The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-10
OUR NAVAL APPRENTICES
HOW THEY ARE TREATED AND
TAUGHT-FINE PHYSICAL TRAINING.
what a Good boy Can Make of Him
seIf-Rapid Promotion Ashore and
AGOat for the Most Worthy.
Washington Star.

reprobate of a boy Just what manner of
chap he shall be when he attains his ma
jority in the service and is at liberty to
quit or ship a full-fedged bluejacket,
as he chooses, depends altogether on the
boy. He is given every inducement to be-
come a good, solid man, whether for con-
tinuation as a member of a man-of-war's
ships company or for the earning Of a
livelihood ashore. The officers of the Amer
lean navy give the apprentice boys con-
sderably the better of it over the blue
Jackets who ship as such in all that con-
Germs their interest and advancement, and
the boy who during the period that he
wears the apprentices figure-of-eght knot
on his mastering shirt goes wrong and be-
comes a rowdy and sea lawyer, has only
his innate cussedness to blame for it.
The whole tendency of the apprentices
training aboard American man-of-war
makes for the conversion Of the lad into a
dignified, self-controlled, able man, a
matchless seaman. and tiptop gunner, TO
say nothing of the substantial equipment
it furnishes him for lucrative employment,
should he elect upon the conclusion of his
apprenticeship to settle down ashore
For example. the writer often meets upon
the streets of Washington a young fellow
who has earned distinction, not to speak OF
exceedingly substantial reward in the way
of money, expert electrician of the
first class. Less than three years ago this
young man was wearing the apprentice
blue jacket uniform on a ship attached to
the Pacific squadron. He learned the bulk
of his electricity in the navy, which he en-
tered as an orphan, took the seaman gun
ner's course at the navy yard in Washing
ton, and exhibited such genius that the Off
GERS took him individually in hand, fur
nished him with facilities for the highest
studies, and sought in every way to help
him along. He is born electrician, and
ne could have had gunner'S commission
IN the navy for the asking. He preferred
snore life, however, and it is said that for
over year he has been securing an average
Of one valuable electrical patent a month.
Inc 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 Gun
ner Kuhlwein, of the flagship Olympia,
which was factor in Manila harbor on
silk star on the crown of his apprentices
mastering cap, seated on d ditty box on the
receiving ship Independence at the Mare
island navy yard. Now he is a gentleman
OF the quarter deck, and receives a salute
from all hands, and when the full reports
OF the Manila engagement are received it is
safe to wager that the Olympia's gunner's
name will have a place.
INFLUENCE OF THE MEN
1t is the old sailors, the men who have
spent about an equal number Of years in the
merchant marine and in the United States
navy, who possess the greatest power for
good or evil in making or breaking Ameri-
can naval apprentices. The officers aft
hold the lads with strong rein when
they have them under immediate instruc-
ton, but the boys live forward among the
men, and they form their characters in the
fo'cstle. If the material is in them it is
bound to come out. The old-time naval
sailors can tell at a glance whether a just
shipped boy or a boy fresh aboard a cruis-
ing man-ofWar from a training-ship has
the markings of a finished sailor and
good shipmate in his composition. II their
careful inspection of such a boy cOnvnceS
them that the lad is worth their pains, they
''go to work him from the very outset
of his cruising career, season him with all
Of the practical ship and gun information
that they themselves have picked up after
years of experience and thus supplement
the technical education that the boy re-
ceives from the officers. The sailors who
thus take a kindly interest in boy who
looks promising do not treat him with par
TALLY and he gets swatted about just
much as the apprentice who Is sluggard.
But the interