In venturing to comment upon a subject which is, very rightly, receiving much attention just at present, I shall confine myself to the training of landsmen, in which work I have been engaged for nearly three years on board the Lancaster.
It should be recognized, in the first place, that a system of training at any time must be based primarily upon the immediate necessities of the service at large—not upon ideals. We must not simply dream of the past or the future, but we must think of the present and give practical considerations full sway. We must note the one governing fact that officers, petty officers, and men in large numbers are needed immediately for general service, and that this demand will not be supplied for several years to come. Evidently, then, the best system of training for us to-day is the one which will get, keep, and graduate into the service the greatest number of recruits in the shortest possible time, and which, while doing so, will divert from general service the smallest number of trained officers, petty officers, and seamen. To do this, the true functions and the necessary practical work of the training service should be carefully considered and kept within reasonable limits.
Quite apart from the consideration of present necessities, it is submitted that there is such a thing as carrying the training process too far, or attempting to carry it so far that failure is inevitable. The routine and course of instruction may be very exhaustive and impressive on paper; but the graduate may not impress us to the same extent except perhaps in the matter of exhaustion. It would be wiser to teach him fewer things—the few things that an ordinary seaman most needs to know—and teach these with more practical thoroughness. The recruit should not have that hopeless, hunted, haunted expression, that feeling of fatigue, we sometimes note. Too much training makes a man mad. It may drive him out of the service before he knows what the life in the navy really is, or what it offers him. Nor is it wise to keep large bodies of recruits herded together for many months. Far better distribute them as soon as possible. If the foundation has been properly laid—if they have been well instructed in the rudiments—they will develop more rapidly by bringing them in touch with the service as soon as practicable. It is utterly absurd to talk of giving a young farmer the "sea habit" in the training service. He is needed in general service before he can get any such habit—if men ever get it. It is an "iridescent dream." And if we attempt to "train" it into him by a long nagging process, with all the discomforts and deprivations afloat that can be devised by a careful study of the past and a stony indifference to the present, we will train American lads out of the navy instead of enticing them to remain in it. Many will desert in disgust. Presumably the main object is not only to get men, but to keep them.
It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that we should shorten and brighten the life on board training-ships as much as possible. A band contributes not a little pleasure, but other things will help. Above all, we must remove all sense of imprisonment, and give as much shore leave as practicable. Work and drill the men if we choose from colors in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon, and then send a watch or quarter watch on shore until time for the morning evolution next day, and the best results, the most contentment, and the nearest approach to success in teaching the " sea habit " will be attained. Restriction to a ship for long periods leads to all sorts of excesses when liberty comes. Even officers who remain too much on board are injured thereby both physically and mentally.
And in this connection the question may well be asked, why is it so difficult for officers or men to get ashore or to get back to a ship? Why are not ship's boats used more? If they were, more men would know how to pull a good oar, or to run a steam cutter, and they would get up their muscle, too. There is no better drill or exercise imaginable. Let it be regarded as a drill—here is a happy solution, which may remove the objection to using a man-of-war's boats. It would be a good thing if there were a regulation compelling every ship in the navy to send a boat ashore, under ordinary circumstances, every hour from 6 A. M. until midnight. It has been done—with excellent results. It tends to rob going to sea of many discomforts, both for officers and men.
It must not be forgotten that the business of training landsmen is heart-breaking work. No sooner is one draft broken in than they are sent away and a green draft arrives. There must be some hope, some compensation, for officers and petty officers engaged in this work. Few enjoy it. It is a constant grind— the conditions are far more irksome than in general service.
