with obsolescent M1884 Springfield rifles and .45-70 black-powder ammunition. Training consisted mostly of route marches and drill practice, as there were rarely enough funds to permit regular target practice. As Commandant, Heywood attempted to improve the fighting ability of Marines in their role as naval infantry, while simultaneously attempting to integrate the Marine Corps more fully into modern naval sea operations. To this end Heywood instituted a regular program of marksmanship training, while having marines train to become gun crews for the secondary batteries aboard the navy's cruisers and battleships. Although the Marines were scheduled to receive new smokeless powder 6 mm Lee rifles in 1895, delays in production and insufficient appropriations caused the Marine Corps to retain their old M1884 .45-70 Springfield rifles as late as 1897. Commandant Heywood was said to have refused initial deliveries of small allotments of Lee rifles to Marine battalions until he was given assurances that an appropriation would be made to the Corps for at least 3,000 Lee rifles, improved target ranges, and enough ammunition to continue existing marksmanship training programs. Despite Heywood's efforts, the declaration of war with Spain in 1898 found the Marine Corps ill-prepared for combat in terms of training with modern small arms, battle drills, and small-unit exercises. With no battalion-sized Marine forces at hand, Commandant Heywood ordered a scratch battalion of Marines formed from around 650 Marines stationed across New England, which sailed from Brooklyn, New York just five days later aboard the , a former banana boat that had been hastily converted into a troop transport upon the outbreak of hostilities. Designated the First Battalion, and commanded by Lt. Col. Robert W. Huntington, the unit was scheduled to make an opposed landing in Cuba to secure a harbor at Guantánamo Bay. The Panther proved to be a poor substitute for a purpose-designed transport ship, and troop morale plummeted in the tight and sweaty confines of the Panthers holds; later that same year, Commandant Heywood would request in his report to the Secretary of the Navy that the , a converted passenger steamship, should be retained in naval service as a permanent troopship. To make matters worse, Lt. Col. Huntington's marines had only just been issued their Lee rifles together with ten rounds each for familiarization purposes, and officers had to instruct enlisted men on the operation and maintenance of their new rifles on the top deck of