From a professional point of view, the most hazardous explosives carried on board our men-of-war are neither in primers nor booster charges but, as evidenced by court-martial orders, are contained in the activity known as Ship’s Service. The funds of this organization have been known to detonate while in the custody of even the most careful and methodical officers. Because of such possibilities, most line officers dislike any connection with Ship’s Service activities and consider themselves fortunate if they are able to avoid it.
The primary function of the Ship’s Service is to contribute to the morale of the ship’s company by furnishing items for comfort and contentment which otherwise would not be available at sea.
The Ship’s Service store and soda fountain, the Ship’s Service laundry, the barber shop, and the tailor shop, as well as other Ship’s Service units make definite contributions to the well-being and smartness of the ship’s personnel, which, in turn, raise the morale of the entire organization. This fact was impressed not only upon U. S. naval officers during the visit of a detachment of light cruisers to Australia and Singapore in 1938, but also upon officers and men of His Majesty’s Navy, who exhibited keen interest in various services available on board our men-of-war.
Ship’s Service activities were initiated originally by ambitious seamen who supplied service to their shipmates at minimum cost. Because such an enterprise satisfied a long-felt need, Ship’s Service has grown steadily from its initial modest undertaking to the proportions of big business, extending far beyond the original field. Recently Bureaus have allocated space to Ship’s Service and installed soda fountains, showcases, and other facilities in ships newly fitted out. This indicates Ship’s Service activities are recognized officially as essential on a modern naval vessel.
Not only does Ship’s Service provide for personal conveniences through the laundry, barber shop, cobbler and tailor, but it constitutes the primary source of funds for general welfare. These funds may be used for athletic gear, dances, entertainments, and for other purposes that, in the opinion of the commanding officer, will contribute to the maintenance of high esprit de corps among the ship’s company.
Most officers try to avoid being assigned to Ship’s Service duties, because of hazards that lie in certain features of its organization and administration. These officers are not to be criticized too severely since they realize only too well that a single entry on a fitness report relative to discrepancies or inefficiencies in Ship’s Service work may be a serious bar to future professional advancement.
The Ship’s Service organization usually differs on each large ship, but in general it conforms to pattern. A line officer, known as the Ship’s Service Officer, is in charge of and responsible for all of the Ship’s Service departments. His primary duty assignment will differ even among ships of a similar class in the same force. But regardless of rank or primary job, there is always a Ship’s Service Officer, who may be assisted by junior line officers, one acting as Ship’s Store and Fountain Officer, and others as Cobbler, Laundry, Tailor, and Photography Officers. Since duties in connection with these details comprise entirely nonprofessional work, young and junior officers are assigned to these billets. If, however, these Ship’s Service activities actually are operated by experienced enlisted personnel, it is probable that the organization will function efficiently and profitably, notwithstanding the youth and inexperience of the changing officer personnel. This situation all adds to the problem of the Ship’s Service Officer, who, in the final analysis, is responsible for the money handled by these activities as well as for the various stocks of goods purchased and placed on sale.
Some ships attempt to relieve the Ship’s Service Officer of a part of the financial responsibilities by assigning an additional officer to duty as Ship’s Service Treasurer and Collection Officer, but this involves still another line officer in collateral, nonprofessional duties.
Assignment to Ship’s Service is always in addition to regular duties, so it is often, of necessity, not given sufficient time and attention. Moreover, no line officer in training to handle ships and men derives much professional benefit from ending his day counting nickels and dimes and balancing the daily receipts of the Ship’s Service Store, as is required of most Ship’s Service Store Officers before they may leave the ship or catch some sleep in preparation for a night watch.
The average line officer does not take kindly to bookkeeping duties, for he reasons, “If I had wanted to keep books or count cash I would have elected to go into the Supply Corps. Whenever possible I want to do those jobs which train me in leadership and command. Am I getting anywhere professionally poring over dealers’ bills or experimenting with ice cream mix?” Making out an inventory is a far cry from “All engines, ahead two- thirds—right standard rudder.”
It might be argued that an officer is not assuming any great liability when he is assigned to Ship’s Service because all of the personnel handling funds are required to be bonded. To the great satisfaction of the bonding companies, no one will ever know how many Ship’s Service Officers have made up a shortage out of their own pockets for fear that carelessness or delinquency on the part of some Ship’s Service operator might lead to an unfavorable comment in the officer’s fitness report. Only as a last resort will a bonding company be called upon to make good on losses suffered by a Ship’s Service unit.
Although handling the funds of the organization, the Ship’s Service Officer does not possess the proper physical equipment for safeguarding the money, which is frequently a sum that runs into three or four figures. On most ships, because of weight reduction requirements, he has no adequate safe of his own, and he must either deposit this money with the paymaster during such times as the latter’s safe is made available, and thereby endure a certain amount of red tape, or he must place the funds in a small desk-safe in his room. No safe which may be opened with a strong screw driver or be removed intact from an officer’s desk is the proper depository for large sums of money.
If a Ship’s Service Officer must be custodian of the ship’s funds, he should be provided with a sizable and strong repository. This is essential to safeguard not only funds, but also papers and valuable Ship’s Service articles, particularly jewelry awaiting sale or delivery.
Accountability for funds has forced many a Ship’s Service Officer to sacrifice professional duties in order to fathom the cryptic mysteries of some Ship’s Service bookkeeping method, and he has thereafter become a slave to its time-consuming details.
