How many times that note has appeared on my desk calendar! And how great has been the enjoyment and satisfaction derived from following out those instructions. In the course of cruising from place to place our ships frequently arrive during some local hunting or fishing season and to the man who likes his shooting and piscatorial sport that calls for immediate consideration of ways and means.
Item No. 1, of course, is the obtaining of the proper license; hence the notation. And hence much grand recreation and many interesting and profitable contacts; the fraternity of sportsmen is the greatest democracy in the world. One meets the very finest gentlemen and the most uncut of uncut diamonds, but a real sportsman is a worth-while person wherever you meet him and regardless of the stratum in which he has his other pursuits and vocations.
But to return to this matter of licenses. Several states take a very liberal attitude With regard to Navy personnel and will issue a resident license to people whose ships happen to be in the waters of that ate even temporarily. When on shore duty the question is only important when visiting another state—resident licenses are usually very cheap, but nonresidents are made to pay through the nose. Be that as it may, never hunt or fish without a license; game wardens are invariably sincere conservationists and have no patience with game law violators.
To a devotee of hunting and fishing it seems that many Navy people are missing tricks in a big way. All over the United States there is a great hegira toward the hinterlands for recreation; literally millions of sportsmen and would-be sportsmen are taking out licenses to hunt and fish. Better roads are bringing the wilderness within easy striking distance; of course this leads to grumbling by those who resent rubbing elbows with competitors in the field—they say it makes the sport so easy that the lazy man has easy access to game and so ruins the sport for the genuine, dyed-in-the-wool fisherman or hunter who is willing and anxious to work for his bag.
It really is not as bad as all that, however; the greater number of licenses produces greater revenue which in turn makes possible conservation measures leading to far greater abundance of planted game and fish. Today in nearly every part of the country where there are naval activities, there can be found fairly good shooting and fishing within reasonable driving distance. Nothing is more beneficial to health and nerves than a session of tramping the fields, climbing around in streams, dozing off in a boat, or freezing in a duck blind, and it is little short of amazing that so few naval people have discovered these grand opportunities.
The value of relaxation is recognized— at least in principle—by even the most ruthless Admiral Legree. The Army has officially recognized the uses of recreation camps, and our own fleet instructions have taken official notice of the desirability of regular exercise and periodic half-day recreation periods. Nothing can equal hunting and fishing as aids to perfect relaxation and freedom from strain and worry; there are no telephones, no “incoming mail” baskets. Bearing down on ways and means of bringing a recalcitrant fish or wily bird to the bag drives every other consideration from the mind; and when it is all over the seagoing Nimrod is dog-tired and ready for the refreshing sleep of healthy fatigue.
The benefits extend to the next day and beyond, not only in restored vigor and sparkle but in the added topics for conversation, mild bragging, and plausible excuses and alibis.
A dissenter might argue that the seasons are too short to afford year-round diversion; actually the individual seasons may be short but a look at the game laws reveals that some form of sport may be had at every time of year; doves and reed birds in the early fall; quail, grouse, pheasants, and duck later; deer in many parts of the country; fishing through the ice up north; trout from spring into summer or early fall; sea fish at various times. There are few times during the year that the sportsman cannot find some reason to take him into the open; pre-season scouting has even been resorted to as a desperate measure for putting the old clothes on and “getting away from things.” And don’t forget crow shooting.
Consider the places to which our peregrinations take us: Puget Sound—salmon, trout, pheasant, pigeons, deer; Southern California—grand sea fishing for all sizes from croakers to sword fish, not to mention the best dove shooting in the world and plenty of quail and rabbits; Panama —good shooting and fine fishing, tarpon at Gatun Spillway; Cuba and Haiti— guineas and other birds; Norfolk—quail, fine duck shooting, snipe, rabbits, bigger game in the Swamp for the man who wants to go after it. Annapolis is in the heart of excellent fishing around the Chesapeake, and fair trout fishing can be found in Maryland and Virginia; the Bay affords splendid duck shooting in good years, and birds are to be had if you have a dog.
Occasionally our ships go to Alaska; the places we go will not afford much of a chance for hunting, but some fine fishing can be had in any of the streams—fishing that will give you something to talk about for years to come.
Even New York, the world’s greatest metropolis, offers some of the finest sea fishing in the world with bluefish, weak- fish, flounder, and the big boys for those who care to go after them. And in New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut, within an hour or so from the city, can be found reasonably good pheasant hunting, grouse, quail, deer, and excellent fishing.
Everywhere our ships go and wherever we go for shore duty, there can be found enough sport to guarantee reasonable results for reasonable skill. In the back of every American mind there is a powerful urge to hunt and fish; it is part of our heritage. The most sedentary fellow will tell you with pride, and a wistful look, of his youthful forays against the wily trout, the bulldog bass, the whirring quail; he loves to remember those days and talk about them but now it involves too much effort—too much inertia must be overcome before he could possibly take up where he left off.
And there, I think, is one of the main reasons why so few Navy men take advantage of the fine opportunities offered them in this respect—it is hard to get started. They figure that it is expensive to lay in an outfit and expensive to indulge the hobby; they do not know where to go for a start; they figure that hitting a flying bird looks tough and they are unwilling to look silly by missing; they are not so sure that the idea will meet with enthusiastic approval at home. And besides it is easier to go on as before.
