I never heard of the Navy procuring the 1905.
But it was surely carried with empty chamber, just like the 1911.
An old magazine article about the .38 Automatic said that while the hammer could be lowered on a loaded chamber, that it was simpler just to make "an easy motion of the slide" to charge the chamber from the magazine.
Don't recall anything on the Navy ordering M1905's in my reference books. But take a look, Man at Arms Magazine, June 2020, pages 45 & 46. The Navy had M1905's and during WW2, they were reissued to state side Navy personnel, in security jobs, as "substitute standard".
Even though John Browning considered the half cock as the "safety position", there were negligent discharges when the hammer slipped from under the thumb. You can read his patents, and John Browning expected Cavalry troopers to roll the hammer back with the shooting thumb, till it hit the grip safety, and then lower the hammer to the half cock. I don't have a horse, but I am sure, if the horse was bouncy, bouncy, that was hard to do without the hammer slipping.
The Austrian M1905 had a positive safety which made lowering the hammer less problematic.
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