Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-05-30
NAVY 1900 TIMES
BETTER NOW Than
IN SPANISH War
Meyer Tells How Careful Study
Has Improved Efficacy in
Gunnery.

New Iork.-ln addressing the Ef-
'ciencN society. of New York, Secre-
tarN of the Navy Meyer told of the
following improvements in navy SER
wee since 1888. when the battle of SAN
ttaeo showed the need OF better pun
merry:
me short range hits at Santiago we're
ga per cent: at the recent San Marcos
target practice the result was 1913 per
cent at 10000 yards range.
Twelve-fnch gums averaged one shot
IN . minutes at Santiago; at San Mar
cog. average was 10 shots In 5 minutes.
Naval experts estimate these figures
To mean am Improvement of 1pOO fim..
I'm battle efficiency.
Secretary OF the Navy Meyer told tho
tIifciency society at it's recent banquet
now careful study i'm the navy had
multiplied the efficiency of the Amer
lean war craft at least no time. sln.,.
the Spanish war.
lhe system followed. according to
the secretary. was practice and en-
r~"uraEeinent Bonuses are paid to
the men who show especial aptitude
Tor work. and promotion is certain.
The greatest Improvement has been
made i'm Kunnery n M weak point
ot the naval administration. ax Seq
rotary Never sees 1t. is in the main,
.shance OF SO many navy yards aud
the ack uf funds to place them ON
the strict military basis.
inc Santiago victory showed the
navy heads the alarming eakne OF
I'm" American navy In gunnery. and be-
ginning al that time each step OF firing
a gun was carefully watched and
timed. and effort was made ut once to
improve 1T. First came the selection
or men with special ALTITUDE for GER
taln work; sight setty>s, plug men and
leaders We're cho.<n carefully and
drilled slowly unt!l letter perfect In
added. Each time they performed the
functions assigned to them they were
required to do it II little quicker. until
what is regarded as Il human minimum
mas been attained.
Sudden Practice Required.
Also smooth sea target practices
became only an incident i'm the work.
Tor practice was required at uncx-
prcted and frequent intervals. in
storms. rough sea. fog and
The result is that the smooth sea-;
snip mas disappeared and every vessel
IN the navy is ready for the fray in
amy weather and is guaranteed to give
u good account of itself.
In this practice casualties have been
stimulated and unexpected difficulties
have been thrown i'm the way of the
men by officers controlling the fire. Az
TO the battle mimicry. Secretary Meyer
said:
I'm the competitive battle firing the
conditions are made just as severe AS
those that would obtain in actual ac-
ton. The firing vessel has now knowl-
edge OF the course. speed and distance
81 TN" target vessel. All the informa-
ton she has is hat somewhere on
tn" horizon, at n distance of 10 miles
or more. is a column of smoke which
marks the target vessel mt which she
Is to shoot. She st"ams toward it at
her best speed and opens fire at what
ever range she chooses: but the value
of hitting at long ranges is vitality inn
pressed on her by the amount that IL
added to or s,Ibstracted from her score
f"r the shots that hits beyond 10000
Yards or under that mark. The whole
ship has no other chance to make good
IL She fails in this. No excuses are
accepted for failure OF guns to fire. for
h~reakdowns OF amy character. or for
amy faults "f personnel or material.
AS evidence Of the value or COM
petition In glinnery. a comparison ia
made with the fighting efficiency OF
the vessels during the Spanish Ameri-
can war and AT present. Tn percen-
tag" of hits in 1898 was 3k with he
large gums firing about once in Ave
minutes at short range The percen-
tag" of hits in the recent firing at the
San Marcos WAS 81 1-3. the range be-
Ing 10000 yards. and the present rate
of firing Il single Pinch gun being
about 10 shots in five minutes. This
rather overestimates the work at San
tiagu and undcrstimates the work to-
day. a roughly drawn comparison
shows that we are about 1000 times
better in gunnery efficiency than we
were at Santiago.
The policy now for the competitive
training for battle is that it shall be-
gin on the date of commission. and
no excuses are accepted for being UNI
prepared should the department al any
time require the ships to fire at a days
notice"