A Naval Training Policy and System

HONORABLE MENTION

MOTTO: "Nunc Aut Nunguam."

A number of most interesting articles on the training of men have appeared from time to time in the PROCEEDINGS OF THE NAVAL INSTITUTE; but, not nearly so many have been written as this vital question, the real issue before the service to-day, demands. Meanwhile much time has been wasted without definite result, and the day when action becomes imperative has now arrived.

As stated by Lieutenant Beach in his article, we have to-day scientific corps and bureaus designing, building, and arming our ships and a world-renowned school preparing the officers; while the men are lacking in number, and, part of them at least, in training.

Much has been done and much thought expended in training special classes of men, but the enlisting and training of the mass of an expanding personnel, the raw recruits, has not received the attention it deserves from those most interested, the officers of the service.

In the article referred to above is clearly stated the great importance of having some definite policy, not something which varies with each station and with every ship and captain.

"The country leaves the training of the men entirely to the officers, and will provide the means that are said to be necessary." Thus we see where the responsibility rests. The expansion of the navy has but begun. The recent history of our rapidly growing country, coupled with the victories of the late war, point to a still greater future for the service. This only makes it more necessary that something be done at once to maintain the enlisted personnel, both in numbers and in efficiency at the high standard they have set for themselves in the past.

Of late great difficulty has been experienced in enlisting qualified seamen, and an extensive training system has been found necessary as older countries have found before, but there are great differences of opinion among officers as to the proper training methods, and most officers avoid the training service as they would the plague,—by some it has been classed as a black-list. It is to be hoped that the future will show a change in this respect.

Our present training system is a growth of necessity and not an organized establishment; and, while the word "system" has been used to denote our present methods of training recruits, nothing is further from the mark in appropriateness. The navy as a whole has no policy and possesses no general and uniform "system of training" for its recruits, nor indeed for much of its personnel in general.

We should, while there is yet time, formulate a policy and establish a general and uniform system, a homogeneous one for the whole navy, certain in results, and insuring that proper training which every recruit should receive. The navy needs the best material possible,—none other is good enough.

The best man for the service is a thoroughly trained one, trained from the beginning up according to a regular progressive system. None can have too much training, none should be admitted to the general service without a certain definite amount of it.

Upon this subject there seems little really original left to be said, and most of the matter is an old story, yet it is necessary to repeat much of it in order to develop the conclusions properly and to outline a policy.

The education of an enlisted man of the seaman branch may be divided into three periods as follows:

1st. Preliminary Training of Recruits,—

To be carried on by a Training Service of some sort.

2nd. Subsequent Training of each Recruit until he is a qualified seaman,—

To be carried on aboard the regular cruising vessels. 3rd. Special Training to make Marksmen, Petty Officers, Electricians, etc.—

To be carried on both on board ship and at Schools of Instruction.

Drilling of all hands to make the ship an efficient fighting machine as a whole is a separate subject, the training mentioned above is individual.

It is the preliminary training for recruits with which this paper chiefly deals, but it is necessary also to consider briefly the subsequent training in order to define a progressive, uniform system

The scheme proposed herein has been devised from an actual experience of four years' continuous service at the Newport Station and on a sailing training ship.

Having fought the battle of detail day in and day out, dealing with all the perplexing minutiae of the school and ship, striving meanwhile with a continuous stream of over 3000 irresponsible youngsters, considerable opportunity has been had for studying the apprentice and his characteristics. A consequent familiarity with details has been gained, and it is confidently asserted that this plan, the result of notes taken during this time, will be found homogeneous in all its parts, will -work with smoothness, efficiency, and economy, and will produce the same number of graduates with as good or better training than the present method; and, as far as the apprentice system is concerned, this plan will use only about one-half the present working force of officers and men. With the same force and increased facilities nearly double the number of graduates could be turned out. Since the above was written the force of officers has been somewhat reduced, but it is believed that this has only been accomplished under the present system at the expense of efficiency.

An inspection of the British training system has given opportunity for comparison and furnished much food for thought.

It is intended in this article to deal mainly with the actual and practical training of recruits, and to outline a complete, uniform, working system.

While similar in some respects to our present apprentice system, it is believed this plan has on the whole very great advantages over our methods of to-day.

For the sake of clearness the subject has been divided into the following heads, which will be considered in the order given:

1. The Need of Our Navy for Trained Recruits.
2. The Question of Sailing Ships and of the Independent Training Ship.
3. Our Present System, its Faults, and Their Remedy.
4. Conclusions.
5. A Proposed Policy.
6. A Scheme for a General Uniform System.
7. The Economics of the Question and of the Unit Station.
8. Subsequent Training.
9. Good Methods and Bad.
10. The Unit Training Station.

(1) THE NEED OF OUR NAVY FOR TRAINED RECRUITS.

In the light of modern progress, where skilled labor is more and more necessary in every field of endeavor, and, where the whirl of competition makes more and more desirable the highest trained intelligence, it seems as if stating a self-evident proposition to say that a thorough training is needed to fill every position in the personnel of a modern, scientific, and complex navy.

Yet while other navies have developed policies and provided not only for training their present force, but for providing a sufficient and increasingly efficient personnel in the future, we have halted between several opinions; and, to-day, despite noble efforts in some directions are surely falling behind in this respect. The "man behind the gun" is a factor of prime importance and his training is not to be lightly considered. It cannot be begun too soon, nor continued too long.

Few persons thought some years ago that war would come when it did; and, none know what the future may have in store. We cannot afford to neglect this needed preparation, and should therefore settle this question now for all time. The expansion of our navy is but beginning. False and inefficient methods will be fixed upon the service if something be not done. Now is the time to make a good beginning—"now or never."

To-day England will accept no merchant seaman; no matter how good, he is not good enough for their navy; he has not the discipline, the traditions of the service, the esprit de corps, which go to make their service so homogeneous and efficient as a whole.

In our present state, we would welcome into our service such material as England rejects. It is believed, however, that we have the best ships; in many ways the most highly trained officers; and a small class of men and petty officers who have not their superior in the world. To this is due our unbroken success in the past, and, we might rest content, were it not for the fact that the class of men who have made this glorious history is dwindling day by day, and there does not exist in this country, a similar class to take their places. These men gained their experience, their handiness and resourcefulness in the hard school of the sea, in the old time sailing ships, and though times and ships have changed, the remnants have accommodated themselves to modern guns and methods.

Years were taken in this old time training and in the past men did not rise to positions of responsibility except with long, hard service. This school of the sea in the full rigged ships, practically exists no longer, the “shellback" in his pristine glory is almost extinct, and many things not to be learned in that school are required of the man-of-war's-man to-day.

It is evident that much more comprehensive training and a higher order of intelligence are needed now. The day when a petty officer could not sign his name is passing,—for some rates it has already passed. Our navy is rapidly filling with men who lack the great sea experience of our fine old sailors, and many of whom lack the training, which, in part, makes up for this deficiency. Many of them are too old to learn and can never hope to advance. The man-of-war sailor belongs to the class of skilled labor; he cannot be picked up on the street; those we have are too few in number and the vacancies are still on the increase. Young men are ready and willing to step into these vacancies; young men of American birth, with American courage and ideals, with an educated intelligence and an independence of thought not possessed by the older men, and yet lacking at enlistment in the essentials of a seaman,—knowledge of his many and varied duties and real sailor experience. The latter we may not impart, it can be gained only in time and service; the former however, the training, we can and should give,—thorough, uniform, progressive and continuous. Let every man receive it on enlisting, let none rise without, nor without the stamp of the system, and let none settle down to the decay of stagnation.

Our navy is filling with the youth of America; to-day is becoming more and more the day of the young man. Let it be seen to then, that he has the training which he needs, and that he is fitted in every way in our power to fill the positions awaiting him.

Older nations have seen the writing on the wall, and have gone earnestly to work to train their future men. Therefore it behooves us to make this needed training—not a theory—but a fact. Let us have training, earnest and adequate, training for to-day and for the future, training in all its branches; and above all the best training in the world.

Many excellent orders and regulations tending toward this end exist to-day, but others are needed, and all should be reduced to a system.

With this object in view let us look at the necessities of the situation.

We must start with material that can be molded; therefore, "Youth" must be the corner-stone of our system.

The material must be of such quality as to justify the work expended upon it and to make possible the results desired; therefore, "Intelligence, Physical Fitness, and Moral Character" must be the foundations of any scheme of value.

Upon these must "Training" rear the superstructure which "Experience" will furnish and complete, as the habitation, not of the "Heart of Oak" of the past, but of the "Nerves of Steel" of to-day and of the future.

An apprentice system with a carefully worked out policy, a thorough course of instruction, a weeding out of "undesirables" and with advanced schools for ambitious graduates, alone fulfills these requirements.

As Captain Cooke has well said in his article on "Naval Re organization," "the navy should be manned as far as possible by those who have been regularly trained for its service so that all our 'bluejackets' might come from the same source, own the same training, love the same country, and glory in the same traditions."

(2) THE QUESTION OF SAILING SHIPS AND OF THE INDEPENDENT TRAINING SHIP.

This burning question has agitated the navy for years; but it is believed that the time has come to lay the ghost,—the real substance died a natural death some ten years ago. For, seriously speaking, time and necessity have settled this question. In reality for some years no recruits have received a seaman's "training in sailing ships" within the actual meaning of the phrase.

Not for one moment is it the purpose of this article to deny the advantages to be gained by acquiring real sailor experience, nor to question the arduous and valuable work carried on by the officers on the sea-going training ships.

Captain Chadwick's able article convinces one of the great value such training has always been to our navy. It is undoubtedly of value to bring "the young sailor man face to face with his great teacher, the Sea." But in the modern high-powered steamer the sea has much less proportional effect; except in the smaller ships only the heaviest winds and seas produce much inconvenience, and even then it is a question much more largely to be dealt with by the officers alone. Consequently it is doubtful whether the necessary time that would be taken by the recruits in acquiring this experience could not more economically be utilized in other ways.

The questions of danger in fog, of collision, are ones to be dealt with by the officer alone. The lookout on a steamer needs quicker eyes and sharper ears than his brother of the sailing ship; the leadsman has a harder task; and more responsibility rests on the machinist than on any petty officer of the past.

Captain Goodrich very aptly puts some essentials of a seamans training, but "the tossing of a rope, the handling of an oar" do not pertain to sailing ships, and the ability to think and act can be trained in other ways. The locomotive engine driver and the city fireman are among the highest types of this ability.

It is not to be disputed that "the navy of to-day, is to-day what it is because of what it has been." It is simply a question of necessity and of economics which confronts us. It is not believed feasible to give our men the same training they have had in the past; it is certain we are not doing it to-day. It remains for us, if we cannot duplicate the men or the training of the past, to decide upon a policy, and to produce a man suited to every modern need, and if possible, as good as, or better than those we have had heretofore.

The seaman of to-day must, as heretofore, shoot straight and often; must handle an oar and steer the ship; must heave the lead and run a line; must be able to rig a purchase and lift great weights; and must handle heavier anchor gear than ever; but these things can be learned on a steamer. Besides these, he must be able to handle hoisting engines, to deal with the great forces of steam, electricity, pneumatics, and hydraulics, and more than ever the service requires quick thought and ready action. The place where these qualities and abilities are needed and used is a good place to acquire them. A certain ground-work of preliminary training, however, is essential to make the recruit fit into his place on board the fighting ship and to relieve the ship of this burden of instruction.

