85. The work done by the physical laboratory in testing material and in maintaining a high standard of excellence in raw materials has resulted in greatly reducing rejections of finished material. This has resulted in economy and rapidity of production. 86. The optical shop has done excellent work by improving and simplifying many types of optical instruments important to the accuracy of gun fire. Improvements have also been made in method of manufacture and in testing raw material. 87. During the past year the planning division has submitted estimates on work amounting to $1,871,475. The final costs were less than the estimates by about six-tenths of 1 per cent. This reflects great accuracy in estimates at the gun factory and also reflects credit on the shops to produce the material in accordance with estimates made before manufacture is begun. 88. A fire-control school was established at the Naval Gun Factory during the latter part of the fiscal year. The school is now in operation and the bureau feels confident that its value to the service will be great. NAVAL POWDER FACTORY 89. During the fiscal year there have been two fires at the powder factory. On the 21st of November, 1923, the soda-conveyor belt used to convey nitrate of sodium from dryer to storage bin ignited; only a small property damage resulted. On the 18th of December, 1923, there was a fire in the solvent recovery building. The cause of this. fire was unknown. Total property loss amounted to $3,346. 90. During the year, 1,444,470 pounds of powder were manufactured at the powder factory. The cost of powder was somewhat increased owing to the small quantity produced. 91. Experimental work has been conducted at the laboratory of the powder factory in connection with surveillance of various explosives under atmospheric and varying temperature condition. Many new explosives were analyzed and tested and a number of new materials were prepared for test at the proving ground in connection with development work. NAVAL AMMUNITION DEPOTS 92. Ammunition depots have met all calls for preparation of serv ice and target practice ammunition. The care, upkeep, and proper overhaul of ammunition stocks constitutes a problem to the bureau. as at some of the ammunition depots there are large stocks of ammunition, turned in at the end of the war, which must be carefully gone over and put in a state for future use. NAVAL PROVING GROUND 93. During the fiscal year a large amount of work was done at the proving ground in connection with proof of guns, proof of powders for service, proof of target-practice powders, proof of projectiles, firing for ranging data, test of fuses, and experimental work. 94. The total number of rounds fired by the proving ground during the year was 4,083. Total amount of powder expended for proof and experimental work was 381,000 pounds. NAVAL ORDNANCE PLANT, SOUTH CHARLESTON, W. Va. 95. This plant has been on an inoperative basis and only sufficient force has been employed in order to maintain the buildings, machinery, rolling stock, and grounds. 96. A large amount of surplus material has been sold by auction at this plant. NAVAL ORDNANCE PLANT, BALDWIN, LONG ISLAND, N. Y. 97. During the year 17,000 projectiles were completed and issued to the service; the average number of employees amounted to 135. NAVAL TORPEDO STATION, NEWPORT, R. I. 98. As a depot for the storage, issue, and supply of ordnance material, the torpedo station keeps on hand a considerable number of torpedoes for issue, together with the necessary tools, accessories, and spare parts. It has issued a large number of complete torpedoes to the fleet and maintains torpedoes in a ready condition, sufficient in number to meet all anticipated demands. 99. As the Navy increases in size the need for additional storage and for better issuing facilities becomes more and more apparent. A new storehouse for torpedoes and new docks alongside which to berth destroyers and thus enable the expeditious issue of torpedoes to them have been recommended. 100. Instruction of personnel in torpedoes forms one of the major activities of the station. The officers completing a six months' course in torpedo work numbered 66. One hundred and thirty enlisted men have completed the regular course, and 98 men have taken special courses. The enlisted men taking such courses should be of the very best type the service possesses if torpedoes are to be efficiently handled in war. No other instrument of war is more powerful or more difficult to operate. It is a weapon of great precision when properly used, but valueless when requisite skill is not employed. The personnel of the torpedo group of the Navy must be specially selected and instructed. 101. The instruction of apprentice machinists has been carried out along ever-improved lines, practical work, recitations, and lectures, all being utilized in order to improve the standard of the school. 102. Progress in torpedoes, as in all weapons of war, demands the attention of skilled technical officers. The shortage in such is acutely felt in every line of endeavor at the station. The Navy does not sufficiently recognize the fact that technical personnel is required, and where in the foreign admiralties 10 to 15 officers are available for special work but 1 or 2 are detailed in our service. There is now but one line officer of this type more than there was in 1916. The years of peace are the ones to be devoted to progress. Additional technical line officers are needed at the station if our torpedo progress is to continue. 103. The torpedo station entered upon the fiscal year with a force 40 per cent less than that employed during the previous year and continued throughout with an average force of 935, as compared with 1,552. Many administrative methods have been altered and the result has been increased production, better appearance of the shops, and improved morale throughout. For instance, despite the smaller force, nearly as many torpedoes were completed, proved, and stored during the year as in the previous year, and there remained more torpedoes in shops awaiting proof this year than last year, this representing actually more torpedoes for the year. More torpedoes have been modernized and converted than during the previous year. The maintenance of shops has been improved both in cleanliness and in the completion of the installment of appropriate safety devices. The new policies in regard to personnel control have effected very tangible benefits to both the Government and the employee. This is well testified to by the increase of production per capita, a marked improvement in the attendance records of the employees, and the exceedingly rare instances of reprimand or disciplinary action. 