 Besides the patrols made during this deployment in northwestern waters , Yorktown conducted routine operations such as target practices . Among the officers assigned to the ship at that time was Lt. Bradley Fiske , a young officer who had invented and constructed a practical telescopic gunsight . Fiske 's sight had been tested in Baltimore and had favorably impressed that ship 's officers — including her commander , Captain Winfeld S. Schley . Evans , however , had not taken a liking to Fiske 's newfangled gadget but nevertheless consented to allow a second test on board Yorktown ( the first one had failed miserably ) . On the afternoon of 22 September 1892 , during scheduled target practice , Fiske 's invention worked as designed and elicited praise from Evans . As Fiske himself later wrote in the United States Naval Institute 's magazine Proceedings , modern naval gunnery had its birth not in the British Navy but in the American — off Unalaska on 22 September 1892 , in Yorktown . 
