The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-08
Greuiug Telegraph
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER s, 1870.
THE ENGINEER CORPS OF THE
NAVY

Congress by the passage of law that will
give to the staff officers all the rights and
privileges they can justly claim. cause of
present contention being removed the atten-
tion of Congress ought to be seriously di-
reoted to matter of much greater conse-
quence, namely-the organization of the En-
gineer Corps of the navy upon proper and
substantial basis, and the establishment of
an engineering school that will provide for
the navy in the future a suppy of properly
trained officers of this class 1t does not need
to be demonstrated that in the future as at
present, steam and steam machinery will be
elements of the highest Importance in naval
warfare, and the necessity for bringing the En-
gineer Corps to the highest state of efficiency
must be recognized by all who give the sub
ject the slightest consideration. few years
ago, in the midst of the war, Congress did,
indeed, at the earnest solicitation of some of
our leading naval engineers, authorize the
appointment of cadet engineers, and made
various provisions for their education. Those
who drew up the law, however, either did not
feel the Importance of the subject sufficiently
to give it the thought it deserved, or they
were incompetent to understand the real re-
quirements of the case, for the whole scheme
fell through on account of its impracticabilty,
and now there is the name of but one cadet
engineer on the Naval Register. In the
mean time the Engineer Corps has been ex-
posed to the attacks of the line officers, who
appear to be inspired by fear that the en-
gineers will ''steal their trade, and to the
Generalization induced by the bitter contro-
versy on the subject of rank The efficiency
of the corps has been most severely crippled
by the improvement" introduced when
Admiral Porter was managing the affairs of
the Navy Department of sending out on each
vessel chief engineer and one or two assist
ants to have general superintendent of the
machinery, while the duty of standing watck
was TO be performed by machinists shipped
for the purpose. This arrangement we are
sorry to say, was countenanced by many of
the regular naval engineers, because they
hoped thereby to escape much of the dirty
and disagreeable duty that every person actu-
ally managing large marine engines in motion
must expose himself to. An engineer who is
afraid of getting dirt and grease upon his
hands in the performance of his duty has no
business to be in the navy, and if there are
any members of the corps who are SO fasti-
dious that they would rather entrust the
machinery of our national vessels to incom-
petent hands than to soil their
own with vile grease, the sooner
the Government gets rid of them the
better, for it is certain that they are not in
spired by that enthusiasm for their profession
that all officers should possess if they are to
be expected to perform good service. The
plan of shipping machinists for a cruise or
for term of years is nothing more nor less
than repetition of what was tried in the in
cipieney of the Engineer Corps when steam
was first introduced into the navy. 1t was
found then, as it will be found now, that mon
with sufficient attainments to be entrusted
with the management of the large and COM
plicated engines of our national war vessels
will not enlist on the terms proposed, and
that they will either be officers or else let the
navy severely alone. The consequence will
be that the Government will either be obliged
to employ the services of incompetent per-
sons, or else the few engineers on board of
our men of war will be worked far beyond
their strength. This latter result has thus
far always occurred when the experiment has
been tried.
This is but one example out of many that
might be adduced to prove the fact that the
tory basis, and this brings us TO the necessity
for different kind of preparatory training
for naval engineers than is possible at pre-
sent. The members of the Engineer Corps
of the navy are drawn from civil life, and are
graduates for the most part either of our
machine shops or our polytechnic colleges.
1t is rare to find a naval engineer who is,
upon his entrance into the service, as tho
roughly posted in both the theory and prac-
tice of his profession as he ought to be; aud
although, considering the disadvantages under
which the corps has always labored, its gene
raj culture and professional attainments are
most creditable, there are few of its men,
bers who will not readily admit that the present
system is radically wrong, and that if the naval
engineers of the future are to be what they
ought, tits absolutely necessary that they should
have the advantages of a school conducted
under the auspices of the Government, where
both the theory and practice of engineering
will be thoroughly taught. edo not think
that it would be at all expedient to have such
school attached to the Naval Academy, but
one might be established at League Island,
where every facility for practical instruction
would be afforded by the immense workshops
that will be required for great naval depot
The establishment of such school as this
ought to be an additional inducement for the
Government to commence at as early a day
as possible the work of preparing League