*As originally written, this was delivered as a lecture at the Naval Academy.
In explaining the intended operation of the General Order establishing a Postgraduate Department at the Naval Academy, a brief statement of the causes that led to it will help to a clearer understanding, especially on the part of those who are not familiar with the changes that have recently taken place in the Naval Academy course of study.
Graduates of the Academy of date prior to the Spanish War had a very different experience from those who came after. Close on the war followed amalgamation of the engineers with the line. Next, the practice of holding the final examinations at Annapolis was abandoned; and the pressure for more officers necessitated, first, that every one who could be graduated should be—with the inevitable result of a lowered standard—and then that the time spent at the Academy should be curtailed. In 1903 the number of midshipmen was doubled, but it was impossible to provide instructors in the same proportion or as experienced as before, or to keep officers at the Academy with the same regularity of service. Thus, more subjects had to he taught, in less time, to a larger body, by relatively few and inexperienced instructors; and to crown all, during this time of scholastic upheaval the reconstruction of the Academy buildings and grounds was in progress.
A situation so unfavorable to discipline and study might easily have been demoralizing. The severest critic, however, could but admire the spirit with which the conditions were met; and the results achieved reflect great credit upon the administration of the Naval Academy and all who served there. But naturally that thoroughness which had been a most distinctive feature of Naval Academy instruction fell off to a marked degree; and by the time administrative conditions began to mend, scarcity of officers in the service had imposed upon the youngest ones duties far beyond their experience, and in the endeavor to equip them for these, further additions were made to the academic course, which hindered the restoration of the former standard. To remedy the situation, the Wainwright Board was appointed in 1907, and suggestions were freely invited from officers of the service. Much good resulted; but still, in the consensus of opinion, the Naval Academy course was not right. One question, common to many minds, often found expression: "What is the matter with the Naval Academy?"
Admittedly, the fault at bottom was the attempt to cover too much ground in four years. Much that was essential to a general education had been so crowded in, if not crowded out altogether, as to be little recognizable afterwards; while subjects had been squeezed in that would be of no service to an officer for many years to come. The true function of the Naval Academy, to train ensigns, had been exceeded in the endeavor to make lieutenants. Doubtless a division into undergraduate and postgraduate studies must have been often considered, but such a plan appears to have been less generally favored than a change to a five-year course. Without going into the merits of that, it is worthy of note in passing that no other navy has even a four-year academic course for its midshipmen before getting them into the thick of things afloat.
At the beginning of this year, 1912, the situation demanded a change, and events soon favored making some. The first made was a new form of summer practice cruise for the first and second classes. Good results from using three battleships for the midshipmen during the previous two years gave promise of still better results from sending a few midshipmen of each class (first and second) to each battleship in the Atlantic Fleet for the summer; and this was accordingly arranged. It was expected that the midshipmen's two-year cruise after graduation would be abolished during the current session of Congress, and such an Act did pass, on March 7, 1912; so that, since the midshipmen would become commissioned officers immediately on graduation, it was imperative to revise the whole course of study, and in doing so to include the new practice cruise system as a permanent feature, to the end that the young officers might enter on their first regular sea duty better prepared, and with more confidence, than would be possible if their previous sea experience had been only in the artificial routine of a school-ship.
In changing the Academy course, the principal aim for the first year, or fourth class, was to round out and strengthen the foundation which is supposed to be established prior to admission. Candidates come from all over the country and from many kinds of schools, whose character and method of instruction vary widely. There is wide variation also in age among the members of a class; and despite all efforts to the contrary there will always be a considerable number entering who have passed the examination by cramming but are not well prepared, and yet may often be desirable material to develop for the navy. The first year will therefore make sure of a certain definite groundwork, by reviewing and fixing the elements of it at the Academy. This may make the first year's work easy, perhaps, for the older and better prepared members of the fourth class; but even to them such a course will be valuable, in forming habits of method, accuracy, thoroughness, and rapidity, to a degree not commonly acquired at schools outside.
Moreover, the Academy requirements are more severe in rapidity and accuracy than those of the average school; and when, in addition to these, the newly entered midshipmen encounter sudden or rapid advance in studies, the younger ones and those imperfectly prepared find the task too much, and drop out at the first semiannual examination. That there is good material in many of those who fail on a first trial is shown by their reentering with the next class and completing the course successfully—thereby becoming officers one year later, one year older, and with a loss of that time to themselves and of nearly a year's extra outlay to the government. It is more than probable that placing the requirements too high in the first term, when everything is new, has been the cause of losing valuable material, especially among the younger ones, who as a class should be the most desirable for the service. With the first-term work now so modified as to increase the requirements more gradually we may look for fewer failures.
