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consequence of the Department's request that officers of the service generally should submit suggestions Suggestions for the improvement of navigational methfor Naviga- ods and instruments now in use in the Methods service, many suggestions have been received from Capt. H. S. Knapp, commanding the battleship Florida, and Lieut. Commander Ridley McLean, navigator of that vessel. The Florida, and her sister ship, the Utah, are both equipped with the latest devices the Bureau of Navigation has, tl.e most important of which is the gyro-compass. Data from these ships. will be taken advantage of in the fitting out with instruments and in the navigation of vessels to be commissioned in future. The Florida's officers have suggested that sextant telescopes, azimutn circle, pelorus, azimuth telescope, parallel rulers, chart board, charts, patent log, compass bowl, and various other miscellaneous instruments be furnished; and have suggested new methods for navigation.

Lieut. Commander W. R. Gherardi, of the Delaware, recommended various improvements in navigational methods, the adoption of standard methods, and the furnishing to ships of navigational books; and extended his recommendations to questions of pilotage, hydrography, and kindred subjects.

Commander George C. Day, who was the navigator of the flagship Connecticut in the trip of the fleet around the world, has made a number of recommendations in regard to the management of compasses.

Captain J. A. Hoogewerff, the commanding officer of the Kansas, has suggested the furnishing of a star globe to ships and has submitted a design for a chart board. Lieut. Commander F. E. Ridgely, navigator of the Kansas, has submitted forms for working sights and graduations of compass roses on charts, a design for a chart board, and has suggested a universal drafting instrument, xylonite parallel rulers, and sextant telescopes as being desirable.

Commander George W. Logan, who superintended the revision of the Bowditch Navigator in 1903, now an instructor at the Naval Academy, has suggested a Blish Prism.

Other suggestions received are from:

Lieut. Commander E. H. DeLany, Navy Yard, Boston, Mass.: rust back range instrument, and Blish prism.

Lieut. W. II. Toaz, Recruiting Station, Portland, Oregon: changes in navigational methods and the furnishing of tables.

Lieut. P. H. Hammond, of the Des Moines: portable sextant light.

Lieut. Commander S. E. Moses, Navy Yard, Norfolk, Va. changes in navigational methods.

Lieut. Commander G. E. Gelm, of the Virginia: portable sextant.

Commander F. L. Sawyer, Inspector of Ordnance, Brooklyn, N. Y.: change in bridge control, pelorus, furnishing of charts, furnishing of chart board and various miscellaneous instruments.

Lieut. Commander D. F. Boyd, Navy Department: the furnishing of a Blish prism.

Letters from officers in the Asiatic and Pacific Fleets, when received, will undoubtedly furnish many additional suggestions, which, with those above mentioned, should result in further standardizing the science of navigation as practiced in the navy. Notwithstanding the present predominance and necessarily accentuated importance of ordnance and gunnery, from the suggestions and letters so far received it is evident that American officers have taken a keen interest in seamanship and the science of navigation, as well as in ordnance, gunnery, steam engineering, and electricity.

THE ships of the Atlantic Fleet have completed their Spring target practice, as well as spotting practice at Spring the San Marcos. Battle practice was comTarget pleted off the Southern Drill Grounds on Practice April 9, and torpedo practice by the battleships was also completed on that day. The battleships had previously completed their night practice off Cape Cruz, Cuba, in the latter part of March. The destroyers completed their practice on April 7. The first half of this practice was held during the latter part of March, with the submarines, off Guantanamo, and the second part off Pensacola, Florida.

No comparative details of the results will be made public for some time. It is stated, however, that the battleship Utah made a remarkably good showing for a new ship, although not, as was reported, the best showing of the ships engaged. The Utah demolished the target at the third salvo. The range for all the ships was 11,000 yards.

An experiment tried this year for the first time was the stripping of two ships, the Kansas and the South Carolina, of much moveable gear, in order to demonstrate as nearly as practicable what firing would be with the ships under war conditions. The boats, various wooden fittings, furniture, etc., were landed from the ships, as would be done if the ships were really going into action. One hundred and eighty tons was taken from each ship;

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if necessary to lighten the ships more in war time, additional weight could be taken from them.