It is not believed that the advocates of the "training in sailing ships," having in view the shortage of officers and men, would seriously advocate two or three years in a sailing ship for each man, with the resultant small number of graduates turned out. The economy of the navy of to-day would not admit of such an expenditure of time, and less time would not produce the results desired.

Now let us see what are the actual conditions of this service at present. We have two sailing ships in commission, that is, ships entirely dependent upon their sails, out of a total of twelve ships in the training service. This certainly does not look as if any fixed system of "training in sailing ships" exists to-day. Five or six other of these ships have sail power with auxiliary steam, but even with these which are not dependent upon their sails for entering and leaving port, or in many cases when a seaman's resourcefulness might be tested to its limit, only about one-half of the recruits are being trained on ships with sails. The mass of the landsmen have been trained on ex-freight steamers.

And on the sailing ships themselves, what is the actual condition? One hundred and fifty or more recruits aboard for from four to six months, one-half of which is spent in port. During the remainder, the actual cruising time, good instructors are too few to give the proper individual instruction; simultaneous drills held on open decks interfere with each other; continued night watches make the recruits sleepy and inattentive; in times of emergency, except the few who would be good anywhere, the raw recruits are of little use, and the men do all the difficult work. Meanwhile the bearing and manner of men, and even of petty officers not properly selected nor trained under the same system, unsettle the ideas acquired at the training station and subvert discipline. The daily contact with the bad and worthless characters among the recruits themselves, who cannot be gotten rid of on a foreign cruise, do great harm in many ways, and the example and advice of the disreputable element among the men hastens the perversion of morals.

It is recognized by all that the development of character is the main object with the youth under training. That the cruising training ship, with its short cruise, is to-day the only, or even the best school for this purpose seems to require considerable additional proof. Two or three years of this sort of cruising in a sailing ship would be splendid. But can we spare the time?

The ship itself is a singularly ill-adapted class-room for instruction in anything save the actual duties of the ship. In time of war it would be better to have all recruits at hand in stations whose systems would not be interrupted, rather than scattered in foreign waters in defenceless vessels. As stated before, each training ship is independent, the training heterogeneous, and the results not uniform.

On the whole, it does not seem, considering the short time that can be allotted to this training, and in view of the large number of officers and men required by the present system, that the independent cruising training ships can produce the necessary uniform results and at the same time turn out a sufficient number of graduates, unless a decided increase be made in the number of recruits carried by each ship, with a corresponding loss of efficiency in instruction. An increase in the number of such ships would also be necessary. This would be an exceedingly expensive method in officers, men, and money.

Besides this, in time of war or other emergency a call for the officers in these ships to man fighting ships would result in the collapse of the training system. A barrack system with auxiliaries directly attached would suffer much less and would still be in full operation with only two officers on duty. On smaller, handier ships with fewer recruits to each part of the ship, opportunities would be greatly increased for recruits to have charge of important work and to be thrown on their own resources, all of which develops character. And with fewer recruits to each petty officer much better instruction could be given.

Do not let us forget that the final object of all training and drilling is to be prepared to deliver a rapid and effective fire in the clay of battle. Perfect physical development is necessary to keep brain, body, and nerves in the condition in which this result can be best attained, but this development can be gained in other ways than by work aloft.

Courage is more or less inherent in the English speaking race; education and self-respect compel men to do their duty; if carefully enlisted and well weeded out, we need not fear for the bravery of our men. Neither sail drill nor reefing topsails in a gale can make a brave man out of a coward. Training and service will bring out the latent qualities, good or bad, and selection must do the rest.

The Gloucester fishermen are as fine sailors as ever lived, and handle their dories in weather which makes a man-of-war's boat as useless as a racing shell, yet they have not learned this in the school of the square-rigger and they do little work aloft.

Activity, resourcefulness, bravery, these are the qualities claimed for the old-time sailor, and, it is true, they are in much demand still; but the American has not deteriorated in courage and as for the other qualities, more than these are needed to-day and there may be quicker and more economical methods of acquiring a modicum at least of these with many others thrown in.

Captain (now Rear Admiral) Glass wrote 16 years ago, "The seaman of the future ships must be more than a smart topman, he must also be an artilleryman and a mechanic…The seamanship of the future will in some respects differ as greatly from that of the past as do the vessels themselves from the old sailing ship."

Let us then do one thing or the other and do it thoroughly,—it seems we cannot give the real sail training; then why keep up these costly ships when smaller auxiliaries will do their work more economically and efficiently?

The arguments presented in Lieutenant Beach's article and the quotations cited there all point to the desirability of some training in sailing vessels, but in a smaller class of vessel with fewer in the crew than at present. As will be shown, the economics of the question lead to the same conclusion. These smaller vessels would properly be attached directly to the training stations, and would be limited in their cruises; but, with fewer men, these auxiliaries would be dependent on the recruits, who must and would rise to the occasion. Those best fitted for the service would thus be more surely sorted out.

The time has come for a decision upon this question. The British have stations with auxiliaries only; we have been drifting that way, and at Newport have almost reached the same Point. Let us put an end to the delay. If necessary, have a board called to investigate and report. Let the report be acted Upon, and let us bend all our energies towards perfecting the system decided upon, whatever it may be. Any system is better than our present chaotic state.

(3) OUR PRESENT SYSTEM, ITS FAULTS, AND THE REMEDY.

As has been stated, we have no uniform "System of Training Recruits." Several valuable and efficient organizations exist, but each is conducted independently, and each station and ship is a law unto itself. This hardly insures to the service the efficient and uniform product that should be the aim of all. In comparison with that of England our system is feeble and disjointed, more expensive, and much less efficient. With a few important changes on the lines indicated it is believed our system would surpass that of any power in the world.

Quoting again from Capt. A. P. Cooke's article, "The enlistment of men…who seek the navy as an asylum of last resort should not be permitted…Because good men will not enlist, worse are taken, and because of the conduct of these. good men will not stay…The livery of the United States Should be made a badge of character and worth, and the privilege of wearing it considered a great honor The general public would soon learn to recognize an honorable discharge as a certificate of courage, intelligence, subordination...We should endeavor to elevate the enlisted man, to arouse his self respect…We must endeavor to attract a higher class of recruits."

Many steps in this direction have been taken, but we are yet far from what should be the goal of our endeavors.

To quote again from an article by Captain Glass, "Years are occupied in building and arming a modern vessel of war, but how much longer time will be required to train the brain, the eye, and the hand of the man who is to manage the complicated machinery with which modern invention has replaced the armaments of a quarter of a century ago? No time then should be lost by the officers of the service in deciding upon what is necessary and in formulating plans that will meet the needs of the present and the future."

As pointed out above there should be but one source of supply for the seaman branch of the service and a uniform system somewhat similar to our present apprentice system is urgently needed. No better men exist than the petty officers and warrant officers who have risen from the bottom wearing proudly and with honor to the service the "figure of eight" upon their blue shirts.

We have to-day too many classes of men, working under different regulations, with different rates of pay and different privileges and rewards. They compare their conditions among themselves and one or all become dissatisfied. Do away with these distinctions, make all alike, and reward all sufficiently and there will be less dislike of the service. Give more liberty, remove many petty annoyances, equalize and systematize reports and punishments while still allowing commanding officers enough latitude, and there will be more contentment. One of our worst stumbling blocks is the class of inefficient petty officers, who cannot and do not assume the responsibility and authority rightfully theirs. We are rapidly overcoming this however by excellent schools and regulations.

Our term of enlistment while better than formerly is too short, but it is doubtful whether Americans with their independence and restlessness will enlist for longer terms. However, it is perfectly feasible, as has been suggested, to have a long term continuous enlistment carrying special pensions and with leave at regular intervals. Three years apart for the leaves in these cases, except where the service would not permit, would be more agreeable to the men, but it should never be more than four years.

This enlistment could be optional without changing any other laws at present, until at some future time when it is firmly rooted and a sufficient number have taken it up to permit of making it compulsory, when continuous service and pension are desired. "In England," quoting from Lieutenant S. A. Stanton's article, "the training system which keeps boys in the service until the age of 28 or 30 has revolutionized the character of the personnel."

"In America the training system which lets boys go at 21, has appreciably improved but has not radically changed the character of our crews. We have a training system and an untrained service and the results are not likely to change while the present system continues." The italics have been added.

The existing condition has been realized by some of our more advanced officers in years gone by and noble efforts made to bring order out of chaos; but, until recently, the results though excellent in quality, have been meagre in quantity.

Twenty years ago the present training system of apprentices was established through the efforts of Rear Admiral S. B. Luce and others, and has struggled along until to-day it is on a firm basis. Another system, the Landsman Training System, exists alongside it, and is much less extended it its training; and, in its present condition can never produce the same results. This system, as well as each of the two apprentice stations and each of the cruising training ships, has a routine of its own, and each have different methods; so that the products are necessarily heterogeneous in antecedents and in training, in traditions and in qualifications. Certainly the best results cannot be obtained by these methods.

The apprentice system consists of two stations, one at Newport, the other at San Francisco, and of four cruising training ships, three on the Atlantic and one on the Pacific. These ships make about two cruises a year on the average, and about 1500 apprentices are sent into the general service yearly.

The apprentices are enlisted at ages from 15 to 18 and rated apprentices, third class, with $9.00 a month pay. They are retained at the station for from 3 to 9 months (a very irregular time), this variation being largely due in the past to the fact that when a ship arrived at a station, she had to be filled up, no matter whether there were enough apprentices at the station qualified for transfer or not. Many have been transferred at 22 months, others at 14 months. This is especially bad for the service; the short time ones are always handicapped for the beginning at least of their cruise, and the others, kept without cause after they naturally expect to go to sea, become dissatisfied, and discipline at the station suffers in consequence. A rigid rule in this respect varying only for exceptionally bright or for very stupid boys is a necessity.

After a cruise of four to eight months these boys are examined and, if passed, are sent into the general service as apprentices, second class, at about 17 years of age with $15.00 a month pay. At the end of a year they may, if qualified, be rated apprentices, first class, at eighteen years of age and with $21.00 a month pay, and then serve until 21 years of age. After reaching the grade of apprentice, first class, they may be rated as petty officers and receive the pay of their rate. Many of the best petty officers in the service to-day are ex-apprentices. Almost all of the younger warrant officers come from this class.

The other system, the Landsman Training System, takes young men of ages from 18 to 25 years, and places them upon training ships only three of which have real sail power; one is a gunboat; the others being converted freight steamers. The latter carry by far the greater, part. The cruise lasts from six to eight months and then these landsmen, at the age of about 22 years, are sent into the service as ordinary seamen, with pay of $19.00 a month.

Stations at Norfolk and at Port Royal, S. C., have been partly developed for this service, but the one at Port Royal has unfortunately had to be abandoned and the other is yet in its infancy and is lacking in equipment for such a large body of men. Another station is being established at New London.

