The modern contest began with the introduction of horizontal shell
fire in the third decade of the century. This term must be explained.
It has been said that all ships’ guns up to 1815 threw non-explosive
projectiles. In practice this is true; although Nelson alludes to
certain shell supplied to him for trial, which he was unwilling to
use because he wished not to burn his prizes, but to take them alive.
A shell is a hollow projectile filled with powder, the idea of which
is that upon reaching the enemy it will burst into several pieces,
each capable of killing a man, and the flame not impossibly setting
woodwork on fire. It was necessary that the powder within should not
explode from the combustion of the cartridge of the gun, for if it
did its force, combined with the latter, might burst the gun; yet the
process that should result in bursting must begin at that moment or
else it would not take place at all. This difficulty was met by a short
column of hard, compressed powder called the fuse, which extended from
the outside to the inside of the shell. The outer end was inflamed
by the charge of the gun, but from its density it burned slowly, so
that the charge of the shell was not enkindled for five, ten, or more
seconds. This expedient was in use over a century ago; but owing to
imperfections of manufacture, no certainty was attained that the fuse
might not be driven in or broken by the force of the discharge, or the
shell itself be cracked and so explode prematurely. Shell, therefore,
were fired with very light charges; and, to obtain sufficient range—go
far enough—they were used in very short, very thick guns, called
bombs or mortars, to which great elevation was given. Such firing,
because the shell flew high in the air, was called vertical firing,
in contradistinction to the fire of the long gun or carronade, called
horizontal fire because their projectiles rose little above the level.
The destructiveness of shell from ordinary guns was so obvious,
especially for forts to use against wooden ships, that the difficulties
were gradually overcome, and horizontal shell fire was introduced soon
after the cessation of wars allowed men time for thought and change.
But although the idea was accepted and the fact realized, practice
changed slowly, as it tends to do in the absence of emergency. In the
attack on Vera Cruz, in 1848, Farragut was present, and was greatly
impressed, as with a novelty, by the effect of what he called the
“shell shot,” a hybrid term which aptly expresses the transition state
of men’s minds at the time. I remember an officer who entered the
navy in 1840 telling me the respectful awe and distrust with which
his superiors then regarded the new weapon, a very few of which for
each gun were supplied tentatively. Ten years more, however, saw a
great change, and in 1853 the attack of the Russian squadron of wooden
sailing-ships upon the Turkish vessels in the Bay of Sinope gave an
object-lesson that aroused the naval world to what wooden ships must
expect from horizontal shell fire. In a few minutes three out of seven
Turkish frigates were in flames; while of nine sailing-ships and two
steamers only one of the latter escaped.