Room has been made in the new curriculum for more English, to which not enough time had been given. Too much dependence had been placed upon work done before entering. A schoolboy knowledge of general history, and a hasty acquaintance with rhetoric, logic, and the classics, English and American, could not give the well-balanced education which the Naval Academy graduate is expected to have; and limiting the study of naval history to American naval history alone tended to give false impressions and narrow views of important naval principles. The English and History course is accordingly prolonged and enlarged by the inclusion of grammar, syntax, and composition—usually none too well acquired before entrance. General history and American history, formerly in the course, have been restored to it, and general naval history added. Needless to say, it is most important in the early training of naval officers to inculcate a taste for reading history and travel, especially naval and military history and biography. General history being added to the academic course, it has been eliminated from the entrance examination. Candidates may now devote themselves solely to United States history, English, and geography, and it is hoped that they will come better prepared in those subjects. No other change in the entrance examinations has been made, except to allow more time for them.
In modern languages, the course is now extended throughout every term of the four years, with a view to holding all that may be learned in the first years of the course. By this means, and combining the Berlitz system with some instruction in grammar, it is expected that the graduates hereafter may be able to express themselves in Spanish and be fairly well grounded in French.
The course in mathematics and mechanics has been little changed. Plane geometry has been restored to the fourth class year, as a review of an entrance examination subject.
So much for the general educational features. On the professional side, the abolition of the two-year cruise involves an increase of the instruction to be given in seamanship, navigation, engineering, electricity, and gunnery during the four years. But the practical training lost with the two-year cruise will be largely made up by the better training during the new first and second class practice cruises. The general scheme for those cruises is: engineer duties in the second class cruise; deck, battery, and navigation duties in the first class cruise. In preparation for them, preliminary instruction in marine engineering and electricity will be given in the second term of the third class year; and in the second class year the academic instruction in navigation will prepare the coming first classmen to take advantage of opportunities in practical navigation during their summer in the fleet. The small number of midshipmen on board each ship will permit each one to have more experience and individual attention than before, and the whole time will be spent in regular service under normal conditions, such as to impress upon them a sense of their being officers with responsibilities, and encourage those of good practical aptitude but only average scholastic ability to work for higher standing than they could attain by studies alone.
In order to gain the additional allotments of time and to adhere to the determined distinction between academic and postgraduate spheres of instruction, the scope of professional instruction at the Academy has been limited to that which is essential to qualify the midshipmen for the duties of ensign, making no attempt to fit them for the grade of lieutenant or for any of the specialties of the navy. The professional subjects abridged by the elimination of features not essential to the general duties of ensigns are:
Battle tactics, tactical problems, scouting, chasing, patroling, intercepting.
International law, the instruction being made elementary.
The more theoretical features of navigation and compass work, derivation of formulae, etc.
Mechanical drawing.
Mechanical processes and metallurgy.
Experimental engineering.
Boiler, machinery, and electrical designing.
Steel ship building.
Mechanics and applied mechanics.
The key-note of the revision is extension of postgraduate work. The studies appropriate for specialists and for higher duties than those of ensign must be acquired in postgraduate courses, or else by the officer himself in the course of his service experience. His qualification in the latter case will be tested by the examinations for promotion. This simplification facilitates concentration of effort on the formation of officer-like character. In their subsequent development as naval officers, much depends upon the midshipmen's military training in their early, most impressionable years. In the words of a former superintendent, "We must remember that the Naval Academy is the nursery of the Navy, and whatever you produce there will be ultimately felt in every branch of the service; among enlisted men and elsewhere." The purpose of the Naval Academy is to graduate naval officers of military instincts and training. The aim of the four years' course must be to turn out young ensigns of a uniformly high professional quality. Afterwards, in the service and by postgraduate instruction, secure the broader development.
Postgraduate instruction was first established on a regular basis in pursuance of a joint report to Secretary Moody, which he approved, made by the Chiefs of the Bureaus of Navigation, Steam Engineering, and Ordnance, Rear-Admirals H. C. Taylor, C. W. Rae, and G. A. Converse, respectively.
The substance of their report reads as follows:
We find that the demands for scientific expertness, in matters that concern the supply of ordnance material, grow more imperative as time goes on. The manufacture of smokeless powder requires a knowledge of practical and scientific chemistry; the inspection of steel for our guns and armor calls for expertness in metallurgy; and the problems constantly presenting themselves relating to sights for guns, their mounts, and the peculiarities of their action, in turrets and elsewhere, necessitate an intimate knowledge of mathematical and mechanical principles that can be acquired only by periods of practice and special study.
The same is true in everything relating to the design, inspection, construction, and handling of the engines, boilers, and other machinery connected with the engineering department of our vessels.
We recommend, therefore, that four midshipmen who have completed their two years at sea shall be ordered, each year, to instruction in ordnance for one year, and four other midshipmen shall be ordered for similar duty under the Bureau of Steam Engineering, for the same period. Following this year of instruction, these midshipmen shall have the customary cruise of two or three years in length; they shall then serve two years more under instruction in ordnance and in steam engineering; and thereafter, following each cruise, shall have not less than two years' detail in ordnance and engineering work.
So far as practicable, these officers shall be selected from midshipmen who are likely to prove proficient in these branches of the service, and shall be taken, as a rule, from different portions of each class, so that they shall not all be from the upper or from the lower part.
To provide for present needs, and until these officers to be annually detailed shall be available, we respectfully recommend that orders be issued, as soon as practicable; for eight officers of the rank of junior lieutenant and ensign to report to the Chief of Bureau of Ordnance, and a like number of officers of the same rank to report to the Chief of Bureau of Steam Engineering.
At the beginning of the next year, five officers began the first ordnance class. The Chief of Bureau of Ordnance, then Rear- Admiral N. E. Mason, instructed them as to what was expected of them, in a letter dated in December, 14904, as follows:
This Bureau having selected you for detail to special ordnance duty, and the Department having approved the selection and assigned you to such duty, it is considered desirable at the beginning of your career as an ordnance officer to acquaint you with the views of the Bureau as to the scope of your work during your present and future assignments to ordnance duty.
A board of officers appointed by the Secretary of the Navy to devise a system which should meet the demands of the service for officers specially equipped for the technical work of ordnance, recommended that a certain number of young officers be detailed each year for a course of ordnance duty and instruction, and that they be allowed at least one year of shore duty on their first detail and at least two years on subsequent details.
It is upon this recommendation that the Department has acted in assigning you to ordnance duty. You will note that it is not proposed to form a new corps outside of the line of the navy, but merely to provide opportunities for a certain number of officers within the line, to specialize in ordnance work, it being recognized that such specialization calls for longer periods of shore duty than would naturally fall to the share of the same officers under other conditions.
The plan contemplates also the utilization of the services of these officers, when on sea duty, for such ordnance work as may be appropriate to their rank and experience; but it must not be supposed that such duty can be claimed as a right, or that officers who have qualified as ordnance experts will not be expected to maintain a high standard of proficiency in other branches of their profession.
It is proposed that your corning tour of shore duty shall be divided between the Bureau, the Gun Factory, and the Proving Ground, but it is hoped also to employ you from time to time in connection with the manufacture and inspection of material, thus affording you opportunities to visit the various manufacturing establishments which are doing work for the Bureau.
As it is neither practicable nor desirable to assign officers for your instruction, the work which you accomplish and the benefit which you receive will depend largely upon your own energy and initiative. The Bureau will, however, assign one or more officers to exercise a supervision of your work and to suggest in a general way the lines which it is to follow.
Looking beyond the period of shore duty upon which you are now entering, it is assumed that while at sea you will regard yourself as retaining a connection with the Bureau, not only when formally assigned to ordnance duty, but at all times, taking advantage of every opportunity to extend your knowledge on ordnance matters, keeping notes and making reports of all matters of interest observed.
Your sea duty will afford you opportunities to watch the practical operation on shipboard of the material in whose design or test you may have borne a part, and to keep in touch with the changes and the needs of the service. It will also continue your general professional education and your training for the responsible duties of command.
Your assignment to the present duty marks a departure in the policy of the Department, which is in a great measure experimental. Its success will depend largely upon the zeal and intelligence with which the duty is approached by the officers who have been selected to inaugurate it.
A second class of five followed in 1905, four in 1906, and two in 1907. None were ordered in 1908, on account of the long foreign cruise of the fleet; but ten were ordered the next year to make up, four in 1910, and five in, 1911, making in all thirty-five in eight years.
A year and a half elapsed, however, after the joint recommendation of the three Bureaus before the engineering instruction was begun. Then eleven officers were selected, who began their work in January, 1906. The Engineer-in-Chief's letter of instructions to these officers, written in May, 1905, after quoting the joint recommendation, stated the views of the Bureau of Steam Engineering as follows:
It is in accordance with this recommendation that the Department has acted in assigning you to duty for special instruction in steam engineering. You will note that it is merely to provide opportunities for a certain number of officers within the line to specialize in steam engineering work, it being recognized that such specialization calls for longer periods of shore duty than would naturally fall to the share of the same officers under other conditions.
The Bureau has issued instructions to the senior officer doing engineering duty at the station to which you have been assigned to provide you with necessary office room and all possible facilities for acquiring information, and also to supervise your work and direct you as to what course he thinks proper for you to pursue to meet its views. You must bear in mind at all times that the benefit you will receive from this special course, also the duration of this system, which is now experimental, will depend entirely upon yourself, your zeal, energy, and application.
You are directed to keep daily notes of the work you have been engaged upon, and to make.at the end of each month a report to the senior engineer officer present of the nature and progress of the work done; this work will be forwarded to the Bureau.
The Bureau will, from time to time, request your temporary detail to witness such tests and trials of machinery or mechanical devices as it may consider to be of advantage to you.
Although you are to make a specialty of engineering, the Department expects you to keep yourself well informed in the general duties of your profession. You will therefore, when assigned to engineering duty on board ship, keep in touch with those other duties which lead to command; and when assigned to those other duties, keep in touch with engineering matters, as there are few positions assigned to line officers on board a modern vessel of war where a knowledge of engineering is not a requisite as well as a benefit.
In becoming a specialist you assume grave responsibilities, which will necessitate hard work on your part, as in addition to the ordinary requirements of your calling, you will be called upon for professional opinions on matters which heretofore have been the province of officers devoting their whole time and attention to this subject alone. You will therefore realize that the Department demands much of you, and you will not assume the detail without proper consideration. Upon you, and your colleagues similarly assigned, depends the success, or the failure, of the assumption of engineering duty in the line of the navy.
A second engineering class, of four officers, took up the course in 1907, but in 19438 none were ordered, on account of the fleet cruise. Generally speaking, the results did not meet expectations, indicating that closer control and direction were needed; and an improved system was put into effect by the establishment of the School of Marine Engineering at Annapolis, by General Order No. 27, of June 9, 1909. An extract from this order indicating the scope of instruction reads:
. . . The Superintendent . . . will establish regulations, subject to the approval of the Department, that will secure ample use of the educational plant of the Naval Academy to students and instructors of the school without interfering with the instruction of midshipmen.
4. The Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering will issue such orders as will secure the use of the engineering experiment station at Annapolis by the school.
5. The course of instruction in the school will not exceed two years.
6. The Bureau of Steam Engineering will prepare And submit to the Bureau of Navigation, for the approval of the Department, a curriculum for the school. This will include, in part, the study of design of marine machinery at the Bureau of Steam Engineering; the study of shop practices and management at such private engineering establishments as may be willing to allow the facilities of their plant for this purpose; and of experimental engineering and testing machinery and other mechanical appliances.
7. Instructors while at the school . . . will not be connected with its academic work.
8. Ten line officers will be detailed annually to the course of instruction at the school.
9. Selection for this detail will be made by the Department from officers who are recommended for this duty and who request it. They must have performed not less than three years' service at sea, and except those selected for the first class, must be below the grade of lieutenant-commander. They will be selected on their records and reports of fitness, including letters from their commanding officers and from the engineer officers under whom they have served.
10. After completion of the course at the school of engineering, the student officers will, if practicable, be ordered to engineering duty on shore for a short time and then to engineering duty with the fleet.
* * *
The order further contemplated that a body of twenty designing engineers would be built up, by selecting, from the nine or ten engineer specialists turned out yearly, not more than two a year, for permanent engineer duty throughout the remainder of their naval career.
Ten officers, in each of the years 1909, 1910, and 1911, have taken the engineering-school course, making, with the two early classes, forty-seven in all since engineering instruction was first put on foot eight years ago.
