t fired more accurately than the others, and so the Texas
got the range and dropped a shell into the powder magazine one day.
Everything about that battery seemed to be in the air at once when
that shell exploded. Nothing was left of it but a pile of ruins and a
big hole in the ground.

There is a ship in the United States navy that is unlike any other in
the world. She has three long guns which are built into the ship and
do not turn to one side or the other. The whole ship has to be pointed
at the object which the gunners wish to hit. She does not fire shells
loaded with powder, as other warships do, but uses a long shell filled
with gun-cotton, or dynamite, both of which are deadly explosives.
When one of these shells strikes anything the effect is terrible. The
Vesuvius, for that is the name of this ship, fired several of these
shells over the fortifications at Santiago, in the direction where
the Spanish fleet was lying. She did not hit any of them, but she tore
great holes in the sand and rocks near by. It is said that the
Spaniards called the Vesuvius "The Hurler of Earthquakes" because of
the damage her shells did. The guns of the Vesuvius are really firing
tubes. No powder is used in them, compressed air being the power that
expels the shells. Very little noise is made, and there is no smoke.

[Illustration: Forward Deck and Guns of the Vesuvius.]

If one small shell should strike the Vesuvius it would send men and
boat to the bottom at once, because she has so much deadly gun-cotton
on board. Her crew is almost afraid to move.

"Why, I'm afraid to even snore in my sleep," said one of them, "for
fear I'll discharge the gun-cotton; and as for kicking in my
sleep--why, I'm as quiet as a drugged snake."

[Illustration: A Jacky.]

"We slide along," said another; "we're afraid to walk at first. I went
on tiptoe for the first three days."

"Well, I went on my hands and knees the day it was so rough," said a
third. "A fellow has to learn to walk on any part of his anatomy in
this ship when the sea is rough."

The Vesuvius has been described as a ship which fights and then runs
away. That is, she fires three shells and then takes herself out of
the range of an enemy's fire.

I think this is a good place to tell you about a few more of the odd
ships that belong to Uncle Sam's navy, for no nation beside ours has
anything like them.

The Katahdin is an armored ram which relies upon her sharp prow to
disable a