Getting ready to fire an "Osaka Baby"

Getting ready to fire an "Osaka Baby"

130

The man standing at the breech of the gun is lieutenant in command of the battery, and he is engaged in finding the range with a quadrant. The chief gunner to the right of the lieutenant is elevating the parallel of the great gun, and the soldier at the extreme left is the powder bearer with his empty cannister, returning after delivering his charge of gunpowder to the gun. The din of a bombardment of Port Arthur was something terrible. The paper windows of the Manchurian houses two miles away were blown out by the concussions the mountains trembled. Whoever got within a hundred yards of the guns had to wear cotton batting in his ears and walk on tiptoe to save his ear-drums. These big coast defense mortars from Osaka, which hurled shells the size of a large pig, and the naval six-inch guns roared incessantly on the ten-mile front during four hours, until even the stoutest nerves were on the point of collapse.

1 stereograph. 2 photomechanical prints on stereo card : halftone, stereograph, color ; 9 x 18 cm

1905 Ingersoll, T.W.

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