In a recent paper on the training-ship, Lieutenant Beach of the navy very properly divided the training of seamen into three periods: 1. The barracks; 2. The training-ship; 3. The service. The first two periods must, by the demands of the navy to-day, be short and "strenuous"—limited absolutely to instruction in the most elementary, practical and necessary subjects. The work of the shore station and the training-ship should be marked out within certain lines which will accomplish desired results, leaving sufficient play for the intelligent and individual views of commanding officers, and not interfering too much with routine matters which may necessarily be peculiar to each ship or station. An "Office of Naval Training," as proposed by Lieutenant Beach, would be an excellent thing, to systematize the training service and to exercise general control and supervision over the work. But there must not be too much concentration of authority in an office on shore. The office must not rule the ship in little details. The pivot chair must not entirely usurp the functions of the bridge. The " sea habit" should be that commendable habit which induces all naval officers, while on shore at a desk, to think first of the ship and to give the ship and the men on board every possible assistance and encouragement, and give it promptly.
Admitting for the present that the immediate demands of the service force us to adopt a short course of training for landsmen, let us consider how we may shorten this course and how the time may be best employed.
The Barracks.
Before sending the recruit to the training-ship he should be provided with a proper clothing outfit, a ditty box and a rain suit, all very carefully marked. He should be taught to care for his clothes, and to keep his bag and hammock in perfect condition. He should be brought under the strictest military discipline from the start—not coddled at all. He should be well set up, and drilled in the school of the squad and the manual of arms. As soon as he can handle a rifle and revolver—a few days' instruction will quite suffice—he should be given as much target practice as time trill permit. He should be taught to pull an oar, and should have elementary instruction in knotting and splicing. This period of training need not be longer than one month, or six weeks. I should be glad to receive landsmen on board the Lancaster after this short preliminary instruction on shore. If it is done with thoroughness the recruits will be ready to settle down to the work on board the training-ship.
The Training-Ship.
The function of the training-ship should be limited as follows: Get the men aloft as soon as possible, sending them over the masthead first and then out on the yards, the different divisions being finally stationed aloft in two details, one the loose and the other to furl for instance, so that every landsmen shall get this exercise. Teach the recruits how to live on board ship and keep themselves scrupulously clean; to pull a good oar; to heave the lead; to box the compass; knotting and splicing; palm and needle; wigwag, Ardois, and flag signals; the log and sounding machine; anchors and chains; boats under oars and sail; to loose, reef and furl sail; first aid to wounded. The divisional drills should include main and secondary battery, some infantry and single sticks, fire quarters, general quarters, abandon ship, arm and away boats, and collision mat. The draft should have one regular target practice with rifles, revolvers, and great guns during the course, but it should not be required to give a thorough training in ordnance and marksmanship on board the training-ship. The course on board the latter, to be short, must be limited more or less to seamanship and other subjects which cannot be so well taught elsewhere, leaving the cruising ship its legitimate and proper work. The shore stations and the cruising ship must develop marksmen. The training-ship must ensure a good physique, and turn out an active, hearty lad who will be found, when he goes to a cruiser to be up to the work of an ordinary seaman in most respects, and capable of rapid development by his divisional officer in his new environment. If he gets to the cruiser before he is wearied and discouraged, he will think he is progressing, the change of scene and duty will interest him, and he will be more inclined to remain permanently in his service.
It may be thought that this period in the training-ship is too short. Experience on board the Lancaster convinces me that it is quite long enough—under a proper system of instruction. If we have fewer training-ships, retaining all the full-rigged and sailing ships, and give to each of these a full complement of officers and petty officers for instructors, more can be accomplished in three months than in six months or a year with many training-ships all having short complements of competent instructors.
In order to expedite the preliminary work, the training-ships, instead of making long or foreign cruises, should be kept in close touch with the barracks or shore stations on both coasts, spending not more than one week of each month at sea, and the other three weeks at anchor where the instruction can be pushed much more rapidly. The Hartford, Lancaster, Mohican, Essex, Alliance, Topeka and Monongahela, if provided with full complements of trained instructors by retiring some of the mastless ships from the training service, could graduate double the number of landsmen, and there could be a great saving in officers and men for the general service. In this connection a proposition by Lieutenant Blue to utilize converted yachts by attaching the latter to the large training-ships is most important. The plan has been followed to a certain extent at one or two shore stations, and it was the intention to use the Wasp at Port Royal in connection with the Lancaster and Topeka to give the men practice at the helm, in heaving the lead, and at target practice, etc. This matter will be referred to again later on.