Even though an officer may be familiar with the accounting methods in one Force, it does not follow that such knowledge will be sufficient in another, since there has not been uniformity in bookkeeping methods throughout the various Ship’s Service activities in the Fleet. The trend, because of occasional peculations and discrepancies, seems to be toward more detailed methods, thus further embarrassing the line officer whose training is not in “double entry” or “accounts receivable.” It is only recently that auditing boards, also partly composed of line officers with no more accounting experience than Ship’s Service Officers, have been made equally responsible for any discrepancies in the monthly audit, on the theory that the board, if it discharges its duty diligently, can usually prevent discrepancies. It is doubtful, however, whether this division of responsibility adds anything to the security of the Ship’s Service Officer.
The list of articles which may be handled by the Ship’s Service Store officer presents a further problem. No articles which are carried by the Ship’s Store or Canteen may be duplicated in the Ship’s Service Store. The Canteen is permitted to handle only certain specified articles, but the Supply Officer is not compelled to carry all items of stock on his approved list. On some ships such items as canned fruits, ketchup, mustard, jelly, sandwich spreads, etc., are purposely not carried in the Canteen in order to permit them to be sold in the Ship’s Service Store.
In analyzing the problem of emporiums afloat, it would seem there are two potentially competitive activities on board our men-of-war; namely, the Ship’s Service Store and the Ship’s Store. Both of these activities seek to give the ship’s personnel increased services or comforts for very nominal profits which are expended entirely for the welfare of the ship. Since this is the case, it is proposed that the first step in an efficient reorganization would be the combination of these two units into one department. This would, I believe, lead to increased efficiency and greatest ultimate satisfaction, since simplification and centralization of purchasing, bookkeeping, and management thus could be effected.
Granted that such unification is desirable, the question then arises as to which unit should absorb the other. If the Supply Department were to take over the administration of the Ship’s Service Store, the list promulgated by the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts of articles authorized to be sold on board naval vessels would need to be augmented to include the many items now carried only by the Ship’s Service Store. This, it would seem, could be effected easily. All store profits, including those of the soda fountain, which is the big money-maker, would be limited to IS per cent profit. There would be difficulty in the requirement that Ship’s Store sales be made for cash only, since Ship’s Service tickets used on many ships are considered a great convenience. It would also mean that, as matters now stand, no credit transactions would be permitted, no unsold stock could be returned to dealers, and there would be no authorizations issued to dealers for purchases by members of the ship’s company for stock not carried by the Store.
The consolidation of the two stores into one enlarged Ship’s Service Department would present the simplest solution. Navy Regulations now make a Ship’s Store mandatory wherever there is a Supply Officer aboard; but inasmuch as this requirement is not a statutory provision, the consolidation could be brought about by a change in Navy Regulations. In such a case, the enlarged Ship’s Service Store could augment its lists of goods salable by all the items now carried exclusively in the stock of the Ship’s Store and it would be able to retain its present favorable position with dealers in regard to authorization of special purchases.
The management of this enlarged Ship’s Service Department should be a collateral duty of that special group in the Navy trained for the specific purpose of handling stores and accounts; namely, the Supply Corps. The personnel of this corps, selected and trained for the particular requirements of their specialized work, could easily take over, as a collateral duty, the management of Ship’s Service, while it continued to remain a private enterprise with a staff officer other than the Supply Corps, or a line officer, acting as treasurer and custodian of the funds. This specialized group, by their aptitude and training, are best qualified to perform those duties since the existence of a Supply Corps is evidence that duty in accounting is not the normal function of line officers.
The consolidation of the two Ship’s Stores and their administration by the Supply Corps as a collateral duty does not suggest that the line officer may cut himself entirely loose from the Ship’s Service work load. In order that there may be an equal distribution of this work, it would still be necessary for junior officers to assist in these duties as barber, laundry, and tailor officers, but they would not be charged with ordering goods, balancing the daily cashbook and with the several other financial jobs which are logically the work of the Supply Corps. Line officer heads of departments would act as members of the auditing board. The profits of the combined Ship’s Service activities would be turned over to the commanding officer just as is done at present. This is eminently wise, since only the commanding officer is in a position to decide what are the best and proper expenditures of such funds for the contentment and welfare of his particular crew.
One other change might well follow in this connection. Some provision should be made to enable personnel of the Ship’s Service Division or Department to acquire a rating in this branch of work. The custom now is to award an assortment of ratings to Ship’s Service operators, and many a barber-boatswain’s mate trembles in his shoes at the thought of being ordered to another ship where he may be required to perform the duties of his primary rating. Why not make provision for a specific Ship’s Service rating? Such an opportunity for advancement plus the security of continuing as a Ship’s Service operator should result in an improvement of Ship’s Service efficiency and economy. Such ratings could operate Ship’s Service in small ships under the general supervision of the Division Paymaster. Enterprising operators would aspire to remain in Ship’s Service to learn all phases of the work, in order to be fully qualified to assist in the administration of such activities upon becoming Chief Petty Officers or Warrant Officers.
Whenever the problems of Ship’s Service Officers are being discussed, someone is certain to conclude the conversation with, “Oh, well, that will all be ironed out some day.” But because of expanding Ship’s Service activities in an expanding Fleet, it appears that this activity should be reorganized on a permanent and uniform basis in the near future.
Throughout the naval service, Ship’s Service is unanimously recognized as an important adjunct to a more comfortable and abundant life on board our men-of- war. No other single activity contributes so much to the morale of our men. But because the emporiums afloat have grown into big business, the Canteen and Ship’s Service Store should be combined to provide all the advantages and flexibility of a privately operated enterprise, and the increased work-load should be redistributed with the management and accounting becoming collateral duties of the Supply Corps. Line Officers would then play only a minor role in these duties for which they are not fitted either by training or inclination.