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Total corrections to standards fiscal year ending June 30, 1911........... 8, 100

Outfits (complete; special).

Consists of a selection of charts and books for the particular use of an individual vessel.

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Maintained in Hydrographic Office on issue June 30, 1910.

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Maintained in Hydrographic Office on issue June 30, 1911.

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SUMMARY OF ANNUAL REPORT OF DIVISION OF PILOT CHARTS AND BRANCH OFFICES FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1911.

GENERAL DUTIES.

(a) Compile and edit the pilot charts, Hydrographic Bulletin, reprints, and Daily Memorandum.

(b) Correspondence with observers and sale agents.

(c) Mailing, printing, and supplies.

(d) Sale of publications.

(e) Supervision of branch hydrographic offices.

PUBLICATIONS.

Daily Memorandum.-Consists usually of one typewritten sheet giving reports on obstructions to navigation in all oceans and the Great Lakes. Edition, 150; sent to branch hydrographic offices and the battleship fleet.

Hydrographic Bulletin.-Weekly sheet of three or four columns. Edition, 4,700; pertains to all oceans and Great Lakes; items similar to those in Daily Memorandum. The number of paragraphs in 52 weeks was 1,838, divided among the oceans as follows: North Atlantic, 1,347; South Atlantic, 23; North Pacific, 203; South Pacific, 61; Indian, 31; Great Lakes, 31; unclassified, 142. On the North Atlantic the paragraphs relate to the following subjects: Derelicts and wrecks, 121; icebergs, 462; miscellaneous, 764.

Periodical publications issued during the year.

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The best efforts of the employees are more than required on routine matters, leaving some necessary lines unaccomplished, such as indexing, carding, and preparing for publication numerous port facilities reports, route reports, and current reports, indexing the names and addresses of cooperating observers and others entitled to our publications as listed at the branch hydrographic offices and the main office. There are required, to keep up with and continue this work in hand, one more nautical expert, one typewriter, and one helper.

BRANCH HYDROGRAPHIC OFFICES.

The work of these offices has continued along the lines laid down in previous years, but has fallen short in the matter of meeting every incoming vessel for the purpose of obtaining all the news of the sea and extending the cooperation of shipmasters. The condition can be remedied by placing a naval officer at every branch office and increasing the civilian personnel at several of them. The number of official visits received by the branch offices rose from 25,139 (fiscal year 1910) to nearly 28,000 (1911). There was also an increase in the number of weekly Hydrographic Bulletins, Daily Memorandum, and pamphlets distributed to the shipping public and in the number of reports collected from the sea relating to ocean currents and icebergs. In other respects the figures in the tabular statement of work done by the branch hydrographic offices are slightly below those of the previous year. An important work of these offices continues to be the instruction given to Naval Militia and to Great Lakes mariners in the elements of navigation, compass work, compass corrections, etc.

E.

SUMMARY OF THE REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE MAIN OFFICE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1911.

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Sale of Hydrographic Office publications.-Bills made and accounts kept for 60 agents and the general public.

Vouchers and requisitions handled.-1,000 sets of vouchers; 304 sets of requisitions; Vouchers and requisitions estimated.

Correspondence.-Received 16,500 letters, 808 books, and pamphlets; sent, 6,500 letters; letters received and sent are estimated

Tabular statement of work done by the branch hydrographic offices during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911.

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REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF ORDNANCE.

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY,

BUREAU OF ORDNANCE,

Washington, D. C., October 1, 1911.

SIR: This report is submitted in compliance with the department's circular letter of June 19, 1911, No. 5087/96.

The present chief of bureau succeeded Rear Admiral N. E. Mason, United States Navy, on May 25, 1911.

The work of the bureau has, as in the past, consisted mainly of two general classes:

1. Providing ordnance outfits for new vessels.

2. Repairing, altering, and modifying to suit changed conditions the batteries and other ordnance material on board the older vessels. In addition to or in connection with the work of these main classes a vast volume of work has been carried on in the way of design, test, and experiment in order that the bureau may be always ready to meet the demands of the fleet and, so far as possible, to anticipate them. No radical changes in offensive weapons or defensive material have been made nor any marked changes in design; advance in efficiency has been accomplished rather by perfecting details than by adopting new principles or developing novel ideas.

GUNS.

The 14-inch gun, 45 calibers in length, which, at the date of the last annual report, had been built and tested as a type gun only, has been adopted as the main battery gun of the New York and Texas, and guns in sufficient numbers to arm these two vessels are now in course of manufacture. The gun is, structurally and ballistically, eminently satisfactory.

The 12-inch 50-caliber guns for the main batteries of the Arkansas and Wyoming are well advanced, some having been already completed.

The 5-inch 51-caliber guns of the Florida and Utah classes have been duplicated for the New York and Texas, with modifications in the breech mechanisms. Guns of the same type will be manufactured for the two battleships last authorized, No. 36 and No. 37.

For torpedo-boat destroyers a new 4-inch 50-caliber gun has been designed, and manufacture for the vessels last authorized will begin in the autumn.

For the 3-inch 50-caliber guns in service a new type of eccentric breech mechanism has been designed which will remove all possibility

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