Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1909-02-21

azine for March, Rear-Admiral Rob ley D. Evans pays notable tribute l to the efficiency and bravery of Amer ican gunners. Quoting one critic as foolsbly saying that three times al- ready, by miracle, American ships have been saved from the explosion of their magazines because of burning grains of powder falling into the
 handling room" Fighting Bob de- clares:
 When the powder began to blaze in the handling room of the Missouri, two gunners' mates, M. Momssen anl C. s. Schepke. who were in the mag azine, at imminent risk of their lives,
 prevented the flames from reaching the powder there This heroic dis regard of their own safety was the miracle that saved the ship. Why not call 1t by It's proper name? It was the prompt action of brave, cool headed sailor men in blue shirts that saved the ship, and If they were mira cles then the Navy, I am proud to say, 1 Is full of miracles. Those miracle workers walk about the decks of our ships by the hundred.
 The first eveA knew of q flare back came about in this way-and l believe this was the first one ever seen and recognized as danger in our navy" adds the Admiral, T was standing over the after thirteen-inch turret of my flagship, the Kentucky, watching the firing of her thirteen inch guns at a target practice In Ma nila Bay. Many shots had been fired. when suddenly, as one of the guns was discharged, sheet of flame shot up through an opening in the top of the turret. This was so unusual, and to me alarming, that l ordered the l firing to cease until I could ascertain the cause of it. The officers and men !; all wished to so on with the firing, l not realizing that they were in any 1 danger though some of the men in 1 the turret were slightly burned about the body and had their hair singed.
 Of course our experience in Manila Bay was fully reported to the Navy 1 Department, and the Chief of Ordin- ance took steps at once to put proper gas electors on the guns which would act automatically when the breech was opened. From that day to this in the fitting aud working of this de- vice, and l feel perfectly confident that if it is properly and carefully used, there will never be another flare back.
 Speaking of ammunition hoists, concerninS which there has been so much misunderstanding and bitter controversy, and to which the eX- plosion on the Missouri was attri buted, Admiral Evans says;
 When the Indiana and ships of her class were designed, all foreign l were constructed on the principle that the ammunition should go straight from the handling room to the gun in the turret. In some cases, the En- glish for example. this was accom-
 plished by the use of closed tube
 or cylinder, but this plan required
 that the gun should be returned to
 certain fixed position before load ing, which was a serious handirap to
 rapid firing, and our designers dis
 carded it in favor of the open car
 hoist, which reyolved with the turret and allowed the guns to be loaded in
 any position. The advantage thus
 gained was so apparent that foreign practice seen followed ours in an ef7
 fort to overcome the very objection
 able feature of having to bring the
 uns to ! fixed position before tbay
 could be loaded, and the English ia- ally. in f9al installed on two tattl9-
 ships ammunition hoisJs which WSre in every essential particular counter
 parts of the American h0ists.
 i Other nat OnS nave, as a rune, tol-
 lowed the same general plan; that is
 to say, straight away ammunition hoist for turret guns, from the hand- ling room being centrally located
 with references to the magazines and shell rooms, and separated from them
 by carefully constructed, water-tight bulkheads. The magazines are pro vided with efficient means for quick
 foodins, in case of fire. and doors
 with flaps for safe handling of the charges These conditions, or, shall
 say, this mode of construction, has ! been and is now general in every naval service in the world"
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