Still some said it must be luck, and another target was put out in
exactly the same manner. This one I did not quite hit, but the shot fell
so near, that all gave it up it was _not_ luck, and that I was a
first-rate shot with broadside guns."

After such demonstration, it is not strange that he was looked upon as
having a very correct eye for distances, and was ever afterward called
upon to fire whenever experiments were wanted. Naval gunnery, be it
remarked in passing, is quite a different matter from army practice: in
the former, with its platform never at rest, it is like shooting a bird
on the wing, when distance and motion must be accurately gauged and
allowed for; in the latter, from its gun on a fixed platform, it is but
a question of measurement from the object, by means of instruments if
need be, and of good pointing. The seaman stands immediately in rear of
the gun, with eye along the sight directing its train, now right, now
left, now well, and with taut lock-string in hand in readiness to pull
the moment the object is on, and on the alert to jump clear of the
recoil. The soldier handles his piece with greater deliberation, sights
it leisurely on its immovable platform, and, if mounted _en barbette_,
retires behind a traverse before firing.

Graduating in June, 1856, the now full-fledged Midshipman Perkins could
look back upon his five years' probationary experience with many
pleasant recollections, though doubtless thanking his stars that his
pupilage was over.

During his time there had been two superintendents at the academy. The
first was Captain C.K. Stribling, a fine seaman of the old school, of
rigid Presbyterian stock, stern, grim, and precise, with curt manners,
sharp and incisive voice that seemed to know no softening, and whose