The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-09-07

anyone wishes evidence that his state
ments were truths. and unwelcome
truths, he needs only to be informed
that practically all these papers,
though official documents, have long
since disappeared from the official
archives. The respectable gentlemen
who then occupied the great naval
desks at Washington, to whom these
letters were referred, We're themselves
responsible for the defects to which
Sims was so loudly calling attention.
These men, faced with criticisms
which they could not meet. could
think of doing only one thing; they
actually destroyed the Sims reports.
thereby committing one of the most
serious offenses on the calendar.
Sims correspondence as naval attache
filled twenty-five letter press books,
containing 1000 pages.
All this has disappeared from the
files. Not only was the official copy
at Washington destroyed, but the
duplicate kept at the embassy in
Paris was committed to the flames.
This same fate met practically all
his other contributions, in these and
the few succeeding years. In 1901
Sims submitted a report on the faulty
construction of American battleships
one of the most important documents
in the history of the navy. Its receipt
was not acknowledged and for three
years 1T was lost. 1t was ultimately
discovered in a pigeon hole on tho
desk of one of the bureau chiefs, so
much defaced and soiled by cocroaches
that it was almost unreadable. But
most of Sims reports were not con-
signed even to the cockroaches-the
flame served as a more satisfactory
form of oblivion.
Sims has been accused OF insub-
ordination and has more than once
barely escaped courtmartial on this
ground. Is it strange. when his re-
spectful communications to his chiefs
had this reception, that he should
have gone over their heads to the
higher power2 Especially when, as
he knew, the very safety of the Ma
tion depended on the outcome?
Americas Conceit in Her Navy.
The chief difficulty in the way of
reform was this ignorant and childish
conceit, this generally prevailing no.
ton that the American Navy simply
because 1t was the American Navy,
necessarily surpassed everything in
creation. i am afraid Lieutenant
Sims said in one of his letters to
President Roosevelt. II could never
explain successfully the present men,
tai attitude of the Navy. I cannot
even trace clearly my own experience,
may say. however, that, from the
day that / entered the Naval Academy,
was taught that our officers We're
the finest in the world eve had only
wooden ships then); / thought the
White Squadron was composed of the
best vessels of their class; each ship
that we launched was the latest ex-
preston of naval science and our
first, and all succeeding battleships
have been The Greatest Fighting Ma
chimes Afloat.'
IF you will kindly turn to the last
pages of the paper on The Board IF
Construction, you will find photo
graphs showing the effective protec-
tion of a British 6-inch, easement
gun; also one of the Brooklyn's 5-inch
guns standing in gaping port that
is more than twice the area OF the
whole gun and it's mount which the
armor was designed to protect
Il cannot now understand how
could ever have looked at that gun,
in 1897, and thought that it was pro-
tected. I would not have believed 1t
possible that even lifelong flattery
could have so blinded one to such a
manifest absurdity; but it is the sim
pie truth. The gun, shown in the
photograph, is in the Brooklyn's star
board gangway, and has been seen,
during the past seven years by prac-
tically every officer in the Navy, but
will venture to say that the veil
Of self sufficiency, or whatever is the
mysterious influence that paralyzes
the critical, faculty, has prevented
every one of them from fully realizing
that all the vitals of the gun. and
every member of the crew, would be
exposed to certain destruction in ac-
ton; and that, consequently, the arm
or is carried as a dead weight.
No one knows his own city or
his own country till he has been
abroad and returned I returned the
day that stepped on board the Ken
lucky, at Gibraltar, and saw that not
only were all of her auxiliary guns ex-
posed in the same manner, but that
her turret guns, and the magazines
beneath them, were even more dam
gerously exposed"
Captain Percy Scott, Of the British
Navy, who became a close friend of
Sims in 1901, when both We're sta
toned in China, was the first man to
lift this veil of self-sufficiency from
his mind. The disease which Sims
described in his letter to Mr.. Roose-
welt was not peculiar to the United
States; in 1901 it afflicted the British
Navy as much as II did our own and
took the form of a complacent salts
faction in the superiority OF British
naval gunnery. But at this time no
nation had reason for great content
ment in it's target practice for the
science OF accurate sea- shooting did