Delaware. Returning to the United States he was attached to the ordnance department until 1870.
He was then ordered to Annapolis remaining till 1872, when he was sent, as navigator of the Shenandoah, to the Mediterranean. He sailed this vessel back to Key West on the expected outbreak of trouble in 1874 between the United States and Spain. Once more ordered to the Mediterranean on board the Congress, as executive officer he was in those waters till called back to America to be present at the opening of the Centennial exposition in 1876. In September of that year he was on duty as a signal officer in the navy department in Washington, District of Columbia. Two months after, as a reward for the excellent condition of the Congress, he was transferred to the command of the training ship Saratoga, retaining that position till 1880. For a year he was equipment officer at the Washington navy yard and then became a member of the first Advisory Board. It was his suggestion that steel should be adopted as the material for the building of all our war vessels thereafter, and he offered to the board a resolution to that effect. This resolution was adopted and to this innovation on older and less effective construction is traced the greater efficiency and power of the United States navy at present. His next duty lay in the inspection of the fifth Lighthouse district, 1882-84. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad was indebted to him in 1884 for acting as inspector of the bridge building material of its road, and after this he was again attached to the Fifth Lighthouse district as inspector, 1885-87. When the construction of the new United States navy was to begin, Secretary Whitney, selected Commander Evans to be the chief inspector of steel, to make out specifications, to organize and to operate all the methods which a government should employ to judge of the material to be used in the construction of these new vessels. His appointment as the secretary of the Lighthouse Board followed, and the especial service of superintending the building of the United States battleship Maine. Asking for and obtaining a leave of absence, he went to Appleton, Wisconsin, to erect a sulphite fiber mill for the Manufacturing Investment Company of New York. He was ordered to the Ossipee, subsequently to the Yorktown, in command of the Bering Sea fleet. On July 19, 1894, he was ordered to service on the cruiser New York, and while the battleship Indiana was in process of construction, he received orders November 20, 1895, to take command of her and
