Evening star., 1942-04-07
Admiral Fiske Dies
In New York al 81;
Was Noted Inventor
Retired Officer Predicted
In 1926 War Would
Breok Out in 20 Years
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, April Rear Ad-
miral Bradley Allen Fiske, 81, re-
tired naval officer whose heroism on
the seas was second only to his
genius for inventing efficiency de-
vices for the warships that sailed
them, died last night.
Failing health had caused his con-
finement to his Waldorf-Astoria
suite for two months, and for more
than a year he had been unable to
leave the hotel. A daughter, Caro-
line Harper Fiske, survives.
In the 42-year span of his naval
career Admiral Fiske was a COM
bination sailor fighter inventor
strategist. No dreamy-eyed arm
chair admiral. he foresaw, even be-
fore the World War, the value of a
naval air force and fought tooth
and nail for it.
1t was for the Navy that he in
vented, among other things, the
aerial torpedo, the radio-guided tor
pedo plane, the electrically turned
battleship turret, an electric range
finder and an electric ammunition
hoist.
Invented Telescope Sight.
He also invented a naval telescope
sight, which has been adopted by
all the navies in the world and
which is credited with contributing
greatly to the recent Improvement
in the accuracy of naval gunnery
The torpedo plane has been adopted
by all the leading navies.
1t was for the Navy, too, that he
waged a bitter word-battle with
former Navy Secretary Josephus
Daniels, who had frowned on his
every effort to increase naval
strength, over the admirals conten-
tion in 1915 that the Navy had been
reduced ito a wholly ineffective
state"
Despite his feud with Secretary
Daniels, Admiral Fiske, at the time
of his retirement in 1916, was gen
erally considered one of the most
brilliant officers the Navy ever
produced.
A native of Lyons, N. Y. Admiral
Fiske was graduated from the Naval
Academy at Annapolis in 1874, sec
ond in his class, and advanced
through successive ranks to that OF
rear admiral in 1911.
Cited for Heroic Conduct"
AS navigator of the Petrol in the
battle of Manila Bay, he was cited
by Admiral Dewey for heroic con-
duct" when, using his newly invented
stadimeter, a supplement to his
range-fnder, he stood in an exposed
position on the Petrol and calmly
took the ranges of the Spanish ships.
At various times he commanded
the Minneapolis, the Arkansas and
the Tennessee; in 1912 he was IN
command of the 1st, Sd and 5th
Divisions of the Atlantic Fleet.
From 1913 to 1915 he was in Wash
ington as aide for operations, a post
corresponding to chief OF staff in the
Army.
Besides his active service as an
officer and his inventions, on which
he obtained more than go patents,
Admiral Fiske found time to write
MANY books about the Navy, always
urging an adequate air arm.
Planes, he said as long as 10 years
ago. would be invaluable in protect
ing the Philippines, whose vulnera-
bility he often had proclaimed.
Admiral Fiske served on the san
Francisco during the demonstration
in the Rio Janeiro harbor during
the 1894 Brazilian inSurrection and
was active in the early months OF
the Filipino campaign and in the
bombardments of Paracaque and
Malabon.
Predicted War.
In 1925. in a letter to Secretary
of the Navy Wilbur, he called at
tention to the then-comparatiVe
strength of American and japanese
fleets for operation in Far East
waters and said that the Japanese
and Americans had taken attitudes
that are irreconcilable."
The following year he told the
Politics Club at Columbia University
there would be increasing proba-
bility of a foreign war" in the next
20 years and urged that the United
States keep reasonably prepared.
In 1882 he declared that Japan
could capture the Philippines be-
cause of inadequate protection.
Admiral Fiske wrote several books,
including The Navy as a Fighting
Machine" and "The Art of Fighting"
Friends said burial probably would