The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-01-18
How Men-Of- Wars Boys Are Trained
for Sea.

The impossibility of manning the ships
of the American navy with trained sea
men of native birth has been long felt TO
be a erievous evil by the officers who.
when ships went into commission, were
compelled to fill up their complement
with men from all nationalities, OF whom
the percentage of American seamen was
lamentably small, and thus eked out by
landsmen, whom it took a two years
cruise to fashion into the shape of man
ef-war's men. While the powerful
navies of other maritime powers have
had in successful operation for many
years well organized systems of training
seamen, the United States has been
utterly destitute of any provision of the
sort and has had to depend TO man her
war vessels in the main upon stray Drift
ings from the merchant service.
In order to remedy this, Secretary
Robson, under a special act of con-
gress, issued an order on April s, 1875,
providing tor the enlistment of boys,
between the ages of seventeen and
eighteen, to serve until the age of twenty
one, the purpose of the enlistment being
to educate them as seamen and thus
in measure keep up the supply. The
first enlistments were made In New York,
where, on board the United States,
steamer Minnesota, there are now
two hundred aud fifty boys
being carefully trained. There are also
some forty or fifty now on board the U.
s. ship Saratoga in Hampton roads, a
few on the U. S. steamer Monongahela,
at Baltimore, and at the San Francisco
station twenty-five. The Constitution,
after having been rebuilt just before the
Centennial, was stationed as sort of
show ship at the Philadelphia navy-yard
during that year of glorifcation. On
the 18th OF January of this year she
went into commission, and at once the
enlistment of boys at this station began
There are now on board the Constitu-
ton 146 boys, leaving four vacancies,
her allotment being $50, which, with 100
sailors and petty officers and a marine
guard, make up the ships company.
The boys were hard at work on the
gun deck Monday morning, engaged
IN heaving up the anchor, a task which
occupied them until late in the after
noon, the anchor having during the
storm of Saturday fouled with another
with which one of the monitors in.
shore was moored. A more athletic
set of Youngsters it would be hard to find,
or such a collection of cheerful, intelli-
gent and in many instances even refined
faces. Besides, they are all American
boys. 81 am surprised" says Captain
Cook, "at the character of many OF the
bows brought here TO be enlisted. Many
of these who you now see are of excel
lent and well-to-do families, and of I'M
doubtedly good character. We do not
get the riffraff of the streets, nor young
scoundrels who, their parents having
in vain endeavored to reform, are glad to
be got rid of. We have the choice of
excellent material, and of those who
apply perhaps two-thirds are rejected,
mostly for physical disqualifications.
The boys when entered are rated
second-class, and receive $1,000 a month.
The outfit, which is furnished by the
paymaster, costs about forty dollars. The
boys are generally kept aboard at first
for three months without liberty, partly
to make the ship good against the cloth