The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-08
AMERICAN SEAMEN BEST.
They Are Quicker with Feet and
Hands than Foreigners.
Chicago T1mes-Herald.


Secretary Long intends to reorganize the
personnel of the American navy. This will
meet with the approval of his countrymen
in general and Of naval officers in particu-
lar. These gentlemen, by profession and
observation are best qualified to speak.
They are unanimously of the opinion that
the American sailor is the best sailor in
the world. There is no "buncombe' in this
Their opportunities for comparison have
, neeh ahnlred They state judgment
ters into modern war, but the Nation would
like to see none but Americans on guard
II It can be brought about. The men gath
cred upon the upper deck of the Trenton
in the great Samoan storm, listening to the
band play Hail Columbia" and cheering
the stars and stripes as it hoated over
them for the IL = time, did a deed whose
recital stirs blood like a trumpet's call, but
from the picture when 1t is learned that
| one-third of them were foreigners. They
were brave, whatever their country and
they knew how to die, but we would prefer
TO know that they were all American born.
The chief difficulty to be encountered by
the secretary and his aids lies in the fact
that 1t is hard to induce Americans to en-
list. So many avenues promising better
things are open to active men in this coun-
last resort.
TIL, The American navy, as as at present consti-
OF the commissioned officers. Recruits
landsmen they are calied-are paid $50 a
month and rations. They enlist for three
years and are at once placed under a rigid
discipline There is no nonsense about it,
After passing the strictest of physical ex-
Observation-Disclosures which show that
they are fitted for hard work and hard SER
Vice-they begin the treadmill, and it is no
childs play. The sailor cooped between
decks is much more under the eye of his
officer than private in the ranks, and is
compelled therefore to walk a much
stra,ighter line. He lives plainly, is forced
TO keep good hours, is not given "shore
leave any oftener than is good for him,
and consequently improves in health and
morals. This life makes more of a man of
does ha
enllStS for second term with a ''continu-
Gus service certificate he is classed as an
ordinary seaman, and his pay is increased
$3.50. ' 'e' 0A Ae "'ii get
man is tEyenty-seven years. He is enlisted
| mostly at New York, Boston Philadelphia,
Norfolk and Mare Island, or San Francisco
| It Is fact not generally known that by
| far the best come from the lake re-
| gion. Physically they are of superb type
| Navigation on the lakes is peculiar. There
storms violent. These conditions demand
fast action on the part of men who brave
seaman is qulck-witted. He is OF ready de-
cision. He is never able to divest himself
of his early training, and, though in the
middle Atlantic, if given an order will
| spring instantly to its execution. The con-
slant facing of danger makes him a brave
| man before he joins the service, and the
minor details of navigation are, of course,
| familiar to him. He keeps, too, @ much
sharper lookout than his comrades from
| winters spent in the Northwest he laughs
at exposure in other clmes, He is endur-
! ing. Furthermore, translation from the
| wheat fleet of Lake Michigan to the GUAR
ters of man-of-war seems like heaven to
| him.
| Formerly the best of our seamen were
| obtained from the fishing fleet of the New
England coast. That school produced
sailors whose equals , the World has meyer
cause the school itself has become almost
a thing of the past. The present fleet is not
/ t4afl rcfca
who manned 1t in the old days are dead or
retired, and their sons have found other
ways of making living, but in it's time it
was wonder. From this school came the
sailors who astonished the world in 1872,
who showed the bulldog strain of their an
cestry when, stripped to the waist and
blood despatched, they stood to the leaping
guns under the eye of Decatur. Even now
BOYS Of fifteen on the New England coast
will make voyages while asleep that would
deter older men with their senses about
them. The sons of Mr.: Kipling's Captains
Courageous, though few in number, give
! evidence of their blood. They no longer sail
the clippers that showed their heels to the
vessels of the earth, but they are fully COM
petent to do it on call:
The American, according to the testimony
of experts, is not a Drawer seaman than the
Englishman, but he is a better seaman. He
wifi execute an order while man from the
older country is thinking about it. He Will
do job of knotting or splicing while the
intelligent and will learn twice as fast. Be
cause of the climate that has blessed him
ana his progenltorS and because or the con-
ditons under which they and he have lived
he is faster on his feet. In a months time
he will have at his fingers ends that which
will take the foreigner a year to learn part
ly. The reason for this is apparent In
nine cases out of ten the British sailor has
been always a sailor. That is all he knows
and all he cares to know. The American
recruit may have been a lawyer or doctor
or book agent, used to invading homes
and selling people things for which they
have no earthly use. In spite of this, he is
amenable to discipline. Three months on
shpboard takes the cockness out of him.
The beauty of him is that he obeys because
he understands that it is necessary to
obey.
It is estimated that the foreigners in our
navy can be weeded out in six years We
have the finest cruisers in the world, and
it is fitting that they should be manned
by the brothers of those who built them.
Speed the time! With $50 trained Ameri-
cans on the Brooklyn, the nation that
makes her strike her colors will know that
it has been somewhere in the neighbor-
hood of fight.