I don't know much about gunnery protocol in the USN, but this source should give you an idea of gunnery protocol in the Royal Navy, which one would assume should be similar, as similar technologies were used. For a modern cruiser (eg a British Town or American Cleveland class) the guns were controlled from a central director, rather than being individually controlled by the crew. All the captain needed to do was pass the order to fire on a particular target to the officers and men manning the director. They would determine the range, bearing and speed of the target, and in turn pass this to the ship's analogue fire control computer - in the RN, these were called Admiralty Fire Control Tables. This would calculate a bearing and elevation, which were transmitted to the gun turrets . Once the guns were loaded, and turrets trained, this information was passed back to the director, where all the guns could be fired simultaneously by an electric circuit. If the engagement was at long range, then there might be a pause to spot the fall of shot and relay the guns accordingly. At shorter ranges, the fire button could just be held down - the USS Helena did this at the Battle of Cape Esperance, and received a reputation as a "Machine-gun ship", having fired off most of her ammunition in the relatively short engagement.