ch.ix.]                DEFECTIVE SHELL                     197
from the muzzle. "Has the cartridge again not been examined and fallen to pieces?"
" No, sir, it is not the cartridge," reported the officer in charge excitedly from the upper deck. " It is much worse ! We can't get the projectile far enough in."
The following facts were then elicited. Ammunition had been sent out to Port Arthur in great haste, as it seemed likely that the communications of the fortress with the north might be cut off. In consequence of this a large batch of shell had not been examined at all, or only in part.
Of course the department making the issue could quote paragraph 527 of the instructions. These provide that the gunnery lieutenant is to stop the issue and report to the captain if any articles are found not to correspond exactly with the sealed pattern. With equal force the gunnery lieutenant could point out that he was unable to do this ; that he was without any means, and, above all, lacked the requisite time for careful examination of all stores we drew from the local depots to fill up our deficiencies. The storekeepers at Port Arthur, again, were quite in their right when they maintained that they had received these shell from the factory and the central department at home, and that they also lacked means and time for gauging. In short, as usual, every one, that is, no one, was to blame, but the fact remained.
Our gunnery lieutenant was in great trouble over this discovery. We had always filled up our allowance of shell as they were expended. In the shell rooms the new shell had been stowed in the empty racks. It was impossible now to say which were the shell received before the war, and which were not. It was equally impossible now, in time of war, to make a careful examination of the whole of our projectiles. We could only do this by degrees, by unstowing a small number of shell at a time. We required time—but did we know how much time we still had at our disposal ?   That all depended on the enemy.
A further defect was discovered. I don't know whether it was in consequence of bad gauging or simply of bad metal. Our cast-iron shell (the cheapest and therefore the most numerous in our outfit) often burst on leaving