A majority of the officers of the navy believe that the amalgamation of the line and the engineer corps in 1898 was the best solution of the difficulties laid before the board presided over by President Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. At the same time, it is probable that few officers are of the opinion that the present outlook is satisfactory and that matters should be left as they are.
THE PRESENT SITUATION
We now have a sufficient number of experienced engineers of high technical education to design the machinery for our ships at the Bureau of Steam Engineering, superintend their construction at the shops, and care for the departments in our great battleships and armored cruisers. But these are members of the old engineer corps who have little military training and who, having reached an age when they could not be expected to take up military duties, were incorporated in the line, but with restricted functions. They are to perform engineering duties only and, after reaching the rank of commander, cannot be sent to sea.
The new conditions have produced an excellent course in mechanical engineering at the Naval Academy, and every graduate is competent to quickly learn the duties of a line officer in the engine-room as well as on deck. Regulations properly prescribe rotation of duties on deck and below. More time should be required below; but the lack of officers has lately made it impossible to carry out this intent of the personnel bill.
On the gunboats, the new organization seems to work satisfactorily, officers being assigned in charge of the machinery and boilers without regard to the corps in which they entered the service.
The present condition is then as follows:
On our battleships and armored cruisers officers of the old corps, generally lieutenant-commanders, have charge of the engineer department, assisted by line officers detailed by the captain. The watches are kept by machinists who, in order that they may have authority commensurate with their responsibilities and be held to a strict accountability in the performance of their duty, have been raised to the grade of warrant officer. At the Bureau and at the shops, the same organization holds as on the battleships, except that, owing to the lack of officers, supervision which should be in the hands of commissioned officers has fallen to the share of warrant machinists who are not always well equipped for the work.
The gunboats are well cared for by the younger officers of the line who, after the engineering course at the Academy, have generally served as subordinates in the engineer department of larger ships. The machinists who stand the watches are usually not warranted, their responsibility and authority being much less than in the battleships. Engineering duty on the torpedo boats and destroyers is done in the same way.
THE FUTURE
All this is very satisfactory except that our larger ships are suffering for the want of officers both at the battery and below. But it is a much discussed question what is to be done in the battleships when the old engineers shall have been promoted to commanders, and have become ineligible for sea-duty: and, a few years later, when the same problem shall present itself in connection with the machine shops and designing rooms. Few officers will deny that a special body of engineers of high technical education is required for these duties.
No trouble will result from detailing line officers who have had no other training than that now given in the service to take charge of the boilers and machinery of the smaller vessels, and to do engineering work ashore in a subordinate capacity; on the contrary, it is desirable on every account that this be continued. But beyond that a body of highly educated, skillful engineers whose attention shall not be diverted from their special work into more purely military branches is absolutely essential for designing our machinery and for its construction, care, and preservation.
Was then the abolition of the old corps a mistake, and should it be re-established? This is a very natural question. God forbid! A great step forward was taken when the old jealousies between the line and the engineers and the narrow esprit de corps which blocked all advance ceased to exist through the simple expedient of merging the two organizations. To re-establish the former engineer corps would undoubtedly bring up the old questions, and with them antagonism, jealousy, and impaired discipline. It is said that an attempt in this direction is contemplated by the warrant machinists, but the new corps thus created would be open to all the objections to the old corps and would have none of its many good points, and the attempt should be opposed by the Service. As will be seen further along, the plan here submitted provides that any officer of this class who may prove not only a good machinist but a talented engineer—two very different things—shall have the road to the highest rank open to him.
THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problem requiring solution may be stated as follows: To provide a body of skillful marine engineers competent to design the machinery of our ships and superintend its building, and to take charge of the engineer department. of our battleships and great cruisers, without reviving the discord that grew out of the old system.
This work is of great importance and responsibility and requires special training and experience. The fact that we have now in the officers of the engineer corps who have not qualified for line duties the very men who have done it successfully and are doing it with marked efficiency now, surely points to the solution. The importance of the duties indicates very clearly that the rank of the officer in charge of the engineer department of a battleship should be lieutenant-commander, and this is consistent with the custom of the service. The duty of deciding upon the design of the boilers and machinery and of superintending the machine shops or inspecting the work of private firms is of even higher order, and would naturally fall to officers of the same or of higher rank. The lowest grade, then, in which special training as engineers will be required, is that of lieutenant-commander; below that grade the ordinary training of the service is sufficient to produce the skill and professional engineering qualifications required. The problem is narrowed down to how we shall obtain these officers without creating an engineer corps with all its disadvantages.
Again the solution is found in the accidental position of the officers of the old engineer corps who have not qualified for line duty.
A PROPOSED SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM
Every officer below the grade of lieutenant-commander is required by the regulations to perform duty in the engineer department. No change in the present system is necessary here except that no young officer should ever be detailed for instruction below; all details should be for duty and should involve responsibility.
On the completion of a cruise as a full lieutenant, any officer should have the privilege of applying to take the course at the engineering school soon to be established at Annapolis. On passing into the grade of lieutenant-commander, officers having successfully finished this course should have the option of declining the military examination for promotion and taking instead the engineering examination. From that time on they would be in exactly the position of the officers of the old engineer corps who have not qualified for line duties, except as provided below in the case of fleet engineers. As it is somewhat difficult to see why, on shore, such officers should not perform any kind of duty except that of a strictly military character, the number of billets open to them might well be enlarged.
These officers would have to do considerable hard study, and some inducement would doubtless have to be offered. This might better take the form of giving extra pay to them in the grade of lieutenant commander and the old pay of fleet-engineer to commanders acting as such.
It would probably be unnecessary to change the navy-list as it exists at present. It is to be remarked that the officers qualifying for engineering duties are not to constitute a separate corps, but are to form part of the line of the navy on exactly the same footing as the officers of the old engineer corps who have not qualified for line duties.
As it is only necessary, so far as duties at sea are concerned, to provide these specially trained engineers for the battleships and armored cruisers, there would be sufficient for this purpose if one-third of the lieutenant-commanders, or between fifty and sixty, were thus qualified. This would mean that on an average every third officer coming up for examination for promotion to the grade of lieutenant-commander would elect to take the engineering examination. The remaining two-thirds would be sufficient to furnish commanders for the gunboats and executives for the large ships.
PROMOTION OF WARRANT MACHINISTS
Although nothing could be more democratic than the way of appointing midshipmen to the Naval Academy, still the spirit of the age seems to require that an enlisted man in the service shall be able, if specially fitted, to get a commission. The writer is of opinion that only good results will be obtained from the promotion of a limited number of carefully selected warrant officers. Accordingly, while strongly opposed to commissioning the present warrant machinists and thus creating a new engineer corps with all the bad and none of the good features of the old system, it seems to him desirable that warrant machinists of marked ability, under carefully considered conditions and after passing an examination, should be allowed to take the proposed course of engineering at Annapolis, and should then be given the opportunity to qualify as lieutenant-commanders for engineering duties. One necessary qualification should be at least ten years' experience afloat as a warrant machinist in the navy. The number should be limited to three or four a year, and, as the whole object is to provide highly skilled naval engineers and not merely accomplished machinists, the examinations would necessarily be severe, and the successful candidate would be entitled to all he would get.
FLEET ENGINEERS
There is great need of a fleet engineer in every squadron who shall at all times be able to inform the squadron commander of the condition and needs of the engineer departments of the ships under his command, recommend repairs, and in fact be the consulting engineer of the squadron. He should have no more to do with the engineer department of the flagship than with that of any other vessel of the squadron. The position would be one of much responsibility and dignity and should be filled by a commander or a captain who might better be a member of the personal staff.