this instance. The fire should consist of a few rapid well-aimed shots, from 
guns of big calibre, a thing that would be quite impossible with the old smoky 
powder. A ship in motion may escape from the surrounding cloud of smoke, 
but the smoke that will cling to the interior of a ship must be thought of. This 
is of slight importance in turret ships, those with guns in protected barbettes, 
and armoured ships, but in the batteries of frigates and armoured corvettes, the 
smoke after a few broadsides used to be so thick that for a short time the crew 
were not able to serve their guns. A lively and well-sustained fire from these 
batteries would only be possible by the use of smokeless powder, provided that 
no unhealthy gas was developed by the burning of this new explosive. Such 
gases were observed in some of the patterns of smokeless powder formerly experi¬ 
mented with, and this was of great importance to all guns mounted in covered 
emplacements. 
On the other hand, there are also cases in which the development of a thick 
cloud of smoke would be of especial advantage to a ship. It might be possible 
by means of it to deceive the enemy—if only for a few minutes—as to a change 
of position, or at least as to the preparations for the same, whether done with the 
object of withdrawing oneself from an overwhelming fire or of deceiving the 
enemy. Besides in calm and rainy whether (which brings down the smoke) such 
a thick cloud of smoke would hang in front of the ship after a very few rounds 
that it would remain completely veiled, and invisible for a long time. This would 
be much more easily the case with the . modern armoured ships than with the 
lofty and tall-masted frigates and. line-of-battle ships, whose topgallants, at least, 
soared above the smoke. In the battle of Lissa, even at the first onslaught, the 
“ ramming ” planned by Yon Tegetthoff could not be carried out on account of 
the thick smoke (as fire was opened at once from both sides), and also during the 
progress of the fight it repeatedly occurred that the Austrian ships, steering 
straight for the enemy’s ship opposite to them with the intention of ramming, 
were met with a full broadside, and as soon as they had passed through the 