Besides the ordnance and engineering classes, officers selected for the corps of naval constructors and civil engineers have been sent, for three-year and two-year courses respectively, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Rensselaer. Polytechnic Institute at Troy. Further, the ordnance and engineering students have not been held within narrow limits, but have branched out; so that, through development of the original idea, there are already firmly established and officially recognized postgraduate courses in:
(a) Ordnance and gunnery, including the chemistry of explosives.
(b) Marine engineering, covering several specialties.
(c) Electrical engineering.
(d) Radio-telegraphy.
(e) Naval construction.
(f) Civil engineering.
There are, besides, other courses, at the War College, in torpedoes, in navigation and 'compass work, and in foreign languages; but these are of a different sort, not described by the term "postgraduate," in its common acceptation.
Such being the postgraduate situation, the moment is opportune for simultaneous revision of the midshipmen's course and reorganization of the postgraduate work, adjusting each one to the other, and both to the needs of the service. Quite plainly there is need for many more postgraduates than we have been turning out; and equally plainly, the good and improving work already done in these courses shows how much more valuable still it is easily possible to make them.
Hitherto each Bureau has managed the affairs of its own student officers; but with increased numbers in prospect, and a wider scope of work, a central administrative control becomes necessary for better and more systematic management and economy of effort and expenditure. Another requisite of the first importance is to dignify the postgraduate work throughout the service. This it is hoped to accomplish by placing it on a more prominent footing, closely connected in its management with the highest official authorities in the several branches, and by making the courses so valuable and interesting that not only will officers seek them, but captains will be glad to help their officers get them. This last may only come in time; but unity of effort through consolidation, wider usefulness, higher attainment, and increased prestige, should result forthwith from establishment of the Postgraduate Department. At the same time the Naval Academy itself, as an educational institution, is placed on a higher plane by the additional function entrusted to it.
The Naval Academy is the logical place for such a department. Its equipment for instructional purposes, the proximity of the Engineer Experiment Station, and the experience already had with the School of Marine Engineering, combine many advantages; but before all come the service spirit and improving influence of the Academic staff. As in a university, the undergraduates and the postgraduates will feel the stronger unity of interest for being together. The presence of student officers will incite the midshipmen to earnest work; and the student officers will feel their responsibility to set an example. The half-yearly influx of young enthusiasts fresh from the fleet will bring new light to bear on many points of instruction, and on the other hand the student officers will pick up the dropped threads again more readily among these familiar associations than they would in a place entirely new. They will constantly remind the Academy that it exists for the fleet; and the academic surroundings will in turn remind them that they have come to study. Thus the practical fleet and the preparatory Naval Academy will favorably react on each other.
The number of officers detailed to take postgraduate courses will be from time to time gradually increased, but not by any large number suddenly; nor is it proposed that all the members of a class shall take a course. That would be no more necessary than for every college graduate in civil life to go back for another degree. There are many other ways of naval specializing, and it would never be expected that all officers would specialize.
Courses will begin twice yearly. Selections for those beginning in October will usually be made in August or September, allowing time for the majority of a class coming up for junior lieutenant (after 1914) to be examined before the final choice is made. The February course provides for others of the same class who may be late for examination or in returning from the Asiatic Station, or otherwise delayed. Selections will be made on the officers' records, the new form of fitness report furnishing ample information for that purpose and opportunity to apply for a course.
Considering now General Order No. 233, of October 31, 1912, establishing the Postgraduate Department, it will be seen that, as far as it is possible to confine its provisions, it is essentially an organizing order, on which the details of the system of postgraduate courses can be developed. The provisions of the order need little if any, explanation, but some comment may serve to make their intent and working clearer.
GENERAL ORDER NAVY DEPARTMENT,
No. 233. WASHINGTON, D. C., October 31, 1912.
1. General Order No. 27 of June 9, 1909, and other general instructions governing special training courses for officers, in so far as any of their provisions may conflict with those following, are hereby superseded.
2. A Postgraduate Department is hereby established at the Naval Academy, separate from the academic departments and independent of the Academic Board. It shall be governed by an Executive Council for Postgraduate Courses, composed of the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, the head of the Postgraduate Department, the heads of the Academic Departments of Marine Engineering and Naval Construction, Ordnance and Gunnery, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Mechanics, and Physics and Chemistry, the head of the Engineering Experiment Station, a naval constructor, and a civil engineer.
