Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1877-04-28
THE PERSONNEL.

The strength Of the personnel is set
down officially as 1921 officers of all
ranks and 10000 men, in which are in
cluded $500 marines. Besides these
men, however, there are the "rrdifs, y
who have already served their time in
the navy, and whose number may be
safely set down a. another ) 5000. 1t
can not be said that the crews of the
iron-clads have had all the training that
il necessary to make them good and
efficient seamen, yet still a good deal has
been done in the way Of quincy drill,
and attempts have been made of late by
changing the crews Of the cadet training
frigate after each voyage to afford as
many Of these mel as possible the oPp)r-
tunity Of acquiring some experience at
sea. \ gunnery ship was established
some six years ago, and the services OF a
very efficient instructor obtained from
the British government. Nearly the
whole of the men and all the subordinate
officers have passed through a regular
course of drill on board of the said ship,
and a number of the most intelligent
among the latter have been specially
trained as gunnery instructors, 50 that,
in imitation of the British navy, each Of
the iron clads has now its gunnery officer,
charged with the duty of keeping the
men up to the mark in their gun drill,
Foreign officers who at different time,
have visited the lron-clad feet in the
Bosphorus have been particularly struck
with the apparent order on board, the
general neatness all round and the man.
ner in which the men went through theiI
drill. Their performance with the heavy
guns has been particularly praised, and
there is but little doubt that with more
target pratice they would make splendid
artillerists. Something has been done in
the way of firing at a target, sufficient
at least to familiarize the men with the
proper manner of using the navel pro,
~ieCtiles OF the present day, and the Turk
is by nature a good marksman, In the
early part of last summer, also, a flying
squadron was sent to sea under command
of Ha,san Pacha, with orders to cruise
under sail in the Mediterranean, visiting
particularly the ports on the African
coast, Glbralter, MaTseillies, Malta and
the Adratic. The squadron consisted o
the following coryette5: Edirne, Mus
setir, Ismir and M%ansourah, and was af
terward joined by the school frigate
Mukbir. Starting from Crete, the ports
of Beniazi, Tripoli and Tunis were each
touched at in succession, the voyage
being always performed under sail and
advantage taken 'of favorable weather
to perform a few simple maneuvers and
to accustom the officers to signalling at
sea. While at Tunis it became neces.
sary, on account of the disturbances in
Herzegovina and Bosnia, to send the
squadron to Kleck, 50 that the cruise
was prematurely broken up, and the
others soon afterward separated OnspeciaI
service.
Great efforts have been made also at
the navel college to impart as much pro.
fessiOnal knowledge to the cadets as pos
sible; for, owing to the scarcity of good
technical works in their own languages.
the cadets, after leaving that establish.
ment, labor under great difficulty with
regard to their after education as naval
officers. With this view, then, the
pupils receive instruction on torpedoes
naval prize Law and navel tactics. In.
stuctors from the British navy, in addi
ton to a large staff of Turkish profes.
sors, have been for some considerable
time in the employ Of the imperial OF,
toman government, and quite a number Of
smart young officers have been sent from
the navel college within the last few
years to Join the fleet. With regard tC
the fleet %maneuvering and navel tactic,
in general, a step has been taken in the
right direction by sending an iron-claC
squadron to cruise in the Levant, for il
is of the utmost Importance that The
captains of the iron.clads should havC
the opportunity of acquiring more expe
rience in the hanlling of such enor
nous masses in motion than is to b,
picked up in passing from the Colder
Horn to the Bosphorus, or in making
a voyage simply from one port to an
other.