Byron Angel wrote:
..... FWIW, 16in/45 (2700 lbs) time of flight at 8500 yards range was about 12 seconds. Salvo interval was about 13.3 seconds during the first phase of Washington's fire. The POSSIBLE implication is that fire was purposefully withheld until fall of shot of the preceding salvo had been observed (by no means uncommon). The one or two second interval thereafter would likely be accounted for by the need to wait for the ship's motion to achieve a proper vertical position. The firing key was controlled by Director IV, which was also the director tasked with keeping continuous level and cross-level.
B
... This is what I would be expecting also. That is why I thought about them observing the fall of shot, counting the splashes and deducting the missfires for an approximate estimate of the number of shells that hit the target...