Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1909-05-27
EVANS SEES DEFECT
GRAVE WORDS or WARNING FROM
"FioHTiNo BoB.-
Declares Ammunition Of WarshIps
Would Be Exhausted In Two
Hours Of Fighting - Navy
Short OF Torpedoes.

The question OF supplying ammuni
lion 10 the American feet during bat
tie Ia cne that will require most care
full thought. for II Is practically Ger.
tain that At the present rate OF firing
the heavy guns will exhaust their sup
ply In the first two hours OF a battle
II Is declared by Rear Admiral Robley
~ Evans. In Hampton's Magazine.
Discussing some Of the gravest dan.
gers to which d battleships will be
exposed In time OF war, Fighting Bob
adds that naval battles OF the future
will begin At a range OF about ten
thousand yards and the result will de
pend on turFet guns. their ability 10
hit and their power to resist or stand
punishment. At the range stated a
battleship appears a very small OBJ
ject to shoot at and the whole shin
must be taken as a target for the
guns to aim at.
The idea Of shooting at any par.
ticular gun port or men. N a single
turret. will not he considered. but the
gun pointer will be directed to aim AT
the ship a~midships. that is. at the mid
die part Of tho ship. or at one end or
the other. with the hope OF striking
the turrets or their guns. Shells tina,
enter the broadside ports will do no
harm TO the personnel. and only those
that enter the turrets will prove great
ly destructive. Hitting u ports will
be entirely accidental.
The gun ports will stand the same
chance Of being hit as any other equal
area on the side OF the ship and no
more. no matter how well the enemy
raj shoot. This area. therefore. be
comes a matter Of great importance.
but only SO far as the turrets are con
csrned. because the broadside guns
will not be used IN battle at such
ranges. and the men for these guns
will not be exposed. The damage to
the ship from shells entering these
ports might be great. but the loss OF
life would be small"
Taking up the criticism to congress
NJ the alleged defective gun turrets on
the Kearsarge and Kentucky. Admiral
Evans SAYS:
III. as stated. the openings Of these
two ships are ten feet square, the ap-
plication Of the simplest rule Of arith.
metic shows that about each would he
an open space Of 100 square feet. As
each turret has two guns. the open
space on the face OF each turret would
he 200 square feet. II this were true.
the guns would be practically standing
out In the open. for the whole face Of
the turret contains only about two
hundred square feet Of surface.
Those who have seen many shells
explode on ships In battle may. I
think. form a very fair idea OF what
will happen In the future. During the
bombardment Of San Juan. Porto Rico.
during the Spanish-American war.
three shells came onto the upper deck
Of the Iowa in rapid succession and all
exploded. As nearly as we could de
termine afterward by putting frag.
ments Of these shells together one was
a nine-inch Krupp and the other two
either eightinch or ten-inch from old
s~mooth-bore guns. They all exploded
In the open superstructure deck Of the
ship and at the time the men OF the
crew to the number OF $50 to 200 were
crowded into this open space. We
were not firing at the time and the
men were observing the firing OF the
other ships. When the smoke OF the
exploding shells had cleared away we
found much damage had beer done
bottoms OF boats blown out, yentiiators
wrecked. etc. but only three men were
wounded. m seriously and two
slightly"
As to the damage power Of torpe
does In action. Admiral Evans sounds
a warning regarding the dearth of tor.
pedoes in the United States navy. but
declares that the men who handle our
battleships are In no way responsible
for h shortage. When the American
people. he concludes tersely. want the
navy to have more torpedoes they
have only to see that congress votes
the necessary money to purchase
them.