These ordinary seamen may, as far as the regulations go, be rated seamen almost as soon as they are received on board the regular ships, and then receive $24.00 a month. They may then be rated petty officers at any time. Their too rapid advancement is bad for the service and unfair to the apprentices.

There are far too few properly qualified petty officers in both these services to give proper instruction.

Every man in the seaman branch on every one of our ships should be able to get the rate of seaman and all should be working towards that end. By the end of the first regular cruise every one of these ought to be qualified and rated "seaman." No man ought ever to be kept below the rate of seaman because there is no number vacant. Careful safeguards of examination, etc., must prevent the advancement of incompetent men; but this individual training should be carried on in every ship as entirely distinct from "drilling" which is for the purpose of making the ship an efficient fighting machine as a whole and has little to do With individual education.

This training should be for all those not qualified for "seaman;" and all men and apprentices over 18 years of age, the age of legal enlistment, should be on the same footing. Since his parents give up the control of the apprentice at the start, the crisis of 21 has really little to do with the question,—I8 is regarded as the age at which a landsman becomes responsible and he is then treated as a man; there is no good reason why an apprentice should not also be so treated. His enlistment then should be for four years from the time he becomes 18. It would be better of course if this term could be made longer and a more real return made to the government for the time and money spent in training, but this it is feared is impracticable—a gain of one year by the method proposed is of great value and by other means re-enlistments may be increased. The service must be made their life profession.

Let us have three grades of seamen,—Seaman, Seaman second class, Seaman third class, dropping the useless titles of Landsman and Ordinary Seaman; have no one in general service who has not had some training; train all until all become " seamen " or are discharged. The seamen of ability and petty officers who have not had the opportunity can then be sent to technical schools and petty officer schools, but none except men of and above the rate of "seaman" should be so sent.

By some such means the title "Seaman" may be raised to the proud position it should occupy.

Seamen and petty officers of good conduct should have practically unlimited liberty, the men under training less, but more than to-day.

Every effort must be made to make the positions desirable and to instil ambition into the minds of the youths now entering the service.

The whole enlisted force should be homogeneous and we must work toward the increase of the number of apprentices until they make up the whole of the enlisted personnel; for as we have seen "youth" is a prime requisite in our recruits. Then will we retain the products of the training system and the personnel be on the road to perfection.

Now let us consider the necessities of a "training system for recruits."

There can be no doubt that the landsman system as it exists is only a makeshift,—it is only as it acquires shore stations and begins to approach the apprentice system, that it becomes worthy of the name. The only real system is the apprentice system. The enlistment of recruits over 20 years of age is harmful to the service, much better none over 18. The landsmen should be amalgamated with the apprentices and one uniform system established.

The principal faults of the present apprentice system are as follows:

1. Lack of uniformity and cohesion in whole system; can be remedied by a stroke of the pen of the proper authority establishing some such system as outlined.

2. Lack of care in enlisting,—the remedy suggests itself.

3. Too short enlistment for proper return to government for training given. An improvement has been suggested. A continuous enlistment should be tried and at least given a chance.

4. Insufficiently thorough and early weeding out of manifestly poor material. Regulations covering this can easily be made, though the present ones seem explicit enough.

5. Lack of a sufficient number of qualified petty officers as instructors. The Petty Officer Schools are improving these conditions. Regulations should prohibit any one not qualified from instructing recruits, and these with the additional pay for the Certificates as Instructors as already allowed will suffice.

6. Tremendous drop from rigid atmosphere of a training station to the freedom of a cruising ship. As the service fills up with trained men this will right itself.

7. Insufficient inducement to retain the graduates. Many valuable regulations to this end have been made recently and some others thought desirable are suggested herein.

With improvements on the above lines and a multiplication of the present stations, sufficient trained recruits of an exceptionally high class can easily be provided.

That the early training of the raw recruit before going aboard a training vessel can be best and most efficiently carried out in barracks seems no longer to be disputed.

With such material, barracks are unquestionably safer and healthier from a sanitary standpoint, better for maintaining discipline, more efficient for instruction, and more elastic for a constantly changing complement with daily enlistments and discharges.

Then, too, there is a permanency attaching to a station with barracks, an accumulation of aids and apparatus, a growth of customs and traditions, a possibility of additions and extensions, and an immunity from unreasoning changes, which is lacking in the floating tenement.

Of the total number of recruits enlisted, a large percentage are found unfit for, or leave, the service; and, to take these to sea, even for a short cruise, where they cannot be gotten rid of and Where they occupy valuable space, is an unmixed evil, a great loss in economy, and a waste of the time of officers and instructors.

It seems an undeniable principle that all training stations should have barracks for this preliminary training as well as vessels for perfecting the finished product.

We have made a good beginning in this respect, extension of the system is all that is necessary. The station at Newport especially is an excellent institution and needs only a reasonable amount of aid in the future to become more and more efficient. The ship question, as has been shown, is hanging in the balance; it is not believed that such a heterogeneous outfit, expensive in every way and meagre in results, can continue much longer. Certainly, it is absolutely necessary that all the stations, and the ships which take the output, shall be under one head, responsible for the whole.

The station at Newport turns out a certain number of recruits a year; to complete this training the cruising ships with the same number of recruits require nearly three times the number of officers and men as are employed at the station, not to mention the great expense of their maintenance.

The substitution of several smaller and handier auxiliary sailing vessels and proper auxiliary craft for gunnery training attached to each station, with only sufficient complement to care for them, would solve the economical problem, would return to the general service many officers and men, and would save the great outlay necessary for the maintenance of the independent cruising training ships. Such auxiliary sailing craft would give a much greater field for individual instruction and effort, would permit of more careful training under a uniform system, would promote that resourcefulness, strength, and activity so desirable, and in the end be more efficient for the modern service, even if there were a small loss in deep sea experience.

4. CONCLUSIONS.

The following conclusions on which to base a policy and system of training recruits are believed to be justified by the facts set forth herein.

1. The navy needs, for those who in future will man and fire her guns, the best obtainable; the standard of enlistments should be high, and the undesirable element which gets in should be relentlessly weeded out. We cannot enlist trained men, therefore we must train those we do enlist.

2. The thorough training of all recruits is a necessity. All must start young and all must have a chance to rise to the top.

3. Uniform training under one system is the only logical and efficient method. There may be age classes under same system. Training must be progressive throughout whole time in service.

4. Such a system should have only one head with responsibility for and authority over all parts of it.

5. The training must, at least in the beginning, be as individual as possible.

6. Recruits should be completely under control of a district station until graduation. Such a typical station with all its appurtenances has in this article been designated a "Unit Station."

7. Expulsion of undesirable material at any time should be compulsory and unlimited. Raising of standard best way to get good material. Longer enlistments desirable.

8. Impossible to teach all a seaman should know in one year; discipline and a few important subjects should be thoroughly taught.

9. Individual training cannot be carried on by officers directly (not enough officers if for no other reason). The logical result—the petty officer is the proper instructor.

10. None but properly qualified instructors, of good conduct, should be permitted to instruct recruits. Training of petty officers for such duty a necessity. Work is responsible and wearing,— there should be corresponding compensations.

11. Early training of recruits can best be carried on in barracks on shore.

12. A certain amount of training with sails is still considered a necessity, but experience in regular service and in boats must be the great teacher of the ways of the sea.

13. Cruising sailing ships for training too expensive in officers and men. Not possible under present conditions to allow time necessary for real sailor training in these ships as in the Past. Other independent training ships no reason for existence.

14. Auxiliary vessels attached to each station, then the logical conclusion. More economical, and with fewer recruits per instructor, more efficient for instruction. Much better to keep recruits in touch with station until properly weeded out.

15. These vessels must always be in touch with their station, and able to transfer at once any recruit found unfitted for the service.

16. The working in and out of port required of these auxiliaries necessitates a smaller, handier type of vessel than those heretofore in use in this service.

17. These auxiliaries give a great opportunity to train young officers to command, and do it with economy to the service.

18. Every moment of the course must be utilized to accomplish necessary results. This can be realized only at a properly constituted station with a properly constructed barracks. The loss of time in moving about a poorly designed one is enormous, not to mention the loss of discipline due to increased difficulty in handling and controlling so many raw recruits, and the danger to health in unsanitary quarters. The barracks at Newport are hard to heat, damp and exposed in situation, and to-day sickness is rife there.

19. A fixed time for graduation of recruits qualified is a necessity. Until then they should be kept separate from other men. Quality not quantity must be the aim of stations and ships.

20. There should be rigidly insisted upon qualifications for advance to any rate throughout the service. Every man should have a chance to reach seaman grade when qualified and all should be required to qualify before advancement to any other rate in this branch.

21. Every effort must be made to produce efficient petty officers and instructors, and to raise their status in the service. A continuous service enlistment should be required of petty officers above third class after a certain date.

22. Other changes in the Navy Regulations should be made to equalize rates and pays, and do away with much needless discontent. Have more uniform system of naming rates, thus: Seaman; Seaman, 2d class; Seaman, 3d class; Seaman Apprentice, and Apprentice, 1st and 2d class. Change name "Petty Officer" to "Rated Officer" or "Sub-Officer."

5. A PROPOSED POLICY.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the training of recruits, and it is not the intention to enter deeply into the great question of the subsequent training of the men. The subject of subsequent training, however, is to a great extent inseparable from that of the preliminary training, as the whole should be progressive throughout the service.

It seems advisable therefore that a board be appointed to consider this question in all its bearings and to formulate a Naval Training Policy.

In accordance with the conclusions heretofore stated, a general policy for the enlisted force of our navy on the following lines is suggested, these points being believed to be salient ones in a reasonable, systematic and cohesive policy.

1. That thorough training of the personnel is a recognized necessity. The day that sees the stoppage of all enlistments save "for training" under a real system will be a red-letter day for the service.

2. That this training shall include all recruits and all men in the service until they reach an established standard of proficiency which shall be strictly observed. Schools and courses of advanced training and instruction shall be maintained for the higher class of men.

3. That to make this training certain and uniform, a general training system shall be established with one head having authority over all parts of it and responsibility for all results.

4. That this system must provide for a certain preliminary training for each recruit before he is admitted to the general service. This training to be provided by a branch called the Training Service for Recruits.

5. That this training for recruits shall consist of a number of training stations with sufficient auxiliary vessels.

6. That a standard type of an efficient training station shall be outlined and all future ones constructed after this model.

7. That the number of recruits required yearly by the service shall determine the number of such stations to be constructed, there being a uniform capacity and output for each of these stations.

8. That in case of future increase of the enlisted force of the service a sufficient number of stations to produce these trained recruits shall be provided for.

9. That these stations shall be distributed over the country reaching all parts of it, the country being divided into districts for this purpose.

10. That enlistment should be for a longer period than at present; that the recruit should serve long enough to repay the government for his training; and that men who wish to receive the advantages of advanced training should be required to enlist for continuous service. Much of this is impossible of accomplishment at once, but every effort should be made to work toward this end gradually.

11. That pay and rewards shall be correspondingly increased, pensions for short and long service given, and everything done to retain good men in the service. There must be a recognized system of punishments, liberty, and leave.