104. Numerous economies have been introduced into the station's routine. The amount of coal consumed and its price has been reduced greatly; by hauling its own freight the station has obtained a direct saving; the water bill has been reduced by over one-third; and throughout the plant, by attention to minor operations in manufacture and many improvements in multiple work, there have been netted actual savings. 105. Research and development have continued along lines indicated from time to time in the development of the torpedo art and have resulted in real advance, greatly contributing to making the torpedo ever more and more a reliable weapon. Such progress is limited only by the number of technically trained officers and civilians available. PACIFIC COAST TORPEDO STATION, KEYPORT, WASH. 106. This station is principally a storage point and place for testing torpedoes belonging to vessels of the Pacific Fleet. It is utilized by battleships and destroyers of the Pacific Fleet practically the entire year, and is of great value to personnel of the fleet in connection with overhaul of torpedoes and instruction of personnel. NAVAL TORPEDO STATION, ALEXANDRIA, VA. 107. This station is in an inoperative status and only sufficient. personnel is employed to maintain the plant and to care for the torpedoes in storage. NAVY MINE DEPOT, YORKTOWN, VA. 108. The principal work at the mine depot during the past year was reclaiming unserviceable mines and depth charges and the preparation for shipment and receipt of mines and mining material transferred to and from vessels of the fleet. C. C. BLOCH, REPORT OF CHIEF OF BUREAU OF CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR NAVY DEPARTMENT, BUREAU OF CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR, To: The Secretary of the Navy. Subject: Report of the Bureau of Construction and Repair for fiscal year ended June 30, 1924. The total expenditures for the fiscal year 1924, including sums expended jointly with the Bureau of Enginering, were approximately $58,000,000. The bureau force, including officers, clerks, and technical employees, which was reported as 171 on June 30, 1923, numbered 160 on June 30, 1924. Except for the transfer of certain officers to and from the bureau, the organization remained practically unchanged during the year. PERSONNEL Officers. While there has been a slight reduction in the number of officers in the Construction Corps, the situation in the corps is somewhat improved, due to the lesser number of officers under instruction and to the additional experience being acquired by the large proportion of comparatively young officers. A class of 12 were graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June, 1924. A class of 11 will complete their year at the Naval Academy in the fall and will then enter the institute, and a class of eight has been designated to enter the Naval Academy. All these officers are taking the regular postgraduate course in naval construction. The class of 17 officers who were taking the technical instruction included in the special course of instruction authorized for assistant naval constructors appointed from chief carpenter and carpenter completed their work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June, 1924. There remain enrolled for the course 22 officers, two having withdrawn during the year. Seventeen of these officers who had made sufficient advance in the preliminary correspondence work entered the institute in July, 1924, for one year's instruction in technical subjects. The remaining five officers are continuing the correspondence work. Technical and clerical. During the fiscal year 1924 the number of civilian personnel (draftsmen, inspectors, clerks, etc.) employed in navy yards and other offices outside of the Navy Department and paid from the appropriation "Construction and repair" was reduced from approximately 950 to approximately 715, a reduction of about 22 per cent. A small part of the reduction was due to the closing of the superintending constructors' offices at Tacoma, Wash., and at San Francisco, Calif., and to a reduction in the number assigned to other superintending constructors' offices, made possible by the completion and delivery of vessels under construction. The greater part of the reduction was, however, accomplished by a reduction of the forces in the various navy yards and other offices whose activities are being continued. VESSELS UNDER CONSTRUCTION In the bureau's last annual report 40 vessels were listed as under construction on July 1, 1923. Of these vessels, 2 battleships, 5 light (scout) cruisers, 15 submarines, and 1 gunboat were completed during the year. There remained under construction on July 1, 1924, 2 airplane carriers (converted from battle cruisers), 2 light (scout) cruisers, 3 fleet submarines, 6 submarines, and 4 auxiliaries, a total of 17 vessels. The naval act of May 28, 1924, appropriated funds toward the construction of one additional fleet submarine, to be of the minelaying type. This vessel is the fourth of nine fleet submarines included in the building program of the act of August 29, 1916. The construction of the following vessels has been authorized; but their construction has not been undertaken, as no funds have as yet been appropriated for the purpose: The remaining 5 fleet submarines of the 9 referred to above, 12 destroyers, 1 transport, and 1 submarine of the Neff type. Battleships. The last of the battleships whose construction was authorized to proceed under the treaty limiting naval armament, the Colorado and West Virginia, were completed, respectively, on August 30 and December 1, 1923. These vessels are 2 of a group of 10 included in the building program of August 29, 1916. One other vessel of the same design, the Maryland, is in service. The Washington, a fourth vessel of the same design, and the remaining six vessels which were of later design and increased displacement. are all either scrapped or being scrapped under the provisions of the treaty. Airplane carriers.-The Lexington and Saratoga are two of a group of six battle cruisers included in the building program of August 29, 1916. Progress on these vessels was practically suspended during the war to permit concentration on vessels for which the need was more immediately urgent and for some time after the armistice, during the clearing up of the war program of construction, and was stopped on February 8, 1922, following the signing of the treaty limiting naval armament. The conversion of the Lexington and Saratoga to airplane carriers was authorized by the act of July 1, 1922, in accordance with the terms of the treaty, and the department, under date of July 13, 1922, authorized the contractors to resume work on such parts of the vessels as would be not affected by the proposed conversion. Contracts for the completion of the vessels as airplane carriers were signed on November 2, 1922, and October 30, 1922, respectively. |