of the median line. The fifth and last shot fired at the mast was an unloaded 12-inch shot. Just before this was fired the Arkansas ran up a red danger flag, and everyone was anxious to learn what had happened. It was that the Arkansas had sighted a small sailboat in the offing in the line of range, and the torpedo-boat Morris was sent around to chase the small craft away. Shortly before I o'clock the shot was fired. This 12-inch unloaded shell severed five of the steel bars of the mast completely and two of them partly, on the edge of the structure, above the stern of the ship, and, passing through, dropped into the ocean.

This ended the firing. There was a call from the Florida for Lieutenant White and Lieutenant Commander Bradshaw, who were aboard the Mohawk. That tug went in close to the port side of the monitor and landed the two officers, who climbed to the top of the experimental mast, caught hold of its railings, and shook it; but the structure had withstood the test, and moved only a little.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAST

This mast was built of 46 steel tubes, each 21⁄2 inches in diameter at the base, on a diameter of about 30 feet at the bottom, graduating to 10 feet at the top; at its top a platform 20 feet square was laid. The mast weighed eight tons, and this was augmented by an extra weight

of about four tons placed on the topmost platform. It is claimed that if the mast had been constructed like most military masts, out of sheet steel, shells exploding inside of the structure would have completely wrecked it. As it was, the mast, although it was hit by four of the shells and had about a dozen of its tubes severed, still stood, and the five shells went through openings in the structure.

TORPEDO TEST

The second half of the Florida experiments took place a week later, on Saturday, June 13,- when the monitor was used as target for a modern torpedo which was discharged so as to strike the Florida about amidships below the water line. The torpedo was loaded with 230 pounds of guncotton, and exploded with terrific force, tearing a hole about 6 feet high and 8 feet wide at the striking point and immediately in front of a specially constructed bulkhead, the object of which was to offer better torpedo defense by restricting the area of damage caused by a torpedo blow. Water poured into the ship's wound. While the vessel heeled somewhat, she was kept afloat by means of special pumps and was able to proceed to the Norfolk Navy Yard. The test was witnessed by both Secretaries Taft and Metcalf, with many officers of both services, and is officially regarded as a success. Special bulkheads of the type used are being provided for the Michigan and other later types of American ships.

The new armored cruiser Maryland won the battleship trophy in the annual spring record target practice of the American Navy at Magdalena Bay, and therefore leads the heavier ships of the service in target work. The relative merits of the various vessels was made public, during the last week in May, by Commander William S. Sims, General Inspector of Target Practice, with the approval of Secretary of the Navy Metcalf.

The results obtained in the spring work on the target ranges is extremely gratifying and shows the manner in which the American navy has improved in gunnery under the present system of record practice each spring and battle practice every fall. The present system was inaugurated in 1903, and each semi-annual experience on the

range has resulted in improvement of a marked character in the results obtained by the gun pointers.

The percentage of hits made by all classes of guns is now twice as great as it was in 1903. This represents an increase of 100 per cent in the number of hits within the space of five years. But accuracy of hitting is not the only thing in modern naval gunnery. It is regarded as vitally and essentially important not only to hit your enemy, but to strike first and to do it often. That is, the ideal is rapidity of gun-fire, combined with accuracy of blows. Not only has the American navy improved marvelously in certainty of shots, but also in rapidity, the latter also having increased 100 per cent since 1903.

The figures given out at the end of May cover the

CRUISER TARGET TROPHY, WON IN 1908 BY U.S.S. ALBANY

work of the annual contest of the gun-pointers in their efforts to establish qualifying records for the annual fall battle practice of the service. In the record practice during the spring, the range is one mile and the distance is accurately known. It is at this target practice that the gun-pointers demonstrate what they can do, and all above a certain percentage take the prominent places at the best guns in the annual fall battle practice, such as that held at Cape Cod Bay last October, when the range is longer, the distance is not established, the ships steam by in battle order, the range must be picked up, and each ship is allowed just so many minutes in which to hit the target at a constantly varying range, changing from 5,000 up to as high as 8,000 or 9,000 yards.

While the armored cruiser Maryland won the battleship trophy, a fine bronze tablet now held by the battleship Illinois, the Illinois stands at the head of the list of star-ships, and is second only in rank to the armored cruiser which won the highest final merit place. The Maryland belongs to the Pacific Fleet, other vessels of which came out first in the struggle for the other three trophies. The cruiser trophy was won by the Albany, one of the foreign-built vessels bought at the opening of the Spanish-American War, and now attached to the Fourth Division of the Pacific Fleet. The gunboat Wilmington, built in 1894 and attached to the Second Division of the Third Squadron of the Pacific Fleet, won the gunboat trophy; while the torpedo trophy was captured by the Perry, of the Fourth Flotilla, which is also attached to the Pacific Fleet.

The standing of the fleets in the spring record practice was as follows:

The highest final merit for "squadrons" was won by the armored and protected cruiser squadrons of the Pacific Fleet. The armored cruiser squadron and other vessels of the Pacific Fleet, as well as the vessels which made the voyage to the Pacific with the battleship fleet, and Lieutenant Cone's torpedo flotilla, had their record practice at Magdalena Bay under as nearly as possible identical conditions, while the vessels in Atlantic waters had their practice at Guantanamo, Cuba. The standing of the squadrons in the relative order of final merit is as follows:

First Second Squadron, Pacific Fleet: St. Louis, Charleston, Milwaukee, Albany, and Yorktown 64.465.

Second First Squadron, Pacific Fleet: Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Colorado, Tennessee, and Washington — 60.577.

Third-First Squadron, Atlantic Fleet: Louisiana, Connecticut, Vermont, Kansas, Virginia, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Georgia-59.169.

Fourth Second Squadron, Atlantic Fleet: Minnesota, Missouri, Maine, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Alabama, and Kearsarge-55.801.

Fifth Third Squadron, Pacific Fleet: Chattanooga, Galveston, Denver, Cleveland, Concord, and Wilmington - 53.969.

The standing of the various divisions in the relative order of final merit was as follows:

First Fourth Division, Pacific Fleet: Albany and Yorktown-70.598.

Second Fourth Division, Atlantic Fleet: Illinois, Kentucky, Alabama, and Kearsarge-66.133.

Third Third Division, Pacific Fleet: St. Louis, Charleston, and Milwaukee-62.420.

Fourth Flotilla: Perry-68.648. Second Second Flotilla: Truxton, Lawrence, Whipple, Stewart, and Hull - 26.285.

Third- Third Flotilla: Tingey, Porter, Blakely, De Long, and Thornton-25.921.

The standing of vessels singly was as follows, the starships being those that attained at least 85 per cent of the final merit of the trophy winners of their respective classes, all fleet and squadron commands to be accordingly reorganized to give the honor vessels the head positions in the command: