Quite a way down the river from Washington, near the mouth of the Potomac River there is a bend in the river then a longish straight stretch. The channel the ships can follow is only 200 feet wide although the river is nearly five miles wide. At the turn there is a military establishment called the Dahlgren Gun Range which has a lot of gun emplacements facing down the straight arm of the river. On occasions as the ship was going up or down the river they would fire one or more of the guns, you could see the flash and or smoke, and occasionally, the projectile spinning as it flew overhead. They used concrete war heads not the real thing as they were testing the gun barrels. This is one of the concrete shells landing astern of. I think, the ELIZABETH BOWATER. You just hoped the guns went bang and not phutt, but it did provide some interesting reactions when this happened to someone who had not been there before.

No names no pack drill but one time on a first trip up the Potomac after leaving England there was firing over us from the gun range. Master looking out his day room window (keeping an eye on navigation, no doubt) came flying onto the bridge going berserk at the flashes ahead. When advised of the splashes astern there was even more berserk reaction. VHF calls then phone calls through the VHF to the gun range from the captain (against the advise from the US river pilot and my experience of this activity) caused a diplomatic incident between the US Navy and the British Embassy's Naval Attaché. The next daylight trip past the gun range resulted in just about every gun they had blasting off blanks that made the largest flash and smoke possible. Master with tail (and head) between legs stood very quietly by as I think the Embassy had had a word with him.