12. That for the best interests of both the service and the men, recruits should enlist young. As long as the present shortage of men exists an older class may be accepted, but all should receive identically the same training, with a gradual working towards the younger class as the mainstay of the service.

13. That the standards throughout the service shall be high, the discharge of those found unfitted for the service being obligatory, unlimited, and summary.

14. That standard requirements for each rate shall be insisted on, and no one advanced in rate without fulfilling every requirement and possessing every qualification. Let it be possible for every man to advance to the rate of "seaman" as soon as qualified; and let any man qualify for next higher rate and be placed on a waiting list until a vacancy occurs.

15. That every exertion be made to increase efficiency of petty officers, that we may have men with an educated sense of responsibility and with a proper habit of command, not given to doing a seaman's work on a petty officer's pay; but able to make twenty men do twenty men's work and do it quietly and• properly.

6. A GENERAL SCHEME FOR A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF TRAINING RECRUITS.

A complete system of training for the service would properly be under control of an office which, as has been suggested, could be called the Office of Naval Training.

This Office of Naval Training should be established with the officer in charge of the personnel of the service (the Chief of the Bureau of Navigation at present) as the head, and should have its work subdivided as follows:

1. The Naval Training Service for Recruits.

2. Subsequent Training and Schools of Instruction.

3. Enlistments, Discharges, and Records of the General Service.

The Training Service for Recruits should consist of the following component parts:

(a) A Head Office.

(b) A number of Unit Training Stations.

(c) An efficient Corps of Instructors.

(a) The Head Office should consist of:

A Rear Admiral in command, Chief of Naval Training Service.

A Chief of Staff, senior to the Commandants.

A Lieutenant-Commander or Lieutenant as Flag Lieutenant.

A Lieutenant or Ensign as Flag Secretary.

The head of the Naval Training Service for Recruits should be known as the Chief of Naval Training Service and should have control of all stations, station ships, and auxiliary or other training ships and should have the same relative authority as the Superintendent of the Naval Academy. The head office should keep the general records of all training stations and of all instructors, as well as a roster of all officers and instructors having experience in the training service.

The Chief of Naval Training Service should be required to inspect each station at least once a quarter, and should encourage competition between the stations.

The Head Office should have the responsibility of printing and publishing all books of regulations, all routines, all instruction books and cards, etc., for all the stations, and no changes in official routines should be permitted without the sanction of the Chief of Naval Training Service. The commandant of each station should be responsible that the system is carried out to the letter; and should, if any question of importance arises, require the Academic Board of the station (consisting of the executive officer and the heads of departments) to submit a written report on the subject to be forwarded with endorsements to the Chief of Naval Training Service. If the matter be of sufficient importance the Chief of Naval Training Service should call for reports on it from each of the stations; and if necessary convene the Training Service Board, consisting of himself, his Chief of staff, and the commandants of the training stations, with a member of the staff as secretary, and with power to call before them any officer on duty in the training service.

The individual records of recruits should be kept at the stationing, but the general records of stations at the head office.

(b) A number of unit training stations.

These stations should be identical with barracks, station ships, auxiliaries (sailing for seamanship and steam for gunnery), and depot ships. The present systems, apprentice and landsmen with their independent cruising ships, should be replaced by these unit stations with auxiliary vessels.

With these auxiliary vessels always in touch with the station, much more certain and uniform training will be had, and the system will be far more elastic and open to improvement and developments in the future without loss of efficiency.

Two classes of recruits should be enlisted, one at from 15-18 years of age and another at from 17-20 years of age. All should however receive the same training without mixing such diverse ages at the same station.

The number of such stations to be built is to be determined by the number of recruits needed for the service yearly. With a unit type of barracks, identical in plan and organization with every other, a definite and uniform result can be obtained, and no loss of efficiency will result in shifting officers and instructors from one to another, while orders and regulations devised for one station will apply equally well to all.

(c) An efficient corps of instructors.

This is one of the most important items; without it no real results can be obtained. A careful record of the performance of all instructors should be kept, and none be retained at the stations who fall below the mark in efficiency or conduct. At the same time merit should be rewarded and additional compensation given for possessing the necessary qualifications and holding the certificate of an instructor. A petty officer sent to the station for this purpose should be allowed six months to qualify for one of these certificates, but if not qualified by that time should not be retained.

After the system has been working a reasonable length of time no petty officers should be ordered as instructors unless holding a certificate as such. From then on, such certificates should be issued only at the Petty Officer Schools.

There should be temporarily attached to each station as a depot ship, a battleship or cruiser. The graduates only would be put aboard and would keep the ship in good condition while awaiting examination, and would incidentally learn something of the arrangement and internal economy of a modern vessel.

For the purpose of covering the country systematically in recruiting and for reducing the length of travel, the whole United States should be divided into recruiting districts with, in time, one or more training stations to each district. The following arrangement would be a convenient one:

1. The Northern District, embracing the portion east of the Dakotas and Nebraska and north of the 40th parallel. It may be necessary to divide this district into two, the northern and northeastern.

2. The Middle District, embracing the portion south of the above to the southern boundaries of Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

3. The Southern District, embracing all the Gulf States and including Kansas and New Mexico.

4. The Northwestern District, embracing the portion west of No. 1 and north of California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.

5. The Southwestern District, embracing the remaining portion.

Five stations, producing over 6000 graduates yearly, would more than replace the present systems and be more satisfactory. The Northern District would include the Lake region, where there has been a move to establish a training station. This site may be useful in reaching a region where are many possible recruits, but it is handicapped, as Newport is, to a large extent, by weather and climatic conditions, which prevent outdoor drills for several months in the winter and which cause much pneumonia and kindred diseases among those who have been previously ill-nourished. At present, however, large drafts come from the Lake country and the distance to the present station at Newport does not seem to interfere seriously with enlistments, Chicago and St. Louis being the largest recruiting rendezvous after New York. For many reasons it would be better to put the next station somewhere else.

It is inevitable that a number of new stations will be found necessary in the future, and it is the intention later on to advocate certain localities especially well fitted for this purpose.

We have at Newport a station capable as it stands of turning out about moo graduates a year under the proposed system. A few alterations would allow 1200-1300 to be turned out. This is believed to be the limit of efficiency for a unit training station, this meaning nearly z000 recruits under training at the station at one time; beyond this number no enlistments for this station should be made. It is not believed to be advisable to further Increase the size of such a station, rather that new ones be established reaching new material in other parts of the country.

An increase in the number of recruits to be handled in the inevitable epidemics is not desirable, and a moderate limit makes for greater general efficiency. A larger body of recruits would be unwieldy and officers and instructors could know but few except those directly under them. Heads of departments could no longer follow the individual instruction even on paper. A further increase in the size of a station would inevitably result in the forming of several subordinate stations within the main station, and would not be more economical in officers or men. It certainly would not conduce to greater efficiency. Another barracks alongside of one already established would be like foreign territory in which extradition papers would be necessary to recover a recruit adrift. In time of war too it would be better to have stations scattered about the country.

A roster of officers for the training service should be made, and a plan formed for the junior officers alternating at the station and on the auxiliaries, the auxiliaries to count as sea service; and every effort should be made to make this service desirable.

Quarters for all officers should be built at every station. It is false economy to compel officers to live three miles from their work, putting a premium on early closing and insuring as late an arrival as possible. Officers living on the station would voluntarily and unconsciously do much more work, and their presence would always have a good effect on the recruits.

The enlistments for this system should be under two heads, as follows:

Between ages of 15 and 18 years as apprentice 2d class, at stations for boys at $10.00 a month pay.

Between ages of 17 and 20 years as apprentice, 1st class, at stations for youths at $15.00 a month pay.

These enlistments should be for four years from age of 18 years or from date of enlistment when over 18 years of age.

The course of instruction would last about 14 months, 3 months of this being spent on the auxiliary vessels and one month on the depot ship, all the time directly under the control of the commandant. This is about the length of the present course of training of an apprentice.

At graduation the apprentice 2d class would become apprentice 1st class at $15.00 pay.

At graduation the apprentice 1st class would become seaman apprentice at $19.00 pay.

They would go to regular ships in these rates. When 18 years of age the apprentice 1st class should be rated a seaman apprentice.

Any seaman apprentice who has been six months on board a cruising ship and is qualified should be rated seaman, 2d class.

Any seaman, 2d class, who has been one year on board a cruising ship and is qualified should be rated seaman.

Before discharge all should be given opportunity to take up continuous service papers under a new system to carry pension of say one-fourth pay at 38 years of age, of one-third pay at 43 years of age; and one-half pay at 50 years of age.

After serving four years they should be discharged with provisions as now that if they re-enlist within four months they are to get the pay for that time.

They should re-enlist at the training station from which they originally graduated or be transferred there as soon as possible. Here they should be given at least one month's work in rigging loft, at squad, company and battalion drills, and on auxiliaries to prepare for examination. They should then be examined and their records completed. This makes it possible to arrive at some estimate of the results of the station work. Then a number, say 20 per cent, should be selected for the Petty Officer Schools or other technical schools, and the remainder drafted into service as seamen.

A small percentage of those selected for petty officers should be given special training afterwards for warrant officer and Opportunities given for work on tugs, etc.

Petty Officer Schools should be maintained at each station, as it is at such places that these men under training have an opportunity to acquire and to exercise the habit of command which it is considered so desirable to develop.

It is believed that such a cohesive system with uniform organization, routines, and methods will produce far better results than the present one and will give a large number of petty officers very valuable training, greatly increasing their efficiency. The whole body of men of the lower rates will be rapidly leavened by a mass of recruits of a higher type than at Present, with an educated sense of responsibility and a real respect for authority.

7. THE ECONOMICS OF THE QUESTION AND THE SAVING IN OFFICERS AND MEN.

At present the most typical system we have is the apprentice training system with barracks and station ship at Newport and with three cruising ships taking the product of the station. This system sends into the service about 1200 apprentices yearly.

There are on duty at this station and on the three ships the number of officers and men shown in the table given below.

By doing away with the independent cruising ships and substituting auxiliaries as seems necessary and as advocated by many officers, the station at Newport would turn out the same number of apprentices with more elasticity in the system for increasing this number.

These graduates would be as well or better trained than at present with a much smaller expenditure of officers and men, as will be shown in the following tables.

Allowing one lieutenant, one ensign, and one boatswain to each sailing auxiliary and one lieutenant and one gunner to each gunnery auxiliary, we get the following for each system, as will be shown in detail later.

A saving of

3 Captains or Commanders,

4 Lieutenant-Commanders,

11 Lieutenants, Lieutenants, J. G., or Ensigns,

4 Medical Officers,

2 Paymasters,

2 Chaplains,

5 Boatswains,

2 Gunners,

2 Carpenters,

and about 400 men, with only a shortage in the warrant machinist class.

This is just enough for another complete station. The two stations under the new system would produce at least double the number of graduates turned out at present, and with infinitely more uniform results. Or, if necessary, here are enough officers to man several ships and men enough to form skeleton crews to be filled up by the products of the training stations later.

More stations, however, will certainly be needed in the future as the service is steadily expanding.

