The times., 1898-04-17
THE SAILORS OF OUR NAVY.
ATerican-BOrn Citizens PrCdOmi
nate in the Service.
CFrom the Boston Journal.1


a notorious fact that the American
sailors are mere mercenaries." Another
has declared that "on the American YES
sells. as soon as firing opens. a panic will
set in, since it is common knowledge that
their crews comprise men of every ma
ton"
All of which tall braggadocio has
brought many a smile to those afloat and
ashore who know the real facts about
the personnel of the United States naval
service. In a way. the average American
man-of-war crew is a reflex of our COM
posite nationality, but in every ship and
throughout the service the thorough
going American element predominates
distinctly as it does through the United
States at large. In the first place, there
are the officers. They are native Ameri-
cans almost without exception. Probably
more than SO per cent of the gallant sail
orS who bear Uncle Sans commissions
are American born-the small remnant
who are not having been brought to this
country in their childhood, for no one
not the son of an American citizen can
gain entrance to Annapolis. The officers
who are brains OF our s.s.so may there
fore be said to be absolutely homogeneous.
Now as to the enlisted men. Here,
again, there are elaborate official records
scrupulously kept, which tell their unan-
swerable story. What they show is not
only that the American element predomi-
mates in the forecastle, but that it is
stedaily increasing. The notion that
American crews were made up of men of
"every nationality had a larger degree
of truth in it dozen years ago when our
naval condition one of general de-
crepitude, than it has now, when the
ships of our new steel fleet are in point
of average quality undeniably the finest
on the ocean. In 1891 it was officially re-
| ported by the Bureau of Navigation that
| 5S per cent of the enlisted men of the
| United States Navy in general service
were American citizens. OF course,
among the AZ per cent classed as aliens
very large majority were men of foreign
| birth who, while absence at sea prevented
| their seeking naturalization had their
/ homes in this country, and were to all
| intents and purposes Americans in desire
and sympathy. But in 1925 the proportion
| of full-hedged American citizens had adj
vanced to % per cent. In 1893 1t stood at
! 20 per cent; in 1897, by Secretary Longs
report, at Y per cent, while 81 per cent
| of the young men of the apprentice
! training squadron from which comes our
| best educated and most valuable leading
| seamen, Were American born.
| About one-fourth of rne inhabitants
of Massachusetts are OF foreign birth,
| and more than one-fourth of the citi-
zens of Boston. The crews of our war
| ships are pretty closely representative,
| therefore, of the population from which
| they are drawn. Take tne crew OF the
Maine, for instance. 1t was gathered
In New York and might be supposed
| TO contain unduIy large foreign con-
tingent. But when the official list
was published by the Navy Depart
| ment, just after the terrible catas-
! trophe of February Is. it was discovered
that out of the ships complement of
SA, only 106. or between oue-Iourth and
| one-third, were of foreign birth. and that
| OF these 106 only nineteen had not taken
out either preliminary or f1nal papers of
| naturalization. Most OF these nineteen
aliens, it may be added were the Japan
ese personal servants or attendants of
| the officers.
| This authoritative, official analysis re-
duces to practically nothing the real
mercenaryi element in the brave crew
| of the Maine. But. 1t should be said
right here, with unmistakable emphasis
that ''mercenary'' is an unjust brutal
epithet TO apply to the foreign-born sail
| ors who seek the flag Of the United
States. There may be-there doubtless
is-a certain proportion or mere advent
urers among them who are now In the
American, now in the English now in
the German. Italian or Turkish navy
serving all flags and loving none. But
the glorious records of 100 years are full
OF vivid confirmation of the fact that
most of the foreign-born tars who sail
under the Stars and Stripes are good
men and true, devoted heart and soul TO
their adopted country
1t may be desirable that the majority of
our men-o'-war's men should be as they
generally have been, Americans of sub
| stantial native stock, but there is not
the shadow of an excuse for excluding the
| foreign-born sailors of intelligence and
spirit who came to America with the fixed
purpose of throwing in their lot with us
and making this the land of their perna-
nent allegiance. "A very good class of
men," Secretary Long calls the 2S per
cent of foreign seamen now in the ser
vice. "A great many of them are Scandi-
navians." What kind of citizens they
make everybody knows. They are con-
sidered perhaps the very choicest large
element in our present immigration.
The belief that native Americans bred
from early youth to the sea, make the
! best meu-o'-wars 5 men and sea fighters in
the world is so ingrained in the American
mind by the ocean victories of hundred
years that it may be difficult for US tc
give sailors of other races their due credit
for pluck and seamanship. But we must
in fairness acknowledge at least that
these Virile traits are not an American
monopoly. 1t is no new thing for the most
ambitious, vigorous and intelligent sailors
of Northern Europe to find their way tC
the great American Republic and to seek
admission TO its naval service drawn not
only by its century-old prestige, but by its
larger rewards and freer opportunities.
In the naval wars of 1812-lS15 the splen.
did crews which fought our sloops anC
frigates TO victory were, 1t is true, almos
exclusively native American, but ever
!. then a small Irish and Scandinavian ad.
mixture was evident. AS the general i'm
: migration of these races increased theil
representation in our naval service in
creased in due proportion.
The most conspicuous ocean combat o
the rebellion was fought by the sloop-of
. | war Kearsage, built and fitted out in ;
| New England port, and manned, as i
happened, by a crew all but eleven o
born Americans. But in the battles 0
| Farragut and Porter in the southern bay
and rivers and along the southern coast
| the crews of some of the most successful
Union vessels were quite as composite
| as they are today. Old Ireland, our ira
! | ditional ally, and Scandinavia, the hom
| of the Vikings gave us many a BRAY
, | sailor lad who fought stoutly at his gul
, | on wooden deck or in iron turret side b.
side with our own boys of New England
New York and Pennsylvania. 1t was Ire
| land and Scandinavia that gave us mos
of the foreign-born dead of the Maine
The blood-brotherhoodo of these races an
ours has stood the fiery test of battle 70
a long, long span of years, illumined a
: one end by the name of Barry and at tn
- &.