The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-12-09


Considering how much the Navy has effected
during the war, it is singular that the popular
estimate of Mr.. WELLEs attributed to him
nature ft for Sleepy Hollow. Even although
the perusal of his long report may make some
people nod, it was certainly written by man
who was very wide awake. He need scarcely
apologize for firing the nation Witha rccapitu-
lation Of its own glory. The fault lies with
the Navy for winning 50 many victories. Mr..
WELLEs only does his duty in describing
them as tedously numerous.
The fact is that Mr.. WELLEs makes some
suggestions so radically practical in their
| character, that they viii hardly be acllnow-
lodged as emanating from the mind Of an old
| logy. We need only stale to Phiadelphians
that he is strongly in favor Of having the navy
| yard for iron-clads placed at League Island,
to know that they will be Immediately i'm
pressed with his good sense. Perhaps, how
ever, they may consider the eligibility of that
site so manifest that any Secretary could see
it with half an eye, 50 we will proceed to indi-
cate some of the points in which il was posi-
| bic for Secretary OF the Navy to be mistaken.
In six weeks after Mr.. WELLEs entered
upon the discharge Of his duties, he was
| ordered to blockade over three thousand five
| hundred miles of coast To do this, he had
ew ships, and most of these were either dis
manted or on foreign stations. There were
only about two hundred seamen available at
the naval stations, and many officers had de-
serted. The exploits of the navy in establish
ing an effective blockade, and in Illustrating
the arms OF the country with brilliant,
signal, and repeated victories, bright as they
are, seem brighter still from the record of the
nothingness from whence this destructive
ocean power has sprung.
Mr.. WELLEs desires to open the naval ser
vice to the meritorious, and therefore he pro-
poses that a certain number of cadets for the
Naval Academy be chosen from apprentices
on the scholarship. He says :-"From among
the apprentices in the school-ship, a selection
OF one half of the midshipmen annually ap-
pointed might be made with great advantage
to the service and the country. These appren-
tices in their preliminary training in the school
ship will have developed their capabilities and
aptitude for the profession, and, in transferring
them to the Academy, there will not be the
manifold errors which attend so large por-
ton OF those who are appointed under the pre-
sent system"
In the face of certain opposition from naval
officers, Mr.. WELLEs distinctly says that it is
an anomalous condition ofafiairs, and one which
requires correction, where the commanding
officers on board of a steamship know nothing
about the management of the motive-power,
and the engineers are equally ignorant of
duties on deck. He remarks that "while
cruising under sail, or lying in port, one-half
of the officers are, by existing regulations,
idle, and incapable of participating in duties
that are often laborious aud oppressive on the
officers of the line, comparatively speaking"
"On the other hand, the other
half of the officers are incapable of managing
the steam motive-power, or OF taking charge
of the engine-room in an emergency" Mr..
WELLEs remarks that it may be objected that
steam-engine driving is a speciality. But, he
replies very cogently, that it is no more a
speciality than gunnery is. When seamanship
was the only education given to a naval
officer, it was thought necessary to have
sergeant of marines TO drill sailors
in the manual. When gunuery became u
speciality, it was proposed to have corps OF
ordnance officers on board of naval vessels.
Yet, the Secretary goes on to say, oursoflicers
are fortunately taught seamanship, gunnery,
and the infantry ddll. If they are thus rem
dered more efficient, he does not see why
they should not be made still more 50 by in
struction in steam-engneering. He wishes
midshipmen to be taught the management OF
the steam engine, and he would have
engineers taught the art Of design and
construction, as necessary to a scientific body
of officers upon whom the duties of inspection
and construction may devolve. Mr.. WELLEs
concludes this topic by remarlrng that
with the adoption of the suggestions here
made, we shall, in due time, have homoge-
neous corps of officers, who viii be masters OF
the motive power of their ships in the future
as they have been OF seamanship in the past.
BY this arrangement there win be in each ship
double the number of officers capable ofGght-
ing and running the vessel, without additional
| appointments or expense"
Any one who knows sailors, who have SO
great regard ior time-hOnofed usage that
they will not even be made comfortable with
, out considering it an unwarrantable innova-
ton will appreciate the hardihood of Mr.
! WELLEs in presuming to think that line OH
, GERS could possibly 60 to the engne-rooms, ol
engineers manage to walk deck. All this does