The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-25
THE NAVAL APPRENTICES
HOW THEY ARE TREATED AMI
TAUGHT.


for the Worthy-The seamen and the
Beginners-The Splendid Physical
Training.
Apprenticeship in the United States
navy is capable of making either a
man or reprobate of a boy. Just
what manner of chap he shall be when
he attains his majority in the service
and is at liberty to quit or ship as a
depends altogether on the boy. He is
given every inducement to become a
good, solid man, whether for continual
ton as member of a man-of-war's
ships company or for the earning of a
livelihood ashore. The officers of the
American navy give the apprentice
boys considerable the better of it over
the bluejackets who ship as such in all
that concerns their interest and adj
vancement, and the boy who during
the period that he wears the appren-
tice figure EIGHT knot on his mus
tering shirt goes wrong and becomes a
rowdy and a sea lawyer, has only his
innate cussedness to blame for it.
The whole tendency of the appren-
tees training aboard an American
man-of-war makes for the conversion
of the lad into a dignified, self-con-
trolled, able man, a matchless seaman,
and a tiptop gunner, to say nothing of
the substantial equipment it furnishes
him for lucrative employment, should
he elect upon the conclusion of his ap-
premiership to settle down ashore.
For example, the writer often meets
upon the streets Of Washington a
young fellow who has earned distinc-
ton, not to speak Of exceedingly sub
stantial reward in the way of money,
as an expert electrician of the first
class. Less than three years ago this
young man was wearing the appren-
tice's bluejacket uniform on a ship at
tached to the Pacific squadron. He
learned the bulk of his electricity in the
navy, which he entered as an orphan,
took the seaman gunners course at
the navy-yard in washington, and ex-
hibited such genius that the officers
took him individually in hand, fur
nished him with facilities for the high
est studies, and sought in every way to
help him along. He is born electri-
riop and ha co111d have had r11n0ar,c
commission in the navy for the asking.
He preferred shore life, however, and
it is said that for over a year he has
been securing an average of one valua-
BILE electrical patent a month. The
United States navy employs to-day a
number of the young mans appliances
for use in connection with great guns.
The last time the writer saw young
Gunner Kuhlwein of the flagship
Olympia, which was a factor in Manila
harbor on Sunday last, the lad was
working a black silk star on the crown
of his apprentices mustering-ca seat
ed on q ditty-box on the receiving-ship
independence at the Mare Island navy
ward. Now he is a gentleman of the
quarterback, and receives a salute
from all hands, and when the full re-
ports of the Manila engagement are re-
ceived it is safe to wager that the
Olympia's gunner's name will have a
place.
1t is the old sailors, the men who
have spent about an equal number of
wears in the merchant marine and in
the United States navy, who possess
the greatest power for good or evil in
making or breaking American naval
apprentices. The officers aft hold the
lads with a strong rein when they
have them under immediate instruc-
ton, but the boys live forward among
the men, and they form their charac-
ters in the foc'sle. If the material is
in them it is bound to come out. The
old-time naval sailors can tell at a
Glance whether a cruising man-of-war
from a training-ship has the max
ings'' of a finished sailor and a good
snipmate in his composition. If their
careful inspection of such a boy con-
yinces them that the lad Is worth their
pains, they "go to work" on him from
the very outset of his cruising career,
season him with all of the practical