Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-06-29
Paper Read by Lieutenant
Commander in Navy

ldI Ids DUH UUlIt OlllCc
the War with Spain
NEW YORK, June 29.-From that
day at Santiago when the American
fleet destroyed the battleships of
Spain. the nation has taken a
| growing interest and pride in Its
and pride in it's new navy. AT the
close of the Spanish war;" writes Lieu
tenant Commander Walter B. Tardy,
U. S. N, in the current issue Of the
Engineering magazine, 1.-The press and
the people were satisfied with their
navy. 1t had been successful. and
thus efficiency was taken for granted.
But when stock was eventually taken
the small percentage of hits made be-
came known, and naval officers re-
allied that something must be done
to justify the public confidence"
The result of that realization is
what Lieutenant Commander Tardy
embodies in his paper on scientific
management and efficiency in the
United States navy 1T is not uncom-
mon to human experience" he OBJ
serves, for different experimenters
working at similar problems indepen-
IDENTITY and without any knowledge OF
one another's efforts, to arrive indie
pendently and simultaneously at the
same discoveries. Something like
this has happened in the case of the
navy and civil establishments; for
only since the technical and popular
press took up the general discussion
of scientific management, and have
naval officers begun to realize that
their management was of the kind now
so strenuOusly advocated for indus
trial pursuits of all sorts.''
This efficiency might be divided in.
to three parts-efficiency of the gun
crew, efficiency of the fighting unit,
or the ship, and efficiency of the
fighting division of the fleet. For
it is with fighting efficiency that a
fighting machine, such as the navy is
intended to be. is first concerned. But
the effort for efficiency has not been
bounded by fighting drill. Important
tice; the aim has been to make engi
neering count equally with gunnery in
determining the final ship efficiency.
Celebrity in coaling, and economy in
the stoke hold and engine room, when
translated into action mean that a
given ship, run to the full of her ca
pacity. is able to steam just so much
farther to attain just so much wider
a cruising radius, to clear from port in
a hurry just so much quicker. to show
just so much more speed in desper-
ate pinch, than the same ship or her
sister when slackly differed.
Counting engineering equally with
gunnery in determining the final per-
Torrance OF any ship-since to work
her guns on her enemy her engines
must first carry her into and keep her
in range-the navy set itself this
standard, as embodied in the rules for
battle practice, 1911, and quoted by
Lieutenant Tardy: "This measure of
the battle efficiency of any vessel is
her her ability to deliver the greatest
number of hits in the shortest posi-
BILE time after the enemy is sighted.
and with the least expenditure of
COAL"
In this direction let us see what has
been done. THE Texas" writes Com
mander Tardy, was one of the Ameri
can ships in the battle of Santiago.
Less than three per cent of all the
shells fired in this battle by the Ameri-
can fleet hit the enemy. There is
no record that single twelve-inch
or thirteen inch shell took effect. The
ranges were less than 5000 yards. Re-
Gently the New Hampshire used the
old Texas as target. She fired at
ranges from 10000 to II, 800 yards and
whole salvOes on the Texas whenever
she wished.
Recently the Michigan, an all big
gun ship. made % twelve-inch hits
at ranges of 10000 yards while steam.
ing at fifteen knots, the target being
only 60 feet long by thirty feet high.
She fired 4S twelve-inch shells. Her
percentage of hits therefore was about
As. The rate of firing was abut two
shots per minute per gun. This in a
moderately rough sea, while the sea
ago"
These and other similar results
recently induced the secretary of the
navy to say in an address delivered
before the New York Economic club:
scientific management experts who
saw the recent battle practice tell me
that the battleship is the finest ex-
hibitiOn of scientific mana gem emf thew
have ever SEEM"
Lieutenant Tardy tells how this ef-
ficiency was developed.