The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-12
DUR GUNNERS NOW LEAD THE WORLD So Declares Our Fighting
 Bob" Evans MARVELLOUS ADVANCES Have Been Made Since the spanish- American War-He Scores Red Tape Systeni-Raps Critics
 of Marksmanshlp.
MARVELLOUS ADVANCES

tleships is today, ship for ship, second to that of no other navy afioat, is declared by Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans review ing, in Hampton's Magazine for July, the wonderful advance we have made in gun making and gunnery since the Spanish war
 At Santiago we thought our shooting fairly good" writes Fighting Bob," but learned later by the testimony of an ex- pert before the Senate naval committee that 1t was disgracefully bad. Whether 1t was good, bad or disgraceful, the fact re- mains that we destroyed the Spanish squadron in record time, and the impress sion among those engaged in the battle was that this complete destruction was the result of our good shooting.
 Tt is eminently unfair to compare our firing then with what we could do today. That it was as good as, or better than, any other service could have done at the time seems established by the very fav- orable reports of many foreign critics.
 After the close of the Spanish war many officers of the navy became thoroughly interested in the subject of the hitting power of our guns, and some of these those who came under my personal obser- vation-merit personal mention," adds Ad- miral Evans.
 '"The use of smokeless powder for the navy became general immediately after the Spanish-American war; during tha. conflict we had used 1t for the smaller guns only, and brown prismatlc powder for the larger guns. The introduction of the new powder necessitated resghting all the guns, and this was done by the ord nance department rapidly as possible. New sights were supplied to all of our heavier guns, but in practice these sights proved to be, In every case. either defec- tive in principle or too weak in structure to stand the heavy shock of discharge.
 Tn March, 1902, 1 was ordered to China to command the cruiser division of that station. Read Admiral Frederick Rodgers, the commander-in-chief, was Kind enough to assign the battleship Kentucky as flag ship for me. This gave me the opportun- ty I had been looking forward to, to sec if I could do something toward making target practice the valua ble thing it should be.
 We had no target ammunition in those days and therefore had to use regular service charges and projectiles As many of our shells had failed to explode when fired during the Spanish-American war, selected, for the target, the face of a rocky bluff on small Island off the en- trance to the harbor, so that we could ob- serve the action of fuses and shells as well as determine the accuracy Sf tN firing. We used full charges of smokeless pow der for the first time so far as I know, for regular target practice.
 "On July the New Orleans was in- spected and a part of her inspection con sisted in firing her guns one after another as rapidly as it could safely be done A regulation size target was carefully white washed on the face of the rock and the ship steamed up and down in front of it at a speed of ten knots, just as is done to- day, and fired until each gun pointer had exhausted his allowance. The accuracy and rapidity of the firing was promising and gave evidence of careful training.
 'I remember well how the first shot from a six-inch gun Knocked the bull S. eye out of the target, and that one of the guns made 15 consecutive hits. The guns and their mounts functioned well but the four and seven-tenths guns showed ten- dency to jam the breech blocks, which made the firing slow. The recoil of these weapons was very violent and often in jured the men firing them. One man had his collar bone broken In this way.
 'The Kentucky went on the range July 19 for her firing and the results were In some respects startling The gun with the Mclean sight made seven hits in one min ute, and they were all punched in a small space. The field of the telescope was
  made the firing slow, but it was evident that the gun could keep on hitting for any length of time In view of the good results obtained, I sent to Paris and or dered telescopes of high power and finer cross wires for all guns. The chief of ord- nance paid the bill, and from that day to this our guns have been furnished with this kind of sight whenever 1t could be used, and great improvement has been m od a fr v11o, af fd roff ion, The orders of the navy department changed our procedure in minor details only, such as making us fire at a canvas target rather than one painted on @ rock The principles we established and the methods we practiced were approved and continue in the service to this day.
 Early in 1904 returned from the east, and few months later was ordered to command the North Atlantic squadron, afterwards the Atlantic fleet. Upon as- suning command I found the turret gun sights of all the battleships in the same unsatisfactory condition as had existed in the east. I was again fortunate in hav- ing on my staff an officer of exceptional ability, Commander Mark Bristol, who succeeded in fitting sights to all the guns. It was due to his untiring devotion to duty rather than to the ef- forts of any other one man that the bat tleship trophy came to the North Atlantic squadron And to him. and his successor as fleet gunnery officer, Lieutenant- Com- mander Ridley Mclean, must be given the greatest credit for our wonderful advance in great gun shooting. Both of these ad- mirable officers would have been advanced in rank for their exceptional work in any service but our own, and even there, had we system of selection
  and leaves the nerves of his clients in good condition.
 Some of the best frocks we had made in Yokohama were turned out by most reasonable little Japanese tailor who came to the house with materials and designs, took measures and directions and returned with his filter. It was such a comfort to have everything done in this easy way, and the two men took the greatest pride in their work and were so appreciative of praise.
 'They were wonders, too. The friend who sent tn sm to me wanted an import ed gown copied from a model just brought out by a friend, and these little tailors not only matched the silk easily and reproduced the exact cut, but they z1-1 1.,1 <l,A 1ap nd dVrnd f,x,