Tim, Mike and Max;
Thanks for your replies, they explain a great deal about the subject. I suspected that the laying of ships guns would have to be a less than scientific exercise. "Fire as your guns bear" would seem to summarize the operation.
Mike,
I was at Hickam Field in the early 60's and had a number of Navy friends at Pearl. The Navy was installing the ASROC on a couple of DE's, Vance and Radford as I recall. They were also testing the DASH (an unmanned helicopter that carried two Mk 48 torpedoes as memory serves). One of my friends called and said "Hey Bill, walk over to the DD docks this afternoon, the contractors are 'gonna crash a DASH". Well they sure did, the thing had counter rotating blades and they all got tied up in a knot just clear of the fantail. It was a spectacular affair with smoke, flame and loud noise. Too much fun.
Bill