The Pacific Fleet practice was completed for all classes of vessels on April 24, off San Diego, the battleships having fired the first week in April. The submarines and. destroyers of the Pacific Fleet engaged in torpedo practice, with the cruiser Maryland as a target, the war heads being removed from the torpedoes. While the destroyers Lawrence, Farragut, Goldsborough, and Whipple, and the submarine Grampus were firing at the Maryland, on April 24, the cruiser had a hole pierced in her skin plating below the water line, by one of the torpedoes. Repairs were made by the ship's force. The warheads of the torpedoes were supposed to have been removed; but the force of impact of a well-aimed shot was greater than had been expected, or, through mistake, a torpedo was fired that had not had the warhead removed.

Firing with real torpedoes at vessels in commission is an experiment this year in target practice. The damage to the Maryland may raise a question in regard to the advisability of further target practice of this kind, and the report of the board of inquiry in the case is awaited with interest.

Two of the ships of the Atlantic Fleet, the Michigan and Connecticut, were selected to fire at the hulk of the San Marcos, which is lying in Chesapeake Bay. This is the second year that the San Marcos has been used in spotting practice; and, as the hulk was not demolished,

it is likely that the vessel will be used for the same purpose again next year.

The cruisers California, Colorado, and South Dakota, of the Pacific Fleet, which were recently ordered to the Philippines, although not made a part of the Asiatic Fleet, will engage in target practice when the Asiatic Fleet begins that work, at a date to be decided upon by the Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Station.

THE Nevada (No. 36) being built by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, and the Oklahoma (No. 37) Nevada being built by the New York Shipbuildand ing Company, are sister ships, with a disOklahoma placement of 27,500 tons each. This is about 4,000 tons more than the Florida and Utah. The Nevada and Oklahoma will have a length of 575 feet; beam, 95 feet 21⁄2 inches; mean draft, 28 feet 6 inches; estimated speed, 20.5 knots; bunker capacity, 598,400 gallons fuel oil. They are to be equipped with Curtis turbines, and twenty watertube boilers. Their contract price, exclusive of armor and armament, is $6,000,000 each. They will have cage masts and one funnel each and an armament of ten 14-inch 45-caliber guns, twenty-one 5-inch guns, with four 3-pounder saluting guns, and four 21-inch submerged torpedo tubes.

The arrangement of the turrets and guns will be as described in the July, 1911, number of THE NAVY, the two turrets nearest the bow and stern each mounting three guns, the other two turrets each mounting two guns,

THE torpedo boat destroyers Jarvis and Henley were launched on April 3, 1912, the Jarvis by the New York Destroyers Shipbuilding Company, at Camden, N. J., and Jarvis, the Henley by the Fore River Shipbuilding and Jouett Company, at Quincy, Mass. The Jouett was launched on April 15, by the Bath Iron Works, at Bath, Maine.

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Henley,

All three vessels are oil fuel burning. Length on load water line, 289 feet; beam, 26 feet 11⁄2 inches; mean hull draft. 8 feet 4 inches; normal displacement, 742 tons; length over all, 293 feet 10 inches; full load displacement, 883 tons; mean displacement for trial, 742 tons. The fuel capacity of the Jarvis and Jouett is 65,9,4 gallons of oil, and of the Henley, 68,487 gallons. Contract speed, 29.5 knots.

The Jarvis and the Jouett have Parsons turbines; the former, four Thorneycroft boilers, and the latter, four Normand boilers. The Henley has Curtis turbines and reciprocating engines, and four Yarrow boilers.

The generating sets of each of these ships were built by the General Electric Company. The armament of each vessel is five 3-inch 50-caliber guns, and three twin 18inch torpedo tubes. The Jarvis, costing $640,000, is to be completed by December 3, 1912; the Jouett, costing $654,500, is to be completed by November 30, 1912; and the Henley, costing $648,700, is to be completed by November 28, 1912. Each destroyer will have two masts and four funnels, and each will carry a complement of four officers and seventy-nine men.

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PHOTO BY NEW YORK SHIPBUILDING CO.

LAUNCHING OF THE JARVIS (APRIL 18, 1912)

THE Henley is named for Captain Robert Henley, who was born in James City County, Virginia, January 5, 1783, and died at Charleston, South Carolina, The Henley October 7, 1828. He was appointed a midshipman, April 8, 1799; commissioned lieutenant, January 29, 1807; commander (master commandant), August 12, 1814; and captain, March 3, 1825.