With the officers and men from the San Francisco Training Station and from the ships on duty with that station added to those enumerated above, a Staff for the Naval Training Service can be organized and two full stations as described be put in operation, turning out at the limit 2600 graduates a year, and still there will be left a considerable number of officers and men as shown by the following list:

Saving of officers—

1 Captain or Commander,

1 Lieutenant-Commander,

6 Lieutenants, Lieutenants, J. G., or Ensigns,

4 Medical Officers,

2 Paymasters,

2 Chaplains,

2 Boatswains,

1 Carpenter,

and approximately 500 men.

More than enough to man a battleship; and with only a shortage of 4 warrant machinists for the two stations.

Now let us take up the landsmen training system; this will not give as good a showing in saving of officers, but in reality there will be great advantages here also.

The reasons for the smaller proportional number of officers used in this service to the number of graduates, are, first, the fact that few officers are on duty at the shore station, there being little regular barrack training, a distinct loss; second, that the large steamers carry such a great number of recruits (nearly twice as many as most of the other ships), another loss of efficiency in instruction; and, third, that the whole time of the training of the recruits in this service is much shorter than that of the apprentices, still another loss in training.

The result therefore must be to produce an inferior article, not to be offset by their greater age and weight. Indeed in the long run there is little doubt that the younger class will prove of greater value to the service.

The expense of the landsmen service in engineer's force and coal must be comparatively very great.

If these ships were done away with and stations built with auxiliaries to take their place, the following would be the result.

There are at present on duty in this system and on the 8 cruising ships the number of officers and men shown in the following table:

Where	CAPT or CDRs	LCDRs	LTs	Lt., Lt. J.G., or Ensigns	Medical officers	Pay officers	Chaplains	Mates or boatswains	Gunners	Carpenters	Warrant machinist	P.O. and men
Landsmen training service	7	8	23	11	8	7	3	12	10	6	3	About 800

 

The number of men turned out yearly is, at present, about 3000.

Two stations such as have been described will turn out about 2600 graduates at the limit, but of much superior training; and, undoubtedly, many more of them would be retained in the service.

The two stations will require twice the number of officers and men given in the first table with the addition of the staff. The staff already mentioned will serve for the whole system no matter how many stations there be.

This will be a saving of the following officers and men:

5 Captains or Commanders,

4 Lieutenant-Commanders,

5 Lieutenants,

3 Lieutenants, Lieutenants, J. G., or Ensigns,

2 Medical Officers,

3 Paymasters,

1 Chaplain,

2 Boatswains,

4 Carpenters,

5 Warrant Machinists,

and about 400 men.

With the surplus from the apprentice system added to these and the deficiency in that service in warrant machinists supplied we have the following left over:

6 Captains or Commanders,

6 Lieutenant-Commanders,

11 Lieutenants,

3 Lieutenants, Lieutenants, J. G., or Ensigns,

6 Medical Officers,

5 Paymasters,

1 Chaplain,

4 Boatswains,

5 Carpenters,

1 Warrant Machinist,

and about 900 men.

Nearly enough officers to man another station and to turn out over 1200 more graduates yearly. This would make five stations turning out annually from 6000 to 65oo well-trained recruits with practically the present number of officers. The cost of the buildings, etc., would in part be offset by the release of 12 or more expensive ships.

If four stations were considered enough with their 5000 graduates a year, then 3 battleships could be manned with the officers left over; and, it seems that at present these 4 stations would be able to supply the navy's regular needs, barring any sudden increase in the enlisted force.

The present system is too expensive if proper results are to be attained, the navy can not spare the officers or men. Yet a need for systematic training exists to-day, daily growing in urgency. The finger of Necessity points the way; some such system as outlined seems inevitable, and the sooner we recognize this and establish a uniform system the better it will be for the service.

8. SUBSEQUENT TRAINING AND PETTY OFFICER SCHOOL.

The training of the personnel of the navy should be continuous and progressive during the whole term of enlistment.

Some adjustment of present laws should be made to give the two classes of recruits an equitable and uniform system of advancement in rating. The present pay-table has many inconsistencies.

A board should be in session frequently on every ship for the purpose of examining candidates for promotion, and none should be so promoted without qualifying in every subject required.

These records should be carefully kept and quarterly reports should be forwarded to the Office of Naval Training.

The laws governing the special training of recruits throughout the service are good and definite enough, though no uniform, detailed course of instruction has been laid down.

The laws governing the examination of recruits before enlistments are stringent enough; but, especially in the cases of apprentices, their execution leaves much to be desired, saddling the service with many useless specimens which cost time and money before they can be gotten rid of.

Great advances have been made in regard to ratings and rewards for efficiency, and many excellent regulations relating to these subjects exist; but, it is thought that these may be further systematized to advantage. It is believed that buglers and bandsmen should enlist as boys for such training for a long term of enlistment and should be classified as are other rates. Chief buglers would be the bugle instructors. At present our aged and decrepit bandsmen are fit only for bandstands, concerts, and theatres.

A perfect system of identification by physical characteristics is much needed in the service, and with the card index systems of to-day can be installed and used at every recruiting station with little expense or loss of time, while the gain to the service in preventing re-enlistments of "undesirables" would be very great.

The regulations governing the instruction and marking of men and recruits are sufficient but too general, and it is believed that the system of marking should show not simply the opinion of some officer as to a man's ability in his rate, but should be an absolute measure of his qualifications. Thus, say that there are a hundred items which go to make up the sum total of a seaman's necessary qualities, then let him be marked on a uniform scale one point for each thing he is qualified in. The enlistment record will then show the subjects not qualified in, and next quarter he need only be examined in these subjects. The number of points accomplished can then be added to the previous mark as shown on the record. A general review examination might be held once a year. On the whole this system would be simpler and in the end quicker than the present method, and, if adhered to strictly, would promote ambition among the men; who, knowing the requirements, would endeavor each quarter to improve their marks. It would also enable the officers to size up the men to better advantage and would insure their having the standard qualifications for the rate held. We would not then see so many seamen who cannot splice wire rope or send a signal message, nor would we have ordinary seamen who cannot go aloft or steer the ship. A rearrangement of subjects on the enlistment records should also be made and marks should not simply represent a quarter's work, but should express the value of the man in each one of the branches. Some such classification as the following would, it is believed, stimulate them to perfect themselves in all directions:

1. Character—Subdivisions: Ability to command; appearance; bearing and neatness; subordination; attention to duty.

2. Ability—Subdivisions: Seamanship, signals, ordnance, marksmanship, schooling, special courses.

3. Conduct—One heading is sufficient.

Any seaman or petty officer, recommended by the Board of Officers and the commanding officer of a ship for a course at a Petty Officers School or other school of instruction, should if possible be allowed to take the course; and every ship should, when in home waters, be compelled to select each quarter the two most deserving men on board for this purpose, their places to be filled by graduates of the said schools when possible.

These instruction schools are excellent in conception, and only need encouragement and enlargement to meet all the needs of the service.

A Petty Officer School should be located at each of the training stations. The auxiliaries proposed would also give excellent opportunities for acquiring knowledge and experience which they would never otherwise get in the modern service. Here they would assist in the handling of the recruits, meanwhile learning to command men themselves.

Every effort should be made to make a petty officer one in fact as well as in name; that is to make him an officer of a lower rate exercising the command vested in him and receiving the respect due him; with a real sense of duty and a self-respect holding him above the mass of men. It is well to increase in every way the deference shown by the men towards the petty and warrant officers, and to increase the separation between all classes. Petty officers being of the men themselves and understanding all their modes of thought, while at the same time they possess sufficient intelligence and training to appreciate the position of an officer, are in the proper situation to stand between these extremes, and indeed are the greatest factor in maintaining proper discipline; they are in every sense "the backbone of the Navy."

Before leaving this subject it is impossible to pass over one of the greatest needs of the navy to-day--a longer term of enlistment. It has been said that men cannot be gotten to enlist for such long terms, but this is not yet fully proved. At any rate, having in view the great advantages to be derived, it would be worth while to make the experiment. Without changing the regulations governing the mass of enlistments to-day, a special class of enlistments might be accepted for a long term carrying a life pension after expiration of enlistment, with an increase of pension for each subsequent enlistment. It is believed that there is a large and growing class of men who regard the navy as their home who would take advantage of this offer, and even if all did not re-enlist for the second term they would thus form a large and valuable reserve, bound to the service and in its pay, to be called on in time of war.

9. GOOD METHODS AND BAD.

With longer and more thorough training more men would be retained in the service, as they would not so readily abandon a profession in which they were well on the way to efficiency and success.

The raising of the standard would not only exclude much undesirable material, but would attract a better class. This is especially true of apprentices whose parents are often afraid of evil associations. It is false economy to retain a single recruit recommended for discharge. The navy regulations explicitly prescribe that all apprentices unfit for the service shall be recommended for discharge. From experience it is believed that no boy really fit for the service has ever been recommended for discharge under this head; and it is certain there are many so-called graduates of both systems whom the navy could spare with advantage to itself. It is believed that a much higher class of recruits will enlist as the standard of the system rises and its reputation spreads. The sympathetic instincts often aroused should not control; the training stations are not charitable institutions, but are designed solely to supply the navy the best material obtainable; and the only duty of the officer is towards the service.

As for the instruction, the methods are of the greatest importance and a few facts will be noted here which are well to bear in mind in organizing a model training station.

1. It is far better to have few and simple requirements, the elements of the profession, and to really acquire them, than to have an elaborate schedule on paper, impossible of realization, causing a slurring over of important things, and resulting in a confusion of ideas with no well defined qualifications.

2. A youth cannot grasp a large subject in all its parts at once—it must be presented to him in small portions and one at a time. A real synthetic method is the proper one.

3. With this class of recruits repetition, reiteration, time and patience are the important forces in impressing facts upon the memory. As Commodore Bunce (quoting from Lieutenant-Commander Clark's article) so justly observed some years ago, "Training apprentices is best done by the repetition of facts until they are impressed on the memory and by the repetition of acts until facility in doing them is acquired."

4. Under all departments a reasonable length of time should be allowed on each subject for the average recruit to master it before progressing to any other. Trying to teach beginners a different branch of a subject daily is a great mistake.

5. The best class of instructors are men with the faculty of imparting knowledge, with patience, with ability to command, and, above all, of good conduct and bearing. These are the only ones who should be allowed to instruct recruits. Such men by their example alone produce much effect; and recruits seeing these men, whom they look up to, carrying themselves as they should, come to believe their manner to be the recognized standard for all men on duty and carry this high ideal with them into the service. They also see the possibilities to which any one of them may easily rise within a few years.

6. A routine having been once established nothing should be allowed to interfere with it. Details of recruits to any duties which keep them from their regular periods of instructions are harmful and should be avoided.

7. Every moment of the time under instruction must be utilized. Under a carefully worked out system, in a properly constructed barracks, it is easily possible to save on many a day an hour which is often wasted by faulty arrangements, by times spent in marching to and from or in getting out apparatus, etc. This point was well brought out in the article by Lieutenant-Commander Clark referred to above.

8. General drills for the instruction of recruits are a great farce. Individual instruction until all elementary work is accomplished is the only way to produce results. Drills held for the purpose of entering them in the log alone are a bad feature of any system.

9. The lecture system was not devised for such a school as we have under consideration, and to waste time droning along with a lot of matter to which many of the recruits are not even listening is little short of criminal.

