This early document signed by Lt. Comdr. E.E. Spafford is dated 4 February, 1918, New London, Connecticut, at time when the fleet of U.S. submarine chasers was being readied for war. As the chasers themselves were being fitted with deck guns and other ASW devices, crews trained for duty overseas.
This document, "Aiming and sighting drills," is interesting in that it starts with a mention the 3"/23 caliber guns (Poole deck guns), although it appears the training itself was about firing rifles and pistols.
Not being a gun expert, I had to look up the difference between line-of-sight and full-sight, the former being, as I understand it, the concept of a line from the shooter to the target, and the latter the practical situation of having an unobstructed view of the target. Now I have to see if I can find the Landing Force Book page to find out how far away the target is, in the tripod exercise where the requirement is to make a triangle no side of which is larger than 1/2".
It's hard to imagine that even with this kind of training, a shooter could come anywhere near his success in the exercises when standing on the deck of a chaser rolling in the waves or motoring across them, with or without a tripod.
--Todd Woofenden, editor