14 
LAND & WATER 
December 7, 1916 
Rough turning 9.2 in. H.E. Shell 
high-packed i8-pdr. shells looking not unhke the well-filled 
bins of an epicure's cellar, and the 15-in. A.P.'s, standing 
upright higher than an average man, like a new kind of 
gate post, convey no impression of deadliness. 
I do not make the mistake of supposing these thoughts 
are peculiar to myself or that the appalling sense of waste 
in all this efficiency is lost upon the shop managers. It 
is not. They are setting their teeth to it asa necessaryjob, 
but the}' are distressed to see good steel going the way of 
death — steel which might be locomotives and bridges 
and rails and buildings and tools. I had it explicitly 
from one who handled his nuggets of steel alloys for the 
making of high speed tools, much as a merchant (or a 
beauty) handles diamonds, bidding me with pride observe 
this " beautiful fracture " — a fine fellow of hard spare 
build with deep chiselled lines on his face as if his 
own beloved steel had had something to do with the 
making of it. As indeed it had. He was brought 
up on steel, had worked as a teemer in the crucible 
shop and had perfected his loyal service of the 
prince of metals by hard labour and harder study. A 
laudator temporisacti, he felt that men (yes, and masters 
too, he added, adopting a tentative amendment of 
mine) no longer worked tor the love of steel but for the 
love of gold, a corrupting metal. Steel was the only 
metal, and high speed steel the greatest wonder in the 
great world of steel. 
High speed steel for tools. For you must realise that 
behind the army of munitioners there is a brigade of 
mjdkers of tools ; from lathes, with their complement 
of cutting tools, to files ; besides all the tools of precision 
that the work requires throughout its course. 
The discreet journalist offered facilities to see the manu- 
facture of munitions will not press unduly for permission 
to visit those areas in which the shells are filled. No 
doubt every precaution would be taken to save his \alu- 
able life, but it remains true that the workers engaged 
upon this business arc in an atmosphere of continuous 
and deadly danger ; and tribute must not be withheld 
from those — by no means only those drawn by considera- 
tions of pay — who have flocked to that work in the 
national crisis. 
How do the Shells get There? 
One of the curiosities of the war may be said to 
be the rarity with which the general public catches 
glimpses of the stupendous stores of ammunition 
which are daily being made and conveyed to the ports oi 
exit of the country. Imagine— for an exact quotation of 
figures is forbidden in these strenuous times — the amount 
of ammimition exported before the delivery of such an 
attack as preceded the capture of Beaumont-Hamel, and 
then consider what swift passages of shell-laden boats 
must be made to France to accumulate besides the normal 
current expenditure even a day's rescrxe for such heavy 
work. Use this as a litmus to test the quality of the 
German claim to have broken old England's control of 
her containing seas. Use it again in reprimand of those 
sedulous pessimists who sing their jeremiads over the 
decadence of the British Fleet and would carve their 
Ichabods over Whitehall. 
Imagine again the life of that harassed officer in charge of 
the depots ^\ith these immense cargoes with all their poten- 
tialities for misconduct dumped upon him. "Every shell is 
a mad dog," runs a naval maxim, and such a Dogs' Home 
as a receiving depot must surely be enough to turn white 
the hairs of its superintendent. Indents from the armies 
to the main depot ; from the divisions to the army depots; 
from the brigades to the divisional depots ; from the bat- 
teries to the brigade depots, according .to the authentic 
procedure of the ordered hierarchy, flutter down upon 
responsible officials in unending flights. There must be 
no shortage, or gallant lives and fateful positions will be 
lost. 
Then you may take a glance at this slight excrescence 
that we see on the way towards the lines ; its edges care- 
fully broken and softened, its tarpaulins covered with 
designs that would delight the futurist in Mr. Roger 
Fry. Behold the shell dump ; to be guarded with all 
the tact and skill that the ordnance officer can com- 
mand or commandeer from the prying Taube and the havoc 
of his launched bomb. 
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