10. Let each step forward have a reward in view be it ever so little; the youth can grasp this idea and will work for it. He can thus be led until, without his knowledge, he is trained to do things automatically.

11. Many officers criticise what exists without suggesting improvements or assisting in devising means to carry them out. It is easy to pull down—let them now come forward and assist in building up some system of which even they can approve.

1O. THE UNIT TRAINING STATION.

Each unit training station should be complete in itself, and, as nearly as may be, each should be identical.

For convenience this subject has been divided into a number of heads which will be considered in order, as follows:

(a) General organization.

(b) Enlistments for the station.

(c) Details of organization.

(d) Administration.

(e) General schedule of course.

(f) Details of course of instruction.

(g) Records.

(h) Plan for general arrangement of station.

(k) Plans of barracks.

(l) Proposed sites.

A. GENERAL ORGANIZATION.

The unit station should comprise the following parts:

Barracks,

Newcomers quarters,

Sterilizing plant,

Station and depot ships,

Auxiliary training vessels,

Boats and boat houses,

Ferry tugs and launches,

Workshops,

Officers' quarters,

Hospitals,

Drill and recreation grounds,

Target ranges,

Chapel or auditorium,

Gymnasium,

Swimming pools,

Marine barracks.

A captain or commander should be commandant of the station and should be directly responsible to the Chief of Naval Training Service.

The instruction should be carried on under the department system, the following departments being necessary:

Department of Discipline,

Department of Seamanship,

Department of Tactics,

Department of Gunnery,

Department of English.

The following officers will be needed for such a unit station:

1 Lieutenant-Commander—Executive officer, head of Department of Discipline, senior member of Academic Board, in general charge of station ship, barracks, grounds, launches, workshops, etc.

1 Lieutenant-Commander or Lieutenant—Head of Department of Seamanship, member of Academic Board, in charge of 1st division, sailing and pulling boats, instruction on sailing auxiliaries, and should be senior to all officers on these.

1 Lieutenant—Head of Department of Tactics, member of Academic Board, in charge of 2d division, in charge of battalion, gymnasium, physical exercise, parades, etc.

1 Lieutenant—Head of Department of Gunnery, member of Academic Board, in charge of 3d division, ordnance officer of station, in charge of instruction on gunnery auxiliaries, and should be senior to all officers on these.

1 Lieutenant—Relief for heads of departments, secretary of Academic Board, in charge of records, in charge of 4th division, adjutant of the battalion of infantry and artillery.

1 Lieutenant—In charge of newcomers' squad and building, assistant to each head of department in the departmental work of his squad.

1 Chaplain—Head of Department of English, in charge of school, library, and music rooms, and of post office. To deliver lectures and to provide entertainments for the recruits.

All work in any department is to be absolutely under control of the head of that department. Paragraph 55, U. S. Navy Regulations 1900, should most certainly be construed as applying to this case.

There will be needed on each of the sailing auxiliaries the following officers:

1 Lieutenant in command,

1 Lieutenant, J. G., or Ensign as watch officer.

These would be most excellent schools for midshipmen, and no better experience could be gained by them than this.

There will be needed on each gunnery auxiliary, the following officers:

1 Lieutenant or Lieutenant, J. G., in command.

The warrant officers needed under the system will be as follows:

1 Chief Boatswain on station ship and for general station work. To assist in Seamanship Department when possible. division.

1 Boatswain in Department of Seamanship, assistant in 1st division

1 Boatswain or Gunner in Department of Tactics, assistant in 2d division.

1 Gunner in Department of Gunnery, assistant in 3rd division.

1 Carpenter for station work, assistant in 4th division.

1 Warrant Machinist in charge of station plant.

3 Boatswains, one on each sailing auxiliary.

3 Gunners, one on each gunnery auxiliary.

3 Warrant Machinists, one on each steam auxiliary.

All warrant officers are to be available for duty as company officers, etc., at battalion drills of the infantry and artillery.

There will also be needed for a unit station in the Medical and Pay Departments the following officers:

1 Surgeon or Medical Inspector in change of Station Medical Department. The hospitals are not included in this estimate as they are usually separate commands.

2 P.A. Surgeons or Assistant Surgeons as assistants in the department and to attend the auxiliary vessels.

A sufficient force of pharmacists, hospital stewards, and hospital apprentices.  This is a prime necessity, both on account of the numerous and trying epidemics and of the immense amount of work entailed by the frequent examinations. n the Pay Department the following will be needed:

1 Paymaster or Pay Inspector in charge of Pay Department of station general storekeeper, and commissary of apprentices.

1 P. A. Paymaster or Assistant Paymaster as assistant in department, oversee work on auxiliaries.

A sufficient force of pay clerks, pay yeomen, and helpers.

A sufficient force of commissary stewards, commissary yeomen, chief cooks, bakers, and sufficient landsmen mess cooks for the barracks and three auxiliaries to avoid the necessity of employing apprentices for this purpose.

The number of petty officer instructors that will be required

for a unit station under this system will be as follows:

37 for the barracks, divided as follows:

16 in the Department of Seamanship,

12 in the Department of Tactics,

8 in the Department of Gunnery,

1 athletic instructor under the Department of Tactics.

There will be needed for the newcomers' squad the following: 10 for preliminary instructions in Departments of Seamanship and Tactics.

There will be needed on the auxiliaries the following:

18 for instruction in seamanship and in gunnery.

65 instructors in all for a unit training station.

This number can probably be supplied from the training ships now in commission, since it is not intended to use only chief petty officers. Many good 1st and 2d class petty officers can be found, and the opportunity for selection given by the doing away of the independent cruising training ships would be of great value.

The number of each class of petty officer needed is as follows:

40 Chief Petty Officers as follows: 18 at barracks, 4 at newcomers' quarters, 18 on auxiliaries.

13 1st-Class Petty Officers as follows: 10 at barracks, 3 at newcomers' quarters.

12 2d-Class Petty Officers as follows: 9 at barracks, 3 at newcomers' quarters.

These 65 should be made up of the following rates:

DEPARTMENTS.

12 Chief Masters at Arms, 2 Sea., 3 Tac., 1 New., 6 Aux.

11 Chief Boatswain's Mates, 4 Sea., 2 Tac., 2 New., 3 Aux.

5 Chief Quartermasters, 2 New., 3 Aux.

12 Chief Gunner's Mates, 5 Gun., 1 New., 6 Aux.

2 Masters at Arms, 1st class, 1 Tac., 1 New.

3 Boatswain's Mates, 1st class, 2 Sea., 1 Tac.

2 Quartermasters, 1st class, 2 Sea.

2 Boatswain's Mates or Gunner's Mates, 1st class, 2 New.

4 Gunner's Mates or Gun Captains, 1st class, 1 Tac., 3 Gun.

2 Masters at Arms, 2d class, 1 Tac., 1 New.

3 Boatswain's Mates, al class, 1 Tac., 2 Sea.

2 Quartermasters, 2d class, 2 Sea.

2 Boatswain's Mates or Gunner's Mates, 2d class, 2 New.

3 Gunner's Mates or Gun Captains, 2d class, 1 Tac., 2 Gun.

The number of chief petty officers given as needed at the unit station, exclusive of those required on the auxiliaries, is just about what is now allowed at the Newport station.

There will also be needed in the Department of English for the school, library, and post office the following force:

2 Yeomen, 1st class, one as librarian and one as postmaster, and to assist in keeping records and in maintaining order.

12 Schoolmasters, to be men enlisted for this particular purpose only, and not available for other duty. Good men can thus be secured at small salaries.

Under the Department of Discipline at the barracks, at the newcomers' quarters, and on the auxiliaries, will be needed a number of masters at arms for police duties; these men will not be instructors and need only be men of good character, but are necessary. A good police force goes such a long way towards promoting order and efficiency and preventing straggling that it would be false economy to cut down this number.

There will be needed for this purpose:

1 Chief Master at Arms for station, in charge of all prisoners.

3 Chief Masters at Arms, one on first and one on second floor of barracks and one in charge of grounds.

4 Masters at Arms, 1st class, one on upper floor of barracks, one in charge of "Restricted Squad," one in charge of "Extra Duty Squad," one on station ship.

1 Master at Arms, 2d class, for mess hall, assisted by 2 seamen.

1 Master at Arms, 2d class, for head, wash room, and dry rooms, assisted by 3 seamen.

1 Chief Master at Arms at newcomers' quarters, in charge of building and grounds, assisted by 2 seamen.

3 Masters at Arms, 1st class, to assist in outfitting newcomers.

6 Masters at Arms, 1st class, for auxiliaries, one on each vessel, assisted by one seaman.

20 in all in this department.

There will be needed for the crews of the auxiliary sailing vessels approximately the following men:

2 Boatswain's Mates, 1st class,

1 Captain of Forecastle,

2 Captains of Top.

1 Captain of Afterguard,

2 Quartermasters, 1st or 2d class,

1 Quartermaster, 3d class,

4 Seamen. Some can also be detailed from the Petty Officer School.

2 Landsmen for captain of head and lamplighter.

15 in all for each sailing auxiliary.

For each gunnery auxiliary there will be needed the following men:

1 Boatswain's Mate, 1st class,

1Captain of Forecastle,

1 Captain of Afterguard,

2 Gunner's Mates, 2d or 3d class,

2 Quartermasters, 1st or 2d class,

1 Quartermaster, 3d class,

2 Seamen,

2 Machinists, 1st class,

2 Firemen, 1st or 2d class,

4 Coal Passers.

18 in all for each steam auxiliary.

There will be needed for the station ship, ferries, launches, the boiler house, the dynamo room, workshops, etc., at the station, the following men:

4 Quartermasters, 2d or 3d class, on station ship,

4 Seamen, on station ship,

2 Landsmen, on station ship,

12 Coxswains, Seamen, Ordinary Seamen, and Firemen for launches,

6 Machinists and Firemen for boiler house,

5 Electricians for dynamo room,

8 Carpenter's Mates, Plumbers, Painters, etc., in workshops.

41 in all for station work.

This makes a total for the whole station, including the station ship and auxiliaries and the commissary and medical forces, of about 225 petty officers and men, exclusive of the instructors.

This is very economical as compared with the present force in the three sea-going training ships and at the Newport station, which is about 600 or more.

B. ENLISTMENTS FOR THE STATION.

It is particularly necessary that the greatest care be exercised in selecting recruits. Vicious and immoral boys do incalculable harm even during the short term of their existence in the navy. Poor, weak, physical specimens are of no use to the service and waste the time of officers and instructors. The number of cases admitted which even a casual glance shows are manifestly unfit for the service is unaccountably large. A good judge of character can always exclude many and save them and their families the disgrace of failure and dismissal. Much of the bad showing of the apprentices is due to the lack of care in enlisting. During the last year there were 2300 at the Newport station. Of these 230, or to per cent, were discharged for Physical disability, before leaving the station, and within a few months (in some cases a few weeks) of their enlistment.

The navy does not want every boy that applies, only the best are good enough.

