The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-09
THE SCARCITY or SEAMENIN THE
NJ KK

NA W.
The Secretary of the Navy has on several
occasions called attention to the scarcity of
seamen who are willing to enlist in the naval
service, and he has instituted several mea-
sures of reform with a view of making the
navy popular with the sailors. The difficulty
in procuring men for our national vessels still
continues, however, and we are informed that
owing to the impossibility of procuring sea-
men it has been found necessary to curtail the
practice squadron, and that only one vessel
will be sent out this summer The yearly
practice cruise is a most important portion of
the education of the midshipmen who, in
these days of steam, especially require the
kind of instruction given on a cruise under
canvas, if the old-fashioned art of seamanship
is not to be forgotten altogether in the navy
The curtailment of the practice
squadron is therefore matter for
regret, but the reason for this curtailment
suggests an evil of the first magnitude, that
will seriously impair the efficiency of the navy
if something is not done to remedy it. In
time of peace service on board of a man of
war ought to be comparatively easy and plea
SAINT, and it would certainly seem likely that
seamen would prefer it to the rough and
laborious duty of the merchant service unless
there were very strong reasons to the con-
trary. 1t is pertinent, therefore, to suggest
that the discipline on board of our national
men-of-war may not be suited to the ideas
and dispositions of the American seamen of
the present day. When men are once en-
listed and placed on board of a naval vessel
they are pretty much at the mercy of their
officers, but after their time has expired they
are their own masters, and if they have been
made the victims of harshness and tyranny
they will scarcely place themselves
in the same predicament again, of
they can help it. The navy is exceedingly
conservative in its ideas, and majority of
the officers cling with fondness to old ideas of
discipline that are unworthy of civilized age
and country, and that ought to have been
abolished long ago. 1t is true that Congress
has done much for the protection of naval
seamen by prescribing a merciful code of
regulations with regard to the punishment of
offenders, but it has been repeatedly shown
that this code is not at all times respected by
the officers, and that they often exercise
their discretion in Furnishing men for
real or imaginary offenses in ways that
are at once tyrannical and illegal.
Several officers have been convicted
recently of thus violating the law, but the
punishments awarded to them have not been
at all in proportion to their offenses, or of
such character as to assure enlisted men
that their rights will be respected in the
future. Ia case Of a foreign war the want of
an efficient body of seamen trained in the art
of naval seamanship and gunnery will be
severely felt; and if the efficiency of this
branch of the military service is to be main
tanned, some measures must be adopted to
make good men esteem it privilege to enter
the navy, and to make their homes on board
of the national vessels. OF officers we have
enough and to spare, and it is time that
something was done to increase the efficiency
of the actual working and fighting force.