The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-07
A SPANISH BLUE JACKET
Is the Slouchiest of Seamen and
a Most Incompetent Gunner.
ARE ABUSED BY OFFICERS
The Spaniards Do Not Know How to
Fight Their Ships-The Majority OF
Sailors Are Shanghaied From
Inland Spain.

THE spaniards do not know how 20
fight their ships said a naval officer.
Il am perfectly confident that George
Dewey could have exchanged fleets
with the Spaniards in Manila harbor
and then have given them almost as
sound a ~drubbing as he did with his
own fleet"
The same opinion has been expressed
by a large number of American naval
officers who are familiar with the prin-
ciples upon which the Spanish navy is
run. Naval officers of THE United States
service, in common with officers of the
British navy, have often marvelled over
the lack of experiences exhibited by
Spanish officers in handling modern
| ships. but they have always dwelt par
ticularly upon the apparent stupldlty
of the Spanish man-o'-war's men for
ward. There is nothing ashore or atioat
TO equal the stolidity, indifference,
s~louchiness, and general ~incapacity OF
the Spanish blue-jacket. Nor is the
wonder great that the Spanish blue
Jacket is so poor a seaman, 50 inferior
a gunner, SO sluggish a performer OF
the thousand and one chores aDoaru
ship of which a good man-o-war man
has the knack. Four-fifths of the span
ish bluejackets are men who had never
been at sea before being impressed INTO
the naval service. Impressed is the
word. for the difficulty the Spanish
navy has experienced during the past
decade or two in getting enough men 10
man the ships is well known to those
who make a study of naval matters.
Impressed is almost too w~ell-soundlns
a phrase with which to express the
fashion the Spanish naval recruiters
have of getting bluejackets. The term
should rather be s~hanghaied. The span
ish law forbids the conscription of naval
recruits in time of peace. bit II you
ask any Spanish man-O'-war's ma now
he happened to take on in an outnt
wherein he received so little ~considera-
ton, the reply is apt TO be: / was
drunk" 1t is asserted that a majority
of the Spanish sailors are men from
inland Spain. The Spanish merchant
sailors, the men living in Spanish ports
who are of age for service aboard war
ships, know too well the cTuelties and
hardships inflicted upon men forward IN
their country's naval service 10 put
themselves in the way Of being trapped
into it. The exact sum which petty oil-
GERS on Spanish warships receive Tor
bringing aboard their vessels the wine
befuddled lads whom they pick UP
ashore in Spanish ports ana enchant
with merry tales of the glorious life
led by tars is. of course, only Known To
themselves and to the m~antpulators OF
Spanish ships budgets, but That the
petty officers are paid, and pretty wei
paid. for mis- name of work, which Is
nothing short of shanghaing. is certain.
The writer has frequently heard drunk
en- petty officers of the spanish navy
Drag Of the number of landsmen they
have bagged for their ships and the
money they have made out Of the Dusl'
ness. Spanish petty officers, even WIN
in the past five years, have been am
buscaded ashore and killed by snip
mates that they nave thus shanghaied
A case of this sort occurred in Pernam'
buco, Brazil, in 1898. a lad who hac
been filled with liquor in Barcelona by
the chief gunner's mate OF a spanish
man-of-war and had awakened To ilne
himself at sea on d Spanish Warsh.T
bound for South America, went ashor'
in Pernambuco. and on the main stree
of that town struck the gunner's mat'
dead with a knife. He was court-mar'
tailed. sent back to Spain under guard
and executed.
Spanish sailors forward are ill-treate'
habitually by their officers. This Is no
a prejudiced or an exaggerated state
nt1ill. II - lllfldllN u w" Nv 'h'NN'
of the Spanish navy are for the mos
part younger sons Of good families VIII
have gained their billets not by ablht.
7 nor through competition, but throug!
. the intercession Of their people at IN
G court. The incapacity Of many OF then
is laughable; their cruelty is notorious
From the very day that a Spaniard
: enlisted in the ships company Of on
of his country's war vessels-enliste
voluntarily or involuntarily-he is mad
10 feel that he is no better than a beas'
For the slightest infraCtlOn of TeEula
lions he IL punished in "A fashion tina
3 makes his fellow b~luejaCkets In navie
= like our own or that Of Great Eritai
y flush with anger. The central and cor
|. suming idea of the Spanish naval office
q Is that all hands forward are his sCrN
d ants. There is absolutely nothing {
n his i'm the American navy. once in
v while when an American ship is AT Sc
a for a considerable period In tropics
waters and all hands, fore and aft, al
II wearing white uniforms, an officer wi