In connection with this service of recruiting it might be well to detail several trustworthy graduates from each recruiting district to act as orderlies at the recruiting office; they would attract and maybe even drum up enlistments. When the system becomes more thoroughly known and the real facts more widely disseminated it will bring many more volunteers. Never have there existed such opportunities for the graduates of such a system as to-day; any one with a little work and ordinary good behavior can become a warrant officer in a few years. And many of these ambitious ones may soon have commissions.

In case of war their chances would be proportionately greater. But to make this true in every case thorough training under a real system is necessary, to-day it is the apprentice who has the shoulder straps concealed in his ditty box, the landsman is not in the race, and why—it is wholly a matter of an early start and of real systematized training.

To attract enlistments it must be thoroughly understood outside that this proper training will be given and that every one will be started fairly with an equal chance of promotion.

The limit of enlistments for a unit station under the proposed system should be fixed so that the number of recruits under instruction in barracks and newcomers' squad at any one time shall not exceed 1600; this number is an average of about 110 a month; beyond this no further enlistments for this station should be made.

Where it is found necessary to have training stations in the bleak northern and northeastern States, allowance should be made for this in the enlistments, by checking them in the fall, so that the station may not be crowded in the unhealthy winter season.

C. DETAILS OF ORGANIZATION.

All recruits upon arrival are to be placed in the newcomers' squad (the fourth class) and kept separate from the others; the battalion at the barracks being divided into three classes, first, second, and third. Each department is to be assigned a number of instructors besides the commissioned and warrant officers attached to it. The head of department assigns to each instructor his squad and subject, and prepares schedules in accordance with the station scheme of instruction.

The 1600 recruits are to be divided as follows:

400 in the newcomers' squad,

400 in the third class,

400 in the second class,

400 in the first class.

The number on the auxiliaries is to be limited to 120 to each pair or 360 in all, this being about the average number of the first class who will probably be found qualified for promotion. This makes nearly 2000 recruits attached to the station at one time if filled to the limit of its capacity.

The whole number of recruits in the barracks should be divided, as now, into four divisions, the officers and instructors being equally divided among them; this is for purposes of inspection, clothing, cleaning, etc. Each division will then have 300 at the limit, and will be divided into two companies and four sections, the four classes being equally distributed to each section. In order to have an elastic working system suitable to all conditions there should be selected for watch numbers a total number large enough to allow for all contingencies. The numbers from 101 to 199 will be for the 1st section, 201 to 299 for the 2d section, and so on for the sixteen sections.

Numbers 1 to 100 will be for instructors and masters at arms.

Numbers 1700 to 2100 will be for the newcomers' squad.

The station ship, auxiliaries, and depot ship will have their own numbers. All men on duty at the station except those named above to have station ship numbers.

This system of numbers for the recruits will show at a glance the class, division, company, section and mess.

The instruction of all classes is based on a course of three months in each class.

As nearly as possible there should be one instructor for each section of each class when under instruction in any given department, and this instructor should follow the same section through its departmental work. These sections have about 25 recruits in each. No instructor can handle a larger number Properly and with the less experienced men this number would better be much reduced.

Thorough records must be kept, and by the end of the three months' term each recruit must have been given an opportunity to qualify in each subject. When he shows himself qualified in any subject he should be checked off in the record book with appropriate remarks. When qualified in all subjects of the class course he is ready for promotion, but should never be promoted until so qualified.

Any recruit in a lower class, who requests it, and is recommended by his divisional officer, should be given a chance to qualify for the next class. The Academic Board should decide this, and, if he succeed, should order his promotion.

Conduct should count largely in promotion, as far as holding up characters who are unfit for the service or not deserving of Promotion, but the Academic Board should have discretion if these. matters. A demerit system with marks, extra duty, and privileges corresponding as now in force at Newport, should be carried on under the Department of Discipline.

At the end of each term of three months the lists should be overhauled and all recruits qualified should be promoted to the next higher class.

Upon finishing the first class course all recruits qualified should be transferred to the station ship; and those deserving it should be given at least two weeks' leave to visit their homes. At the expiration of this leave they should be transferred to the auxiliary sailing vessels for a six weeks' course in seamanship. Upon completion of this course they should be transferred to the gunnery auxiliaries for a similar course in gunnery and target practice. If thought desirable to reduce the size of the complements of the auxiliaries still further for the purpose of more individual instruction, half of the advanced class can be sent to the seamanship and half to the gunnery auxiliaries in the start and then the two squads interchanged at the end of six weeks. This would be partly determined by the class of vessels available or decided upon.

During this time the recruits are still under the same system, under the control of the commandant, and under the supervision of the Academic Board, and any offender or any one found unfit for the service can at once be returned to the station and a deserving one who is qualified be sent in his place. This gives an immense superiority over the present system in keeping the graduating class filled to its limit with recruits who are available for the general service. It also allows additional preliminary training to be given those who have been found, through no insurmountable cause, not yet fitted for the service, and thus saves to the government the time, pay, and services of a number who would otherwise be discharged at a total loss. Prisoners also will not be kept on the auxiliaries longer than necessary to secure their transfer to the station cells and to have their places supplied by others more deserving. This power of reducing advanced recruits is the strongest hold possible to keep over them, and produces an alacrity and precision in their work which no other consideration seems to effect.

When the course on the auxiliaries is completed the class should be transferred to the depot ship for final graduation and should be subject to the call of any department for this purpose. Meanwhile they would familiarize themselves with the details of a modern ship and at the same time keep her in good condition. The examination should be a rigid and comprehensive one including every subject taught at the station, and at its completion the Academic Board should report in writing to the commandant the result, and he will order the graduation of the successful recruits, the others being returned to the station.

On graduation day, which would occur every three months, the graduating class should be presented their certificates of graduation and the medal winners their medals at a dress parade of the whole battalion.

The graduates are then to be rated apprentices, 1st class, or in case of the older class, seamen apprentices, and then await transfer from the depot ship to the general service, the number ready being reported by the commandant to the Chief of the Naval Training Service.

During this time leave should be again granted the deserving ones if possible, as such privileges do only good and there is no danger of desertions before going to the cruising ships to which all are eagerly looking forward. This is not said to be the case with the steamers taking large bodies of landsmen for a training cruise.

The following is a brief summary of the course of instruction as outlined above:

In newcomers' squad to 2 months.

In third class 3 to 1 ½ months

In second class 3 months

In first class 3 months

On leave ½ month

On sailing auxiliaries 1 ½ months

On gunnery auxiliaries 1 to 1 ½ months

On depot ship under examination 1 month

Length of course 14 months

This is about the average length of time in the apprentice training service to-day, but a uniform system with proper selection as outlined will accomplish more in the same time.

The scheme throughout is to select the absolutely essential things and to make it certain that these are acquired before promotion.

D. DETAILS OF ADMINISTRATION.

The commandant of the unit training station should be the head of the school and responsible to the Chief of the Naval Training Service.

The executive officer should have charge of all the internal economy of the station besides having special charge of the conduct records of all recruits and control of all the police force of the station, as well as his usual duties as recruiting officer of the station. He is also head of department of discipline and senior member of the Academic Board.

The Academic Board should meet at least three times a week and take action on all cases laid before it by the heads of departments; and the board should prepare the class lists and keep them up to date as well as make up the reports of recruits to be graduated, promoted, reduced or discharged. For this purpose they should frequently and carefully scrutinize the existing lists and note all cases requiring their action. To this end heads of departments and divisional officers should be required to hand in weekly lists of any cases requiring action by the board. The records of the auxiliaries should also be transmitted through the heads of departments to the Academic Board whenever occurring. The board should decide all medal competitions and should require its secretary to keep all records up to date. The Academic Board should have power at any time to recommend the discharge of any recruit found to be unfit for the service, and it is their duty to make such recommendations in each case.

Heads of departments should keep careful records of all instruction and of the performance of all their instructors, and should be held responsible for the efficiency of their departments.

All instructors must be most carefully selected and observed and should only hold their rates during good behavior. They should each one have a tour of duty in the department of tactics at first in order to acquire a proper bearing, a habit of command, and some knowledge of the drill regulations, and all of them should be available for battalion drill.

To obtain efficient results the corps of instructors must at all times be maintained at its full strength. Since it is often very difficult to obtain the proper number of chief and other petty officers of the requisite qualifications for instructors, the following plan is suggested. Assign each station the proper number of rates of each class that has been decided upon as necessary. Then fill such rates as are possible with the petty officers available, allowing the different stations to select the others from petty officers of lower rates sent to the stations for the purpose and from the graduates of the petty officers' schools or from any men who may re-enlist at the station or who may develop among the men on duty there. These instructors' rates are to be given temporarily at the pleasure of the commandant, and these men to return to their proper rates upon transfer. This would be an excellent means of acquiring efficient men and of enforcing a strict attention to duty and a proper behavior. This time of service should count as Acting service in the next higher rate as required by the existing Navy Regulations.

All offenses and all punishments of recruits should be classified and, except for serious cases, should be assigned demerits Which carry extra drill or duty; the demerits serving to determine the mark in conduct. This has been worked out at the Newport station and is in daily use there with good results. Punishments should be as summary as possible, and continually insubordinate, vicious, or immoral offenders should be kept separate from the others until their discharge can be effected. The retention of such characters for even a short time works great harm to many others. These discharges will reassure parents afraid to send their sons on account of the bad associates; and the cutting off of the early sea cruise will decide others afraid to send their sons so far from home at the start.

Confinement is not a good corrective in the case of many boys, the weeding out process is the only way with the "undesirables." The British navy obtains excellent results by the fear of the birch, and it is to be regretted that in the cases of young boys such measures are not permissible in place of the irons and confinement which seem to harden some of them and in other cases have no terrors for them.

Conduct classes would much better be known as grades, there being so many kinds of classes in the service as to be confusing.

E. GENERAL SCHEDULE OF THE COURSE.

The course of instruction should have definite dates for its beginning and end, and no recruit should under any circumstances be transferred to a cruising ship until he has been reported ready. For a station situated in the Middle States the following schedule is a convenient one. There is some modification necessary in the winter classes on account of the climate; for stations north of Chesapeake Bay this will be a considerable change.

GENERAL SCHEDULE.

Finish Course In					Leave	Finish on Auxiliaries		Graduate (on Depot Ship)
Newcomers’ Squad		Third class	Second class	First class		Sailing	Gunnery
First squad	Second squad
June 1	July 15	Sept. 1	Dec. 1	Mar. 1	½ mo.	May 1	June 1	July 1
Sept. 1	Oct. 15	Dec. 1	Mar. 1	June 1	½ mo.	Aug. 1	Sept. 1	Oct. 1
Dec. 1	Jan. 15	Mar. 1	June 1	Sept. 1	½ mo.	Mar. 1	Dec. 1	Jan. 1
Mar. 1	Apr. 15	June 1	Sept. 1	Dec. 1	½ mo.	Feb. 1	Mar. 1	Apr. 1

 

F. DETAILS OF THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.

The details of a course somewhat similar to the one at Newport but arranged to give as nearly as possible continuous instruction in each subject until qualified on it before progressing to the next, has been worked out with schedules, routines, etc.; but the limits of the present article do not admit of its interpolation here.

In the early part of the course more time is given to tactics and English, these being specially needed by raw recruits to brace them up and to permit of their progressing to the top.