The Petty Officer as Instructor
The key to the prompt and proper instruction of landsmen is to be found in the petty officers. Without them much time will be wasted. It is impossible and impracticable for commissioned officers to personally instruct large bodies of landsmen in the elements of seamanship, etc. Whatever success has been attained on board the Lancaster is due to the fact that the divisions are subdivided into four or six squads, each squad under the personal charge of a petty officer or seaman, who is required to instruct it in all little details, the commissioned and warrant officers exercising general supervision, assigning the subjects from day to day so that the squads will all get the instruction in turn. Some excellent squad instructors have been developed. In this work the squad leaders have been supplied with signal cards, compass cards, printed lists of questions, and illustrated plates giving the nomenclature and details regarding sails, anchors and chains, etc. These cards were designed on board the Lancaster, and by request, a large number were printed and supplied by the Bureau of Navigation. A small hand-book of instruction for landsmen has also been printed and distributed on board. It has been suggested to the Bureau, and to the Naval Institute, that an illustrated hand-book for petty officers be issued to the service, containing matter culled from the various drill books—all information needed by a petty officer to enable him to drill a squad, a boat’s crew, or gun’s crew, etc. The petty officers of the navy have never been utilized sufficiently in drills and discipline, and they have had no means of learning their legitimate duties except while on drill. They should be supplied with a hand-book of drills, and be required to pass an examination—to prove themselves competent to drill and instruct a squad—before receiving promotion. In a short time the petty officers throughout the service would recognize their true status, and the divisional officer would receive better support. Training schools will not suffice. The customs of the service at large and the daily routine of cruising ships will alone determine whether petty officers are to be efficient or inefficient. The order fixing their status, defining their duties, and prescribing their qualifications for promotion must come from the Navy Department, the fountain head, to be effective. Then the petty officer will recognize the inevitable. I dwell upon this subject of petty officers because it is the peg upon which everything hangs in the prompt and through instruction of landsmen.
Type of Training-Ship
Space forbids more than a very brief discussion of this subject. Personally I prefer large full-rigged ships like the Lancaster, with clear open decks where the recruit can be kept constantly under the eye, and where a large number can be instructed by a comparatively few line officers. And it is my firm belief that even three months' drill in such a ship, every effort being made to get the recruits aloft daily, develops the men physically, makes them fairly active and fearless aloft, and by causing them to use their arms, legs, hands and brains under conditions of some personal danger goes far toward the "formation of character," as expressed by Captain Chadwick. I cannot see that any other method of physical training would answer so well, and the moral effect of three months' work of this kind is lasting and invaluable. That we cannot give the men more of it is due to the pressing demands of the service. If we could get brigs, as proposed by Lieutenant Beach, or more full-rigged ships later on, it would be wise to do so. For the present we should at least use all the full-rigged and partly rigged ships we have to the best advantage, and give as many recruits as possible the benefits of at least three months of this invaluable training. The opponents of sailing ships should be willing to accept this compromise. If they get the recruit in service in four months, in condition to take up the work and drills of a modern ship, they should not object to a training which does so much to produce a good physical development. After all, the most important thing in a man-of-war's man is that he shall be active, handy and fearless. If we start the recruit with these qualities he will soon pick up knowledge in general service.
Routine of Training-Ship
It is not an easy matter to prescribe a routine that would be in all respects applicable to every training-ship, but certain general requirements could be made to which all should conform in order to bring the graduated landsmen to the same desirable standard.
With the approval of the Bureau of Navigation, the following general drill routine has been adhered to by the Lancaster for the past six months:
Forenoon.—Cross light yards at colors.
9.20.—Loose sail, for exercise, weather permitting.
9.30 to 11.—Divisional and "all-hands" drills; general quarters, fire quarters, abandon ship, arm and away, collision mat, boats under oars and sail, seamanship and sail drills, battery, single sticks, revolvers and infantry drill.