Let us examine some of these reasons; maybe they are not as serious as appears at first glance. Consider the matter of expense for instance; one all-purpose shotgun will do a lot of damage if handled right. But what kind of gun, and how much? Through ship's service a good enough gun can be bought for $40, possibly less, although not advisable, and a 12-gauge, 28-inch, double barrel gun, with one barrel full choked and the other modified, will answer for all practical purposes up to the time the neophyte becomes a gun crank and sees need for other weapons (that will happen, they do say). Boots and a few accessories are all that are really needed—no need to emulate the well-dressed sportsman to get game--and the total of absolutely necessary gunning equipment is surprisingly low; 70 or 80 dollars if strict economy is in order. Compare that with fitting out for golf.
The operating expenses of shooting are not forbidding. Duck shooting will cost money, but the writer has clubbed in with other officers and with a pool of a couple of hundred dollars total has secured a blind, the use of a boat, a shack for cooking, sleeping, and getting warm. Divide $200 among 6 or 8 members and the total not bad for a season's sport. Other forms of shooting—quail, dove, grouse-- are usually much less expensive, as all that is involved is a license, ammunition, and permission to use some farmer's land.
Of course hunting loses its tang if one cannot bring home a bit of bacon once in a while and to do that it is essential that the tyro gunner know something about shotgun ballistics, lead, effective range, and the habits and habitat of the game he seeks. Reading, observation, and experience will supply the missing information concerning where they are and what they do. The matter of learning to shoot is by no means impossible and not beyond the pocketbooks of most of us. For about $10 a practice clay pigeon trap can be purchased; a good trap will throw clay pigeons at any desired speed, in any direction. and at any desired angle or elevation. Clay pigeons cost about one cent apiece, and shells can be bought for about 75 cents for a box of 25. A dollar a round. Shoot a couple of boxes of shells each week and watch the improvement in the course of a month or two; it will astonish and gratify you. The trap can be set to simulate any sort of shot that is proving difficult and by repeating the shot until you begin to break the birds with regularity you will discover what lead is required for the various problems actually presented by birds in flight. The writer has taught a number of people the principles of wing shooting by means of the practice trap and thereby made confirmed enthusiasts out of discouraged beginners.
What is true of hunting is equally true of fishing as far as expense is concerned; the “fishing nut” can lose his shirt in a sporting goods store. He can fancy all sorts of needs, buy all manner of spinners, lines, flies, and trick gear, but most of it is not really necessary. By buying wisely just what is needed to produce results at the moment, expenditures can be kept within reasonable bounds and in a short time an adequate and serviceable outfit can be acquired. If your choice is salt-water fishing there is no reason for buying expensive stream fishing gear that you will not need for some time to come; buy that stream stuff if and when you need it.
Every fisherman has his own ideas and will buy what he thinks he needs, but here is a list of gear that will enable the Navy fisherman to indulge his hobby wherever he goes with little if any additional expense in the way of equipment:
Salt-water rod
300-yd. free-spool, star-wheel reel
Salt-water line
Assortment of spoons
Gaff
Sinkers
Snelled hooks
Fly rod
Bait casting rod
Level wind reel for bait casting
Fly reel
Silk line for bait casting
Fly line
Assorted bait casting lures
Assorted flies
Leaders
Knife
Landing net
Boots
There may be other things that will become vitally necessary but if you have the gear listed and a fair tackle box to keep it in, you have enough to catch fish wherever you go, and if you bought the outfit at one full swoop it would only tax the exchequer to the extent of about $75 providing you do not feel the urge to buy the most expensive articles on the market. It is bad economy to buy a very cheap fly rod or to handicap yourself with reels of poor workmanship; good tackle will justify its cost when you go into the field, just as any good piece of merchandise will stand up better and give better and longer service than will an article of inferior quality. But the point is that the cost of a reasonably good outfit is not prohibitive when compared with expenditures accepted as normal for other forms of amusement and recreation.
Perhaps my fellow gunners and fishermen will not thank me for broadcasting the joys of sports afield and debunking the popular idea that shooting and fishing are rich men’s sports. But there is plenty of room for all, and I know from my own experience that these fine pastimes pay splendid dividends in companionship, recreation, and restoration of any warping of the viewpoint that may result from seeing too much of too many people and thinking too much in terms of shop.
★
THE RUSSIAN NAVY
Though thousands of volumes have appeared in the last few years dealing with almost every aspect of Russian life since the Revolution, and current newspapers and periodicals devote much space to Russian affairs, scarcely a word has been published in English concerning the Navy of the U.S.S.R. The British service publication, The Navy, reminds us that the new Russian Navy may be a force to be reckoned with in a future European crisis: “After the Great War and the Revolution in Russia the situation in the Baltic has been altered. Five new countries lie now on the strategical road between the two sea powers in the Baltic: Germany and Russia.
“Russia . . . now is in possession of only a small part of the Gulf of Finland. Her sole naval base, Cronstadt, is far from the open sea and her strategical situation is not favourable for attack ....
“What at the present moment is the Russian Navy? To begin with this Navy could not help inheriting the experience of the Imperial Fleet. After the defeat of Tsushima the younger generation of officers, who felt it bitterly, reorganized the Navy. A general Naval Staff was created and a new naval doctrine adopted. The result was that the German losses in the Baltic during the Great War were three times more than those of the Russian Navy.
“The revolution disorganised the Russian Navy but the experience remained and serves until to-day. Moreover, the Communist principles applied to the education of the personnel have proved a failure, and the Soviet Government has decided to go back to the old system as expressed by their new motto: ‘Decision is to be left to the specialists,’ so that it would be a mistake to discount altogether the sea power of Russia or to suppose that she was incapable of energetic action in the Baltic in any future war.” (From The Navy, March, 1936.)