3. The Council will pass upon administrative questions and upon the merits of the student officers, and have advisory functions in matters of the curriculum. The Council will formulate its own rules for procedure, subject to the approval of the Bureau of Navigation, and shall submit to the Bureau of Navigation from time to time such recommendations affecting postgraduate courses as may seem advisable.
4. The head of the Postgraduate Department will be detailed by the Navy Department. He will direct and conduct the executive and administrative work connected with the postgraduate courses, replacing the head of the School of Marine Engineering. He will have the same general status as heads of academic departments, and occupy quarters in the Naval Academy of the same class as other heads of departments; but he will not be a member of the Academic Board nor have any duties in connection with midshipmen.
5. The curriculum for each postgraduate course and any changes in curriculum will be established by the Navy Department, on recommendation of the Bureau of Navigation and the Bureau most directly concerned. The facilities and equipment of the Naval Academy and of the Engineering Experiment Station, and the services of such professors and instructors of the Naval Academy as may be necessary and available, shall be at disposal for the purposes of the Postgraduate Department.
6. The curriculum for each postgraduate course in a technical branch will begin with a four months' term of study in theoretical and applied mathematics and mechanics, physics, chemistry, laboratory and experimental work, mechanical drawing, principles of industrial management, and those special studies for each branch which are the ones that should be taken up first. The work will be laid out definitely in each study, and the student officers required to follow the schedule. Each study shall be under the general direction of the head of the appropriate Academic Department, and the student officers shall always have access to such head, or to some professor or instructor designated by him, for guidance and assistance. Examinations shall be held at such intervals and of such nature as may be found most productive of good results, to test the application, industry, and progress of the student officers. At the close of the first term of four months a thorough examination will be held upon the ground covered, which, together with the work accomplished during the term, will determine the relative merit of the student officers. The purpose of the first term's closely regulated and directed work is to refresh and strengthen the theoretical knowledge previously acquired by the student officers, train them to method in investigation and experiment, and help them to regain the habit of study and reading—all this as necessary preparation for pursuing a chosen branch of specialized study.
7. The second four months will be spent at Annapolis, continuing such work of the first term as may be specified, or elsewhere at governmental or private establishments, or both, in such occupation as required by the curriculum; but the same direction and guidance of each student officer's work, and the same touch with his progress, will continue as in the first term, as far as different circumstances permit. At the close of the second term, the relative merit of the student officers will be determined the same as at the end of the first term.
8. After the close of the second term, the student officers whose progress has not been satisfactory will be dropped from the postgraduate course upon recommendation of the Executive Council, and will be ordered to sea duty.
9. Following the first eight months' work, the student officers will pursue such course of study and investigation as the special curriculum may require or permit. The courses shall Ire definite and under such control as to enable the head of the Postgraduate Department to keep fully informed of the employment and progress of each student officer. At the same time, these postgraduate courses shall not be confined to the beaten track only, but, on the contrary, work along original or useful new lines is encouraged. The normal period for the postgraduate course will be altogether two years; but in special cases recommended by the Executive Council an extension of time may be authorized, and the two-year limitation shall not apply to courses whose main part consists of a standard course pursued at outside educational institutions.
10. At the conclusion of the second year the student officers will be examined on their work accomplished, as shown by theses, reports, data on investigations and experimentation, and other appropriate tests. The cooperation of civilian professors and experts will be sought in establishing suitable standards by which to pass judgment in the various lines of postgraduate work pursued, and the student officers will be given graded certificates accordingly. These certificates will be noted in the officers' records, and appropriately noted also in the Navy Register against their names; and they will be a guide in the assignment of the officers concerned to duty.
11. Officers detailed to postgraduate courses beginning after October, 1912, will be selected, upon the recommendation of the Bureaus respectively concerned, from those who apply and are recommended in their reports of fitness for the postgraduate course, provided they have completed not less than three years' sea service, and, if then eligible by law, have qualified for promotion to lieutenant, junior grade. The great majority will be selected from those who have just completed three years' sea service (and after 1914 passed for lieutenant, junior grade), but officers of considerably longer service are equally eligible. Officers for the corps of naval constructors and civil engineers will be selected after approximately one and one-half years' sea service after graduation; and those from the class of 1911 will begin their course in February, 1913. The form for reports on fitness now provides for applications and recommendations for postgraduate courses, so that special letters of application are no longer necessary. Inasmuch as the new forms have only recently been issued, applications for the course to begin on February 1, 1913, will be received until December 31, 1912. These details will be made twice yearly, the classes to begin the first-term work at Annapolis on or about October first and February first, respectively.
