The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-12-31
THE OLD NAVY.
why am Old sailorman Recalls 1t with
Fond Regret.

-
Fond Regret.
Commodore Francis ]. Higginson in
The Independents
In my own case the Civil War came to
me as a midshipman of eighteen years,
and the war with Spain found me cap
tain at the age of fifty four. The first
war found me at the lowest, and certainly
the happiest, round of the official ladder
and the last near the top and approaching
Flag rank. As midshipman in the
steam frigate Colorado, commanded by
that gallant and brave officer, Capt
Th odorus Bailey, I sailed from the port
of Boston in June, 1861, for Charleston
and Key West. On the 18th Of May, 1893,
in command of the battleship Massachu-
sets, sailed from Hampton Roads with
the Flying Squadron under Admiral
Schley, for Charleston and Key West. BY
a singular coincidence, after an interval
of thirty seven years, the course taken to
reach the enemy was the same. The
Colorado in her day was as much first
class battleship as the Massachusetts is
at present. She. like the Massachusetts,
was armed with the heaviest ordnance OF
her day, and was considered irresistible.
In point of comfort and beauty the bat
tleship of '61 was far and away ahead OF
those of today. No one who has ever
seen the gun deck of one Of our old steam
frigates will ever live to see an equal
combination of power and beauty. The
long row of nine-inch guns. each radiant
in black and gold, sweeping from the
cabin door up a gentle sheer TO the bow,
ana held in leash on Sundays by snow
white cord running from breeoh to breech,
accentuating the line of the battery as
we'll as keeping all visitors from lettering
between the guns. was sight long TO pc
remem bered. AS it was the last OF the
old Gun Decks SO famous in naval story,
so 1t was the best, and / look back upon
it now in all it's superb power and beauty,
in fond remembrance not unmingled
with regret. beautifully adorned
parade Ia port, O shelter from the weather
at sea and in battle, a splendid array OF
"sea power" where gun spoke to gun
and where the electrical shout OF conirade-
ship and encouragement running from
man to man along the peopled deck with
contagious enthusiasm, was stimulus
to victory impossible TO obtain in the
modern system, where one turret knows
not what the other turret doeth.
In modern battleship the captain is
condemned to imprisonment during ac-
ton in steel coming tower ten inches
thick and six feet ten inches in diameter
compared with which the prison of the
Man with the Iron Mask was a palace
I tried the coming tower in the Massa-
chusetts during the first bonn bardment OF
Santiago, but soon abandoned it for the
bridge, finding it difficult to grasp all the
VARYING conditions OF the action from the
narrow peep-holes often blanketed by
thick smoke One did not feel really in
touch with the action or with his own
ship in such position and the move
1nents of the men were controlled by an
unseen spirit OF course. when in close
action with another ship and hailstorm
OF rapid fire and machine guns is falling
upon your vessel, it would be uDwise not
to seek it's shelter, but from great gun fire
alone I prefer to do as we did in the Civil
War and to take my chances on the bridge
in the OPEN Other commanding officers
thought the same way, and at the bonn
bardment of San Juan Captain Taylor sat
upon the bridge of the Indiana calmly
smoking a cigar. On board the New
Orleans, where tho guns were in broad
enabled the commanding officer to see the
whole battery in action and to encourage
his men by his presence. She was, /
think the best armed and slnartest vessel
of the class that we had in the late war,
and in the hands of her energetic com
manding officer, Captain Tolger, she did
some remarkably fine shooting at Santi-
ago.
In regard to the work upon the men in
action. the modern conditions are much
more trying than in '6I. Tt is true that
formerly everything was done by hand
power but united hand power, II not SO
enduring or accurate as machinery, is
certainly much more Joyous, and was
operated in light and fresh air ana plenty
of room. Today the majority of men in
battleship are shut up in tight steel
box in which are immense boilers heating
the atmosphere to q sitting temperature
and where they can only hear but cannot
see. They work away in their floating
dungeon without any inspiring vision to
tighten their labors.
In order to realize the exhausting con
dition under which men fight in mod
ern battleship it is only necessary to see
them. when the matches are opened after
action, pour up from below. perspirlng
and half naked; to see with what relief
| they breathe the fresh air and how eager
| ly they run to have a look at the battery
| or ship which has been engaged. l have
often watched the men on hoard the Mas
sachusetts passing up from below through
| the hatchWays after action. many of them
| of fine physique. and thought with sad
ness how few of them could possibly be
saved in case of sudden death blow from
| a torpedo or ram Modern science, with
all it's tremendous resources and increase
of power, has not hghtened the oondi-
tions under which the men labor duri n
| action.