Henley's first service was with Captain Truxton, in the Constellation, where he was distinguished for bravery in an engagement with the l'engeance, February 1, 1800. He commanded a division of gunboats, manned from the crew of the Constellation, in the boat attacks on the British frigates lying in Hampton Roads, June 18-20, 1813.

As master commandant of the Eagle, the flagship of Captain McDonough in the battle of Lake Champlain, he led the American line, September 11, 1814. Henley was highly praised by his commanding officer, and received the thanks of Congress and a gold medal.

The Jouett

THE Jouett is named for Rear Admiral James E. Jouett, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, February 27, 1828, and died at Sandy Springs, Maryland, September 30, 1902. He was appointed midshipman, September 10, 1841; served in the Mexican War; commissioned lieutenant, September 15, 1855; commander, July 25, 1866; captain, January 6, 1874; commodore, January 11, 1883; rear admiral, February 19, 1886.

He took an active part in the Civil War. On November 7, 1861, while lieutenant on board the Santee, he commanded a detachment of sailors and marines from that ship, who boarded and destroyed the Confederate armed schooner Royal Yacht, in Galveston Bay. Lieutenant Jouett had a desperate hand-to-hand conflict with the commander of the enemy's vessel, and received two severe wounds in the right arm, and right side and lung, from a pike in the hands of one of the crew of the schooner. Lieutenant Jouett received the commendation of his commanding officer, and the thanks of the Department for his achievement.

He commanded the Metacomet, in the battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864, when that vessel was lashed to the flagship Hartford. During the engagement, the Metacomet cast off, to chase Confederate gunboats, and crippled the Confederate ship Gaines, so that she ran ashore and was destroyed by her captain. The Morgan had retreated, and in one hour's running fight, the Selma was captured, Captain Jouett having attacked four times the number of his guns in this encounter. Admiral Farragut, in his official report, highly commended Jouett's conduct.

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THE Santee (long ago stricken from the Navy Register), which has been moored alongside the dock at Annapolis Sinking for the past twenty-seven years, on the mornof the ing of April 2 was found flooded, and setSantee tled in the mud the following morning. Attempts to pump her out, at the rate of 2,500 gallons a minute, failed.

As long ago as 1906, weak places in the bottom of the vessel were filled with cement, but she sprang leak after leak; and for the past two years, she had been making from 20 to 26 inches of water daily, which was daily pumped out. Of late years she has not been considered worth spending money on.

The Santee was launched at Kittery, Maine, in 1855. During the Civil War, launches from the Santee, under command of the late Rear Admiral Jouett, boarded and destroyed the Confederate armed schooner Royal Yacht, and took her crew prisoners. Soon after, the Santee

THE SANTEE

was sent to the Naval Academy as a schoolship. 1865, when the Naval Academy was moved from Newport to Annapolis, the vessel was dismasted and roofed over at Annapolis. For many years she was used as a guard house for refractory naval cadets, and in more recent years, as quarters for marines and sailors stationed at the Academy.

REVIEWS

"HOW TO PLAY THE 'NAVAL WAR GAME'"

By FRED T. JANE. Sampson, Low & Co., Ltd., London, 1912. The 1912 edition of Jane's "Naval War Game" gives the official rules for 1912, cancelling previous rules, and is interleaved for the addition of extra rules, etc.

This edition is the result of the playing of the "Naval War Game" during the thirteen years since its first introduction. This game, as Mr. Jane points out, "Is not intended in any way whatever to teach tactics on shore instead of at sea, but, on the contrary, is framed with the idea that such a thing is impossible."

The War Game is now worked entirely on the "Striker and Target system," which has recently been considerably extended; the "Point system," under which it was first worked, having been discarded long ago, as useless in practice.

A feature of the "Naval War Game" now is the substitution of the umpire's decisions for the general standard of uniformity resulting from set rules and regulations that had little in real practice to recommend it, since it gave the players exact knowledge that they would not have in real war. Much realism is added to the game, by the uncertainty thus introduced into it.

The book contains, besides Instructions for Beginners and Lists of Players, chapters on Moving, Signalling, Battle Procedure (which includes, among other things, torpedo, submarine, and aeroplane operations), and on General Matters, such as commerce, attack and defence, forts, and military operations. It closes with a section devoted to "Specimen Wars."

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