Some interesting equipment never used before the big
war composed part of the quartermasters' stores in the Marine Corps.

It's a marvel what these chaps can do with a big naval gun--one of those
big brutes which are bolted down to the deck of a warship. It doesn't
look like a thing to be picked up and carted around the country. That's
precisely what the heavy artillery companies do, however. It takes them
but a few minutes to sling one of these five-inchers over the side of a
ship, land it, and take it wherever it is needed. They do this with the
aid of a single-spar derrick, some little narrow-gauge trucks and a
portable narrow-gauge railroad.

TRANSPORTATION OF BIG GUN.

The method is to lay down the railroad--it can be done very swiftly by
men carefully trained in the art of laying tracks over all kinds of
ground--put the gun and its mount, with a specially prepared base of
extremely heavy timbers, on the tracks, and trundle it to the place
where it is needed to pour a rapid fire into the enemy.

Here a pit has been dug, in which is laid down the heavy timber base,
riveted together with heavy steel bolts. Then it is well packed with
dirt and stone, and the gun carriage made fast ingeniously. The
single-stick derrick has been erected alongside, guyed out in four
directions with heavy ropes, which are made fast to the ground by means
of "dead men," and manipulated by very live gangs of husky marines. A
chain block of powerful type is used to pick up the gun carriage and put
it in place, and afterwards to swing the gun into its sockets on the
carriage.

Later the breech locks and sights are added, and the big five-inch,
40-caliber naval gun is ready to go into action. These big and heavy
guns, suitable for long range work with high explosive shells, can be
taken a quarter of a mile or so from the ship which carried them, over
rough ground, set up and put in operation in a few days' time.

But the heavy artillery base is only one of the Marines' work. They have
big howitzers, of the more modern type, most of which are kept at
Annapolis, where they can be loaded aboard ship in short order. Men and
machines can be mobilized at the strategic points in a very short time.

EVERY MAN'S SERVICE.

The Marine service is unique in many respects. For one thing, it is
every man's service. The proportion of officers who have risen from the
ranks or who have been commissioned from civilian life is higher in the
Marine Co