Later more time is given to seamanship, this being the best opportunity to acquire a groundwork in this subject. Little time is given to gunnery during the early part of the course, this, however, is increased as the end of the course is neared.

It is hoped that in the future more stress will be laid on the work in the English department and more aid furnished this department. This course is especially necessary nowadays when an ability to read, write and figure is very essential to advancement through even the lower rates. To take an advanced course at one of the schools of instruction such knowledge is an absolute requisite. If all are to have an equal chance of rising to a position of responsibility such a course is imperatively demanded.

Voluntary night classes for those who are ambitious could easily be maintained with advantage.

The subject taught by each department is to be carefully analyzed and reduced to those elements which a recruit should be taught and every effort should be made to systematize the instruction so that there should be no waste of time and so that no recruit will be overlooked or fail to get instruction in every part of the course. The work throughout should be progressive, one portion being learned before another is taken up.

In each department instead of frequent examinations, which break into the routine and are, in the case of large numbers, seemingly interminable, record books with list of qualifications for each class should be kept and a system of checking off those qualified should be made.

The work on the sailing auxiliaries should be given up entirely to seamanship; they should have no guns on board. Boat work is one of the best schools for the modern seaman and great stress should be laid on this part of the course.

The best type of auxiliary sailing vessels is a matter to be decided upon when the system is outlined, but certain requisites seem clearly indicated, and these point in the direction already followed by the British.

These vessels must be comparatively small and handy, capable of being handled with ease and safety in contracted bodies of water and by small crews.

They should combine as lofty masts and as much square sail as possible for purposes of instruction and gymnastics.

The Newport class does not possess these, and under the proposed system sailing vessels are better and cheaper for teaching seamanship.

A complement of 120 recruits is the unit worked out in the system proposed. A bark or a brig of say 600 to 800 tons se ems the type needed. The brig has been found most efficient in England.

These vessels should leave port daily in suitable weather and return to their moorings in the afternoon. Alacrity in obeying orders and quietness in performing work should be rigidly insisted upon.

Competitive drills at stated periods between these vessels, identical in everything, would produce excellent results, and this would be a great school for the young officer.

Any convenient and handy steamer of small size and moderate draft will do for the work of gunnery auxiliary. Many of the yachts purchased during the war are well fitted for this purpose. Each one of these vessels should carry the following battery:

1 4-in. R. F. G.

2 6-pdr. R.F.G.

2 3-pdr. R. F. G.

2 1-pdr. R. F. G.

4 automatic guns.

120 service rifles.

40 service revolvers.

and all sighting apparatus, sub-calibres, targets, etc., and unlimited ammunition.

G. RECORDS.

All records of the instruction of each recruit from enlistment to graduation should be kept in one general card index system in the office of the Academic Board.

The cards should contain the continuous number of the enlistment and name of parent, guardian, or next of kin, and columns showing the date of each promotion from class to class, with marks, conduct record, and ratings. This is practically an enlistment record on a card, but has greater scope, and is necessary on account of the impossibility of constant reference to the unwieldy enlistment records in such large numbers. These cards will show in the long run the results of the system, the most successful station, and may suggest needed changes. In no other way can this useful data be acquired and kept by the office of Naval Training.

H. PLAN FOR GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF STATION.

This plan (Plate No. I) will, in connection with the text, explain itself. The peninsula chosen for this illustration was picked out on the chart shown in Plate No. VI on account of its excellent anchorage ground and apparently unoccupied condition. With buildings situated as indicated, with a large parade ground, plenty of room in rear easily acquired if needed, and with a breakwater on edge of shoal for shelter of small steamers and for a boat harbor, this would be an ideal station. The newcorners have a wharf of their own and a sterilizing plant with annex where they may be quartered without mingling with others until the doctor pronounces it safe. The marine barracks commands the gate. A road around the station for inspection purposes by instructors on bicycles is shown.

K. PLANS OF BARRACKS.

The plans given in Plates II, III, IV and V were worked out from actual experience in the barracks at Newport and constant thought was given these problems at that time. Many of the details were worked out on the spot and every phase of the daily life of a recruit has been considered. The defects of the barracks at Newport are believed to have been eliminated and a number of new and useful features added.

The proposed barracks is to be complete in itself, 240 feet by 480 feet, being built around a central drill hall, 100 feet by 380 feet. Of course such a building should be as nearly fire-proof as possible with water-tight floors.

This drill hall is to have its floor heated by pipes in conduits beneath and is to have a glass roof with sufficient openings for ventilation.

There is to be a basement, partially excavated for the boiler house, heating system, distiller, dynamo room, pump room, fire apparatus house, firemen's quarters, and for stowage of coal. This is all in the rear part of the building and cut off entirely from it save by one door for necessary communication, the rest of the rooms opening out doors. Here are also located the cells for prisoners and a space for a long target gallery if this is found necessary.

The first (or ground) floor is the drill hall floor and has grouped conveniently around it the wash rooms, dry rooms, and bag rooms for each division so arranged that the different streams of recruits passing to and fro do not cross. There are also on this floor the drill mast tower, the water closets, the target range, the swimming tank, barber, tailor and shoemaker shops, armory and storerooms, the small store and clothing serving-out place, and the master-at-arms' rooms and marine guard room.

The bag rooms are to be arranged by companies with a box for the keeper of each from which he can unlock any single bag called for without opening the others. A system of this sort will save an immense amount of trouble with regard to petty thefts, and much facilitate the serving out and stowing of bags, a very important item with moo recruits, as was found to our sorrow the day the battalion marched into the new barracks at Newport when hours were spent in stowing and serving out bags from badly designed bag rooms.

There is an exit to the front from the drill hall floor and one at each end 20 to 25 feet wide, large enough to march the battalion out of in column of fours. Stairs lead direct from each corner of the building to the dormitories and also double stairs at each end to the mess hall, enabling all divisions to march to meals or hammocks simultaneously, a great saving in time, and decidedly safer in case of fire.

The next floor is the office floor with the drill mast tower at one rear corner, the medical department at the other, and the mess hall between. The galley and bakery are in rear with serving-out windows for each division. A commissary office, storerooms, refrigerator rooms, sinks for each division, and an instructors' mess room are also provided. The recruits are to be seated by divisions, a section at a table. This is a reform long desired and does away with the constant changes in the seating arrangement, while enabling the sections if reduced in size to close in along their own tables towards the serving places.

The post office is also on this side of the building and a hanging gallery should run around and across the drill hall for the use of officers.

The drill mast tower has inside stairs and enough galleries for observation and instruction, as well as a sail and gear storeroom.

The medical department is easy of access, is not a thoroughfare, and has offices for the surgeon and dentist, a large dispensary, storerooms, rooms for medical attendants, a sick bay for the sick listers, and a sick ward for the serious cases awaiting transfer to the hospital. An elevator is indicated for removing patients, and others for commissary stores and for the general storekeeper.

The wing of this floor next the tower is taken up by seamanship instruction and model rooms, the other wing being given Up to gunnery instruction and model rooms and an instructors' smoking room. The front of the building is taken up by offices with a corridor in the rear, the paymaster and general storekeeper's office being at one corner and the officers' reception and smoking rooms at the other. Between are the offices for the general inspector of the training service, for the commandant and his clerks, the executive officer and clerks, the officer of the day, the Academic Board, and the heads of departments. Rooms for the reception of visitors to the recruits and for the master-at-arms of the floor are also provided. Stairs lead directly to each dormitory and to the drill hall with special stairs for the officer of the day's office, and there are exits at the front and at the ends of the building.

The upper floor is the dormitory floor, with separate dormitories for each division; these have hammock jackstays about 10 feet apart, allowing generally three ranks of hammocks, with a continuous corridor all around building. These dormitories are to be open on the corridor and closed at ends with swinging doors on corridor. A water closet, sink, and lucky bag is provided for each division, and instructors' rooms are placed at each end of each division so those on duty will be near at hand to preserve order. The inner windows of this floor are to be above the glass roof of the drill hall and numerous skylights for additional ventilation should be provided.

The drill mast tower continues through this floor, the remainder of the rear side of the building being taken up with school rooms, library, fencing rooms, rigging lofts, and an extra dormitory for overflow or for use of the restricted squad.

The building should be surrounded by level concrete to prevent water and dirt getting in, and for formations, drills, etc.

L. PROPOSED SITES.

If searching the whole Atlantic Coast line from Maine to Florida for a suitable location for a naval training station, it is hard to see how the claims of Chesapeake Bay can be passed over, or how the several unequalled natural harbors in this great sheet of water can be neglected.

With also a climate allowing outdoor work well into the winter months and early in the spring; with a fine market country all around; and within easy distance of Washington, Baltimore, Annapolis, and Norfolk, it is hard to imagine any more ideal site for this purpose than several to be found here. Annapolis has been admitted to be the best place for the Naval Academy, but several better harbors and more advantageous sites exist along the shores of this fine bay. Among these the following may be found:

1. The Patuxent River, Md.

2. Yorktown, Va.

3. St. Mary's, Md.

4. Some point on Eastern Bay.

These will suffice though others can be found at least equal in situation and far superior in climate to the bleak location of the New England and Lake regions.

Of those named the Patuxent River entrance is, for many reasons, the best. The water is deep and clean, the land is high. The local doctors claim that malaria is a rare disease; it is certainly as healthy as Annapolis.

There are a number of points near the entrance which would be suitable, but for illustration, and on account of its commanding position, Town Point has been selected in the plate.

The harbor has a clear, well-lighted entrance with few shoals, is easy of access day or night, and is safe in all weathers, with fine holding ground.

The outer harbor is almost landlocked, the inner one quite so, with over too feet of water in much of it, and deep water for miles up the river.

The south side of the outer harbor is steep-to, and bold cliffs surround the whole, rising 30 to 70 feet with level plains beyond. Just outside the harbor entrance, within 3 or 4 miles of the moorings, the west coast of the bay extends for miles north and south clear of shoals. Here a small vessel can safely stand close in toward the beach with 5 miles to run across the bay to the shoals on the other side. Even should she strike, the bottom is sandy, there are no rocks, and little or no damage would probably result, while a safe anchorage in almost any weather can be made anywhere in the bay.

No better cruising ground for the sailing auxiliaries could be found, and there is plenty of room for the target practice of the gunnery craft.

A railroad will soon give close connection with Washington and Baltimore; a steamer line now makes bi-weekly trips to and from the latter place.

Here is indeed an ideal site; there is no need for further search for the place for another station. We will soon be compelled to build more training stations, here ready to our hands is one of the places. Even while this is being written pneumonia is rioting at Newport, but this is not a surprise to those who know its exposed position, its damp fogs, and piercing winds.

And now, by way of a last word. With our "Monroe Doctrine" to uphold, it becomes day by day more apparent that we must have a great and powerful navy—we of the cloth know it; the people of this great country realize it at last; Congress has shown that it recognizes the fact and to-day stands ready to give what is proved to be necessary. Let us lay before them the proposition that while a hundred millions will be required to build even a moderately strong navy, only two or three (the price of half a ship) will build stations and auxiliaries enough to train the real bulwark of the nation—" the man behind the gun"—without him ships will be useless.