The drill routine was changed weekly, or every ten days, the drills under each head being "bunched," or repeated, until the men were fairly proficient in each before passing to another.
11.30.—Furl sail. One detail of men having loosed, the other detail would furl, thus getting every landsman in the ship aloft every day.
Afternoon: 1.15 to 3.00.—Squad instruction by the petty officers, the commissioned and warrant officers supervis1ng, in the following subjects: Knotting and splicing, heaving the lead, compass and log, helm, palm and needle, anchors and chains, signals, seamanship, passing boat stoppers, etc.; instruction by surgeon in first aid to wounded.
5.00 P. M.—Evening quarters. Setting-up drill, and marching around the deck, or exercise going aloft and laying out and in on the yards.
6.00 P. M.—Supper.
Sunset.—Send down light yards.
8.00 to 8.30 P. M.—Officers of the deck instructs his division at the Ardois.
Where practicable, send quarter watch on shore at 3.30 P. M. to return at 7 A. M. in time to cross the light yards. The officers having the day watches lower their division boats and send drill crews from their divisions, in succession, to make pulling trips during the day so that all get exercise.
It was the intention to send a division to the Wasp daily at 1 o'clock to return at 6 for supper, the Wasp to be underway, giving the men work at the wheel and hand lead constantly, and at target practice.
As a result of this routine two different drafts of landsmen were, in my estimation, put in condition for transfer to cruising ships after three months' training on board the Lancaster. Their development was surprising, particularly in work aloft, and they were sufficiently grounded in divisional drills, at the battery, at infantry, etc., to fall in with the routine of a cruiser. In connection with this argument in favor of a short cruise for landsmen it should be remembered that they are older and more fully developed than apprentices when they enlist, and for this reason they can be brought to the proper standard much easier. For the same reason they chafe under restrictions, and are discouraged by a prospect of many months of training before they can get into general service. The most that should be attempted by the training service at present should be to bring the recruits as near as possible to the standard of an ordinary seaman. After the four months' training outlined above at the barracks and in the training-ship, the great majority of the recruits who have come under my observation are much nearer the proper standard of ordinary seamen than the men who are, or have been in the past, enlisted as ordinary seamen for general service. I should much prefer the graduates of the Lancaster to the ordinary seamen enlisted at receiving-ships. It is for this reason that I advocate a short course of training to meet present emergencies.
Summary
To summarize briefly the recommendations contained in this paper:
- Keep the recruit one month or six weeks at the barracks.
- Keep the full-rigged, or partly rigged, training-ships in close touch with the shore stations, limiting their course of instruction to three months.
- Retire some of the mastless training-ships and give the -remaining ships better complements of petty officers and instructors.
- Provide a hand-book for petty officers of the navy, and establish the system of squad instruction by petty officers on board training-ships, the officers supervising and naming the subjects for this instruction.
- Attach one or more converted yachts, as proposed by Lieutenant Blue, to each training-ship. Send a division daily to the yacht at 1 o'clock (after the morning and all-hands drills) to return at 6, the yacht in the meantime being underway giving the men work at wheel and lead and at target practice. After each division has been instructed in this daily routine several times let the yacht take each division in turn for a week's cruise.
In a few words, concentrate the instruction upon the essentials—physical development, pulling an oar, heaving the lead, compass, helm, elementary ordnance, infantry, signals, etc., as outlined in the foregoing routine.
Avoid an elaborate and complicated system, and get the landsman on board a cruiser to "acquire information" of modern ships and modern armaments as soon as possible.
After three years' observation and work with landsmen, I am convinced that the plan as outlined would turn out intelligent recruits for the navy. And with proper foresight and thoughtfulness the training-ship, while carrying out a very "strenuous" routine and demanding the strictest discipline, may at the same time bring Contentment, satisfaction, and hope to the landsmen who are trained and to the officers and men who are engaged in training them.