The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-21
ADMIRAL EVANS SOUNDS WARNING Dangers That Threaten Ameri-
 can BattIeShips AMMUNITION FOR GUNS Will Be Exhausted in Two Hours of iehtng-other Weaknesses
 of Navy Are Greatly Ex.
 aggerated, He Says.
FOR GUNS

"The question of supplying ammuni- tion to the American fleet during battle Is one that will require most careful thought for it is practically certain that at the present rate of firing the heavy guns will exhaust their supply in the first two hours of a battle," is declared by Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans in Hampton's Magazine for April. Discus sing some of the gravest dangers to which our battleships will be exposed fin time of war, Fighting Bob adds that naval battles of the future will begin at range of about 10000 yards, and the result will depend on turret guns. their ability to hit and their power to resist or stand punishment At the range stated a battleship appears a very small object to shoot at, and the whole ship must be taken as a target for the guns to aim at
 The idea of shooting at any particular gun port or men, or a single turret, will not be considered. but the gun pointer will be directed to aim at the ship amid ships, that is, at the middle part of the ship, or at one end or the other with the hope of striking the turrets or their guns Shells that enter the broadside ports wnl do no harm to the personnel, and only those that enter the turrets will prove greatly destructive. Hitting gun 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 can shoot This area, therefore, becomes a matter of great importance, but only so far as the turrets are concerned, 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 criticisms to Congress of the alleged defective gun turrets on the Kearsarge and Kentucky, Admiral Evans says:
 If, as stated, the openings above and below the guns in the turrets of these two ships are ten feet square, the appli- cation of the simplest rule of arithmetic shows that about each gun would be an open space of 100 square feet As each turret has two guns. the open space on the face of each turret would be 200 square feet. If this were true the guns would be practically standing out in the open, for the whole face of the turret contains only about POO square feet of surface.
 Those who have seen many shells ex- plode on ships in battle may I think, form a very fair idea of what will hap pen in the future. During the lombard ment of San Juan, Porto Rico during the Spanish-Anferican war, three shells came onto the upper deck of the Iowa in rapid succession and all exploded. As nearly as we could determine afterwards by putting fragments of these shells to- gether. one was a 9-inch Krupp and Ithe other two either S-inch or 10-inch from old smooth 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 150 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 been done, bottoms of boats blown out. ven tilators wrecked, etc, but only three men were wounded one seriously and two slightly
 As to the damaging power of torpedoes in action, Admiral Evans sounds a warn ing regarding the dearth of, torpedoes in the United States navy, but declares that the men who handle our battleships are in no way responsible for the shortage When the American people, he concludes tersely, want the navy to have more tor pedoes. they have only to see that Con gress votes the necessary money to pur- chase them.