81542 wrote:
Gentlemen,
The following will help you to "go figure" why HMS EXETER would have had 4 saluting guns (2 per side).
The procedure when firing a salute from a warship in the Royal Navy is to fire the first gun from the starboard side then the second from the port then alternate until the whole salute has been fired. However, things go wrong and some times a gun will misfire even after they have previously been tested. The gun cannot be unloaded until a certain time has elapsed for safety reasons in case of a "hang fire." In the case of a misfire, the remaining ammunition beside the misfired gun would be immediately moved to the other gun on the same side so that the salute could be continued.
Kevin, I know you mean well but though the saluting gun has no operational worth, getting a gun salute wrong can be taken to be an insult by the one/nation being saluted. Like all ceremonial, get it wrong and it can blight one's career. The guns would have been thoroughly checked before each salute and much time would have been spent otherwise keeping them highly polished, as one can see.
The picture in the clipping is interesting, however, it is "posed" in my opinion, Mr Squibb would probably have been positioned elsewhere so as to control the salute from both sides of the ship.
81542
Well there you go! I am still learning something new every day (thankfully)!! Whoda thought.
Given what seemed like a rather archaic 'waste of space', put in the above terms seems not.
And on that note, speaking of things 'archaic' I wonder if someone could date the below photo? Coincidence or not, note HMS Victory(?)
is giving a salute from a gun port side more or less abaft aft mast as she passes Exeter's bow.
Great photo!
And I wonder what the name of the ship forward of Victory is? Looks(?) like a salvor.