practice. So effective was this work that in 1908, at ranges twice as
great as at Santiago, gunners throughout the fleet averaged sixty per
cent and one vessel scored eighty per cent. Rapidity of fire also was
increased nearly fourfold.
It was the custom to send the fleet each winter to the Caribbean Sea for
manoeuvres, which lasted about four months. In December, 1907, the
Atlantic fleet, comprising sixteen battle-ships and a flotilla of
torpedo-boats, began a cruise around the world. President Roosevelt
steadily adhered to the plan in the face of the most extravagant
denunciation on the part of those who declared that it could be