12. Postgraduate courses begun in October, 1912, will be established tinder the provisions of this order in Ordnance and Gunnery, Marine Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Radio-Telegraphy, Naval Construction, and Civil Engineering. As soon as the main features shall have been decided upon, a schedule will be published giving an outline of the courses in the various branches of specialization under the general heads named, and showing which courses are to begin with the October term, which with the February term, and stating the educational and other institutions, governmental and private, at which the courses, in the main or in part, will be pursued. The administration and regulation of such of the courses named in this order as are already established will be taken over by the authorities herein constituted as soon as practicable.
13. Student officers at Annapolis will be subject in military regard to the Superintendent of the Naval Academy; but they will not be assigned quarters in the Naval Academy, nor shall they be ordered to any duty unconnected with their courses of study. Elsewhere than at Annapolis they will be subordinate to the commandant of the navy yard or station or other local senior officer.
G. v. L. MEYER.
Secretary of the Navy.
The Executive Council is composed of the highest official educational authorities that the organization of the navy provides in the branches concerned. It is a body similar to the Academic Board, but acts more in an advisory capacity and has not finality of decision. Many recommendations concerning the curricula will doubtless come from it; and the Council will render inestimable service in getting the courses soon definitely developed along the several lines most profitable for the respective specialties. Paragraph 9 says that "the courses shall be definite . . . at the same time not confined to the beaten track only, but, on the contrary, work along original of useful new lines is encouraged," meaning that, within reasonable limits, the student officers will pursue the lines for which they are respectively best adapted. To permit this, the Council should soon be in position to point out the best course for each one to follow. In this respect lies the principal difference between the former system and the one now in process of establishment. By the former system, the student officer was left much to his own devices. Advice was given, assistance, suggestions, encouragement; but it can hardly be said that there was any strong and steady impelling force along well-defined lines, or any definite goal. Under the new system there will be equal freedom in choosing a specialty, hut the work is to be mapped out to such extent that the student officer will never lag nor hesitate for not knowing what next to do; and at points where choice can be made of several lines, the Council must be ready with sure guidance as to whither each one leads, and their relative advantages. Furthermore, it must be determined in what parts of every course a tight rein must be held, and in what other parts to allow free rein. The time allotted the students is a dead loss if they fail to profit by their opportunities. The value to the service is proportional to their accomplishment. No time to spare, then, for sounding out the channels; the student must find them well buoyed. It is easy to see what a responsible role this of the Council's will be; how interesting; how it must lead to frequent contact with prominent educators and experts in civil life; and how the broadening influence of the postgraduate work will react beneficially on the Naval Academy as well. It is an inspiring task, and the service will be lastingly indebted to those who undertake it with success.
Another function of the Council will be the passing upon the merits of the student officers. Much depends upon this. A high grading too easily obtainable will lower the courses in general esteem, and tend towards decreased efficiency; while a too difficult standard will arouse a sense of injustice, and spread a feeling that the courses have become too academic, too theoretical, and—worst reproach of all—"not practical." We must never swerve from the purpose to improve our officers' technical equipment, nor forget that we are seeking outside knowledge not for its own sake but for its value to the navy.
The function of the head of the Postgraduate Department is executive and administrative, and we may expect to see this office grow in importance as the number of students increases and the system becomes generally recognized as a permanent institution.
In establishing the several curricula, the usual procedure will probably be: first, the Bureau concerned to state its requirements and how it desires to have them met; second, this statement, with the concurrence of the Bureau of Navigation and the Secretary's approval, to go to the Council; third, the members of the Council concerned will arrange the details conformably, which, as adopted by the Council, will go back for final approval by the Bureau concerned and the Bureau of Navigation and the Secretary, and return to the Council to be put into effect. With easy communication between Annapolis and Washington, and convenient personal conference, matters of this kind should always be satisfactorily settled in short order.
Paragraph 12 names the general heads under which there will be courses; and each head may cover several specialties, as the need for them develops from time to time. Thus, under Ordnance and Gunnery, there may be specializing in:
Gun design and construction.
Gun mount design and construction.
Chemistry of explosives.
Torpedoes.
Armor.
Optics, etc.
