Whatever the argument advanced in favor of teaching the younger personnel, from books, the lessons learned by older officers, through long years of association with service conditions, it is always answered by the old and narrow adage “ Experience is the best teacher. Usually follows a sniff or two of contempt at the idea that such an involved thing as experience could be dealt with as anything but the most illusive and incommunicable subject. Then follow discouraging remarks, expressing the general idea that that very idea is folly itself and that experience cannot even partly be taught from books. This last, presumably because there are no books from which to teach it.
The product of the teachings of experience is a man who can handle men; who knows how, in time of stress and excitement, to handle casualties; and who knows as a result of his experience the kind of casualties, accidents, mismanagements, mistakes and misjudgments to look out for and correct.
The advantage of bringing all of our personnel to the above most desirable level of efficiency is undeniable. But at present this can only be done after years and years, and officers must now gain their experience by making the same costly mistakes which taught their predecessors, there being constantly a loss of material and efficiency.
Take, as an illustrative example of this, a newly graduated ensign. He. is sent to the engine-room, is given the onerous task of looking up a multitude of valves, pumps, steam lines, etc. Ten to one, when he has found all of these, he knows the names of every one and could lay his hand on each at an order; quickly at that. This is undoubtedly praiseworthy and beneficial. Still, his knowledge is of much the same kind as that possessed by one who has accumulated a vast vocabulary and has not at the same time the power to connect the words in an intelligible sentence, because he does not know, as the experienced officer would, how to so group in his mind his knowledge of the different lines, etc., that it would be of service in case of accident or casualty. He may and often does spend hours of useless study on subjects with which he will never be required to deal, and all because he is without the guidance of one well versed in the subject at hand, who could tell him in what direction his practice is going to lie.
An officer should take enough interest to ask his seniors about his special duties. True, but, how can one ask questions about things which in his mind’s eye do not exist? Where then is this knowledge to be found? What is to direct his thought, that he may efficiently prepare himself for emergency and against future mistakes?
In no one easily accessible place or book is this precious knowledge stored, and yet casualties and errors are occurring day after day almost identical in character, the facts of which could be preserved for reference and thus kept constantly in the minds of watch officers, etc.
Of course there are at present in the service many books, pamphlets, general orders, fleet orders and special orders which cover the major casualties. However, of a great many accidents and emergencies which arise every day little is said, as may be seen if one reads over Reports on Battle Practice and Engineering Competitions. These reports afford a fruitful source of information, but after a year, or less perhaps, they are recalled, never to be seen again by those who are directly affected by the valuable lessons that they teach.
A doctor is taught methods of keeping the body in good running order, and also he is taught thoroughly how to treat even the most minute disorders of the body. He learns this from books compiled by older doctors who have recorded their experiences. What would be the condition of affairs if each doctor had to have personal practice with the different disorders of the body and only thus learn, by his own association with them, how to treat the next similar case? A young naval officer is in just this plight. He has been taught to overflowing, theories and normal procedure; but of irregularities with which he frequently must meet he knows little if anything, except in a few major cases.
When one considers the enormous amount of detailed instruction which is contained in the Navy Regulations on any one subject, or in any text-book, it should not seem impracticable to tabulate and compile in a book, under different headings, valuable lessons of experience, likely casualties and accidents, together with methods of handling them and preventive measures. If casualties and accidents alone were dealt with and if the work of embodying remedies were to prove too great, then simply a compilation or list of casualties and accidents which have already happened, and those which can be foreseen by men blessed with wide and lengthy practice in the service, would be a book of incalculable value. By this means alone can the knowledge which is now only incompletely passed on by word of mouth, be placed before future generations in a readily acquirable state.
Such a book would have a ready reference and with entries under different headings, as for example:
TURRETS.
Fused primer.
Loose article falls between sleeve and gun.
Broken powder bag.
Flare-back.
Etc.
TACTICAL MANEUVERS.
Steaming on line of bearing. Ship next to and ahead of yours jams helm and turns to starboard (port). Etc.
ENGINE-ROOM.
Feed heater gasket blows out, throwing scalding water into engine-room.
Water service leaks into oil pit. (Forced lubrication.)
And so on for the different headings, avoiding unimportant and microscopic accidents. By glancing under the headings related to particular duties being performed, an officer could see and become familiarized at once with the kind of danger and the kind of mishaps he is to look for and try to prevent. He would, in this way, be able to prepare himself to a greater and broader degree during calm moments for quick action in future time of agitation and distress.
As a guide for study, as a stimulus to imagination, as a reference in time of war, when casualties will come upon us in overwhelming numbers and officers of wide experience may become few, such a book would be of inestimable importance, and by means of such a book the waste and inefficiency due to inexperience in actual practice, could be brought to a minimum.