Extracts from the Illustrated London News - Boer War - 1900

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The Boer War

4.7 in Naval Gun at Ladysmith

We are enabled this week to publish some wonderfully realistic photographs of the siege of Ladysmith. The pictures of the naval guns in the emplacements will, no doubt, recall to many the vivid description of their working contained in one of the last despatches which Mr. Steevens was fated to write.


The instant before firing: 4.7 naval gun at Ladysmith shelling Long Tom on farthest hill at 6800 yards - Petty Officer Lee pulling the lanyard

" The handy man," as the sailor has come to be called in these days, soon made himself at home in the forts. He had everything with him, even magazines to read in the intervals of fighting. He had his paint-pot and his gold-leaf, so that he could set up the name of his gun upon a board, and between the various emplacements and the look-out post of the commanding officer was a complete telephonic system. As the lookout man passed the word, ' No. 1 Gun-hill is up, Sir," meaning that one of the enemy's pieces had been elevated, the naval gunners stood to their weapon and loosed away a shell in the direction of the adversary.


The same gun, showing shelter trench in which the crew took refuge when Long Tom fired
[Ain't he young - ie the lad with the binoculars in his left hand]

The intimate part which correspondents bore in actual siege work is emphasised by our picture where Mr. Maud, of the Graphic, and the late Mr. Steevens are seen hard at work with pick and shovel on the morning when the bombardment began.

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