[2][4] Following leave from November 22, 1890, to January 28, 1891, Eberle received instruction in new developments in naval ordnance at the Washington Navy Yard while awaiting orders for sea duty.

[1] On March 20, 1891, Eberle reported to USS Lancaster and, in the veteran screw sloop-of-war, steamed across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to the Far East.

[1] In the waning days of this service at Annapolis, Eberle's commission as lieutenant, junior grade, arrived on June 12, 1896, only to be followed a week later by orders sending him across the continent to San Francisco, where the battleship Oregon was being completed at the Union Iron Works.

[1][4] Oregon was still operating along the Pacific coast in the spring of 1898 when Congress declared war on Spain; the ship promptly won great renown by its race south from Puget Sound to Cape Horn and then north to the Caribbean to join American forces blockading Cuba.

Besides carrying out the duties of that position, he busied himself in studying ordnance and in writing manuals for the use of guns and torpedoes and for the operation of wireless communication by warships.

In April 1903, Rear Admiral Barker became Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet, and brought Eberle along to again serve as his flag lieutenant.

During this two-year assignment, Eberle assisted in installing the first wireless telegraphs on naval vessels, and developed the early procedures and practical uses of the new communication equipment.

[6] By November 1907, he became executive officer of the battleship USS Louisiana (serving again with Captain Wainwright in command), where he participated in the first leg of the Great White Fleet's voyage around the world.

[1] After overseeing the academy during the period of World War I when the need for officers brought the problems of acceleration, Eberle left Annapolis on January 30, 1919, to command the battleship divisions of the Atlantic Fleet.