The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-09-07
ADMIRAL SIMS TELLS
STORY OF GREAT WAR
CONTINUED from page o.,


some likelihood OF hitting it; but ordi-
nary land methods avail little on a
rolling ship. Yet up to the time OF
Percy Scott the naval gunner sighted
his gun according to the methods used
by an artillery man on land; the re-
suit being that shooting at sea was
more or less of a haphazard firing
into empty space; If the projectile oc-
casionally went home that was largely
a matter OF luck. In the early nine
ties, however, Captain Percy scout
made the important discovery OF con-
tfntious aim-that gun pointer couiu
be trained so that he could constantly
keep his gun sighted on the target
irrespective Of the rolling OF the snip.
The method is too complicated Ior
description here; but il really made
gunnery a science; hitting the object
at a great distance no longer was q
matter of luck, butt with proper tram
ing ii became almost a certainty,
Captain Scott conducted his earliest
experiments about the year 1895; his
results at this time, and his much
more striking ones afterward on the
Terrible. were so sensational that no
one, not even his associates in the
accurate reports. That a naval gun
ner could make eight hits out of
eight shots at a distance of 1900
yards, was altogether too much for
belief.
Sims discussed these reports with a
German naval offj-er located on the
Asiatic station.
..Al liesi" said the Teuton. IF they
were true the British Navy would in
sist on keeping the results secret"
Sims Appeals to Roosevelt.
But there was one man who took
the trouble to investigate this discov-
cry; that was Lieutenant Sims; and
he saw that the records really repre-
scented events as they had happened.
Sims wrote to Theodore Roosevelt.
then Assistant Secretary of the Navy,
telling him how badly the American
Navy was shooting. Mr. Roosevelt
was most impressed, but the APP
preaching Spanish American War abb
sorbed chief interest in those days
and his attempts to improve the
American Navy in so essential a de-
tail as shooting made little Roadway.
At the conclusion OF hostiiities. how
ever Lieutenant Sims started his
epistolary campaign once more. His
renewed efforts at this time did re-
suit in one Illuminating episode. He
asked his naval chiefs not to take his
word that the Navy was shooting
poorly, but some day to order out the
North Atlantic fleet for target prac-
tice.. and watch the results. That
looked like a fair proposition: and. on
the appointed day the whole North
Atlantic fleet steamed past an old
hghtship. at a distance OF little more
than mile and a half, and began
blazing away. The ships fired thou
sands of projectiles, but in not single
instance did they hit the hull, the
final result of this enormous expendi-
ture Of ammunition being two holes
in the sails.
The result was so disgraceful that
the evidence was destroyed-the same
policy already adopted toward the at
tempted Sims reforms. The Com
mander-in- chief came alongside the
target blew it fun OF holes and sent
IL TO the bottom OF the sea. The
whole fleet was then sent to the West
Indies so that the public could learn
nothing about this revealing exhibit
ton. Yet this was the fleet that had
won the great victories OF the Span
ish-American War-a war in which
the United States was exceedingly
fortunate in its antagonists.
Even this exhibition produced no
effect upon the naval bureaucracy at
Washington; yet something must be
done II the American Navy was not
TO die of slow hamilton. Sims now
decided to ignore routine even to defy
Navy regulations and appeal person.
ally to the highest power. He under |
stood that he might be court martialed |
but he decided 10 take the risk. Ills
decision was to appeal his case direct
ly to President Roosevelt-to address
hun. not through regular department.
channels. but directly through the
United States mail