The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-28
TRAINING FOR THE NAVY.
Better for Boys Than the Merchant
Service.
7rOfl he Nefc YOrl Time


A Few days ago the training ship Ports
mouth sailed from the Brooklyn navy yard
on cruise to the West Indies, carrying
with her 40 Of the smartest boys now
under training in the United States navy,
and among them several bright Brooklyn
lads, ambitious to reach, some time in the fu-
ture, that top rung OF promotion from the
ranks-the honorable and well-paid berth
OF warrant officer. There are in all only
100 boys in the navy; but Secretary Tracy
mas earnestly recommended that the nu IL
Der should be doubled, no doubt from a
conviction that it is upon these trained
boys, and not upon the Polyglot products
OF the present method of enlistment, that
our hopes should be founded OF ultimately
manning our reconstructed navy with
native American sailors OF intelligence,
experience, and patriotism.
There are many worse things that young
lad OF spirit, good health, and fair educa-
ton might do than becoming a member of
that long torpid, but now terminated or
ganlzation which Lincoln once facetously
designated as "Uncle Sans web feet"
Always assuming however, that the boy
has leaning that way or can find nothing
better to do, for this sketch is not written
with any purpose of encouragement or dis
suasion, but merely TO state the facts as
they existys
IL a 10y ueClueS 10 0ubsT TIC navy IQ6To
are two ways Of setting about it. He can
go either as an officer or as a common
sailor; only there is this one thing to be
remembered, that any one entering the
service as boy or a common sailor may
rise TO be a warrant officer, but he can
never hope to tread the quarter deck as
commissioned officer. If, on the other
hand, he elects to go into the merchant
service 1t does not very much
matter where or how he begins
hard work and merit will eventually
take him to the top of the tree, though, even
then, be he ever so gentlemanly or be he
ever so clever. the officer of a merchantmen
never stands upon anything like the same
social footing as a naval officer. But there
are many boys who could do really well in
the navy If they did not mind beginning at
the very bottom of the ladder and grad
ually working their way up; so that it may
not be altogether useless to show what are
the ordinary boys chances of promotion IN
the service. Let us first take few figures
from the English navy, the only other
navy worth consideration on the score of
pay and promotion. Boys are taken into
the English navy between the ages
of Is and 1615 years, and by diligence and
good conduct can rise, as in our own SER
vice, 10 the rank of warrant officer. They
must make an engagement TO serve for ten
years from attaining the age of IS, and
after that age they are rated as ordinary
seamen of the second class, and ordinary
seamen and able seamen as soon as they are
found qualified. When a boy enters the
service he receives gratuities of $25 for out
f1t and So for bedding, and on being rated q
irst-class boy he receives further sum of
$12. 90 for clothing purposes.
The scale of pay, besides liberal supply
of provisions at the government expense, is
as follows: Boys receive from S45 TO $53
year, ordinary seameu from SOL to SI14.
able seamen from $144 to $3.50, petty officers
from S175 to 1921, and warrant officers and
chief warrant officers, the latter a rank I'M
known in our navy, from $500 to $500 a
year. Men are allowed pensions
after twenty years. service or when
disabled: of from 800 to $3.50 per annum,
| and those who remain in the service
after twenty years can obtain larger pen
sions. Warrant officers receive pensions
| rising to $3.50 year, and pensions are
| granted to their widows. To sum up, then,
any ordinary boy who joins the English
navy has 1t within his power to become one
| day warrant officer, and to retire with a
| pension of $3.50 when he is not of necessity
more than forty years of age.
Let us now turn to Uncle Sans side of
the account. Boys of good character, who
have no physical defect, and who can read
and write fairly well, are admitted into the
American navy between the ages of IA and
| Is years. Between IA and Is years a bow
must measure feet inches in height and
weigh not less than 20 pounds; between Is
and 16 years, 4 feet IL inches and so pounds
between 16 and IL years, 5 feet 1 inch and
| 80 pounds, and between II and IS
| years, 5 feet 2 inches and 100 pounds.
| They must serve till the age of 81
as boys or Junior seamen, and after that
| age they rank as seamen or petty officers
| They are now allowed a sum of $45 for out
| fit, a fact which considerably enhances the
advantages of the service. To discover the
exact number of petty officers on board a
| fully-equlpped ship is a puzzling affair; but,
| at all events, the number of those minor
prizes is encouragingly large, while still
higher up, as the final goal of the common
sailors aspirations, are the four warrant
oticerships-hel by the boatswain, the
| carpenter, the gunnerS, and the Sailmaker-
whose pay and privileges, mark it we'll, are
the Same as those of the junior officers.
/ And now for the rates of pay. The pay
of boys enlisted as third-class apprentices is
| SO a month; the next promotion, to second
class, brings $40; the next, to first-class ap-
prentice, $l1 month. Further on we have
| second-class seamen apprentices, with $40 a
| month, followed by first-class seamen ap-
prentices. with S24 a month. The latter
two grades correspond respectively to ordi-
nary seamen and able seamen or simply
| oSdulcup WhOoo pay Is etlSO SlJ duQ OH.
We can thus see that a frst-class
seaman, apprentice, or a seaman, re-
| celves S2SS year, sum which
is S12S in excess of the highest paid
to a first-class seaman in the British service.
There is, besides, the daily ration of 80
cents, which runs through the ship from the
apprentice to the commander, for, strange
AS it may appear, Uncle Sam distributes
just the same quality of loaf to the officer
as to the apprentice, and that, too, only
when on sea duty. There are no other al
lowances made to the officers whatsoever
| they have to furnish all their own mess
equipments and everything else, and
ali their entertaining often a heavy
item in their expenses-has to be
done by private money. In the British
naval service, besides the actual pay, there
are extra money allowances made, the
amount of which depends upon circum-
stances and upon the part of the world in
which the officer may be serving. Thus,
for instance, a lieutenant in command, who
receives 81 900 per annum pay, gets an
allowance of from $3.50 to 1896 year; but
here it will be sufficient to note that, even
| including this occasional allowance, the pay
of a British naval officer of the lower grades
falls considerably short of that of an Amer
! lean lieutenant or boatswain.
The exact pay of the British junior Off
GERS is as follows: A naval cadet receives 800
year, less than a third-class apprentice gets