In Marine Engineering, there may be specializing in
Turbine machinery.
Gas engines.
Boilers.
Fuels, etc.
In making out the curricula, it is far from being the intention to abolish or disturb outside instruction courses that are already in satisfactory operation. On the contrary, many more such courses will be adopted. But it is intended to start all future students with a preliminary course at Annapolis, mainly theoretical, to break them in again to studious habits, and help develop the mental facility necessary to get the most out of their special opportunities. Thus, existing courses for naval constructors at Boston, and for civil engineers at Troy, will be continued as before; but it is proposed that hereafter more will be selected for these courses than the number of vacancies would require. All of those selected would begin in February, taking four months at Annapolis, and then four months at a navy yard. At the end of eight months a second selection among them would be made, picking the most promising ones to take the courses at Boston and Troy. Those remaining would either go back to sea, or else continue some course, in navy yard work or otherwise, as prescribed by the curriculum. This plan will make surer selections for the two corps concerned, and will also add to the number of specially trained officers in the line.
One of the advantages of having the student officers begin their courses at Annapolis is that, in the first-term theoretical work, the director in each branch of study will be the same one who directs that branch with the midshipmen also, so that he should know best how and where the postgraduate student should go on with that study. This first term will be alike for all, in the close application required and strict adherence to a fixed schedule, and many of the studies, but not necessarily all, will be common to all students. The second term, the class will begin to separate into their respective specialties. Four months they all must stay; eight months some may stay; but only in exceptional cases will any student officer spend more than eight months at Annapolis, else he would lose that outside experience from which the greatest benefit will be derived.
By the end of the second term (eight months), the student officers will have acquired all the higher theoretical studies that may have been eliminated from the midshipmen's course, and much more besides. Were they immediately to go back to sea again, without any further course, the service would still be the gainer by their special instruction; and the fact that they take this instruction after some sea service, which helps them to appreciate its value and picture its application (which as midshipmen they cannot do), makes the gain all the greater.
Generally speaking, then, the first two terms are preparatory, theoretical, and naval professional. The remaining sixteen months give the broadening touch with people and work outside. The field for choice is unlimited; but we shall progress faster by proceeding moderately. In the present stage, it would be wise to follow along the lines of standard courses outside, until this new organization and system is well settled and running smoothly. By that time we shall be better able to arrange with outside institutions for courses on special lines best suited to our needs; but always we must keep to the principle that outside contact is the first thing to secure.
The mere association of student officers and the members of the Council with civilian experts and authorities in scientific, professional, and technical fields, would alone greatly benefit the service. Those men devote a lifetime to a subject which to us is only one of several duties. They mingle in the technical, scientific, and educational affairs of the whole world, while we follow a profession that exacts almost our entire attention.
In former generations, when our officers could and did take part in outside businesses and rub shoulders in active competition, there were many accomplished men among them, the equals of any in any walk of life; but the present generation suffers from the evils of professional inbreeding. We can fully remedy this only by outside contact—continuous, intimate contact—getting interested in the great problems of the technical and business world, and in touch with the leading educators, and—what is of equal importance—getting them interested in us. To all this we may confidently expect these postgraduate courses will lead. Associations will be formed that will be of lasting interest and benefit. And not only shall we learn from those in civil life, but those in civil life also will learn something worth having from us. It is an opportunity to spread a better understanding of the navy through the country, since the student officers will often come in contact with civilian students and many others, as well as professors and experts.
Individually, the student officer may improve himself. His specialty should always come first in his thoughts, of course; but, if he choose, he may widen his acquaintance and improve in resourcefulness and in readiness and habit of speech—in short, may cultivate himself as a man of a wider world than before. In the old navy days, foreign cruising, more varied shore employments, and less strenuous service requirements gave more opportunity than we have now for broadening and refining influences; but this Postgraduate Department will open many doors leading to such advantages, if the students will but enter them. Along with all this goes the responsibility which the student officers must feel, that they will be accepted as representatives of the service, and that many will judge the whole corps of officers by their behavior.
To the service at large, the possibilities of benefit are too many to do more than touch upon. Better officers, better specialists; and in turn, after some years, better educators of our own. Steady and constant progress is assured, keeping pace with advance outside. The attitude of our civilian friends could not be more encouraging. The best will always be at our disposal. It rests with us to avail ourselves of it, for the advancement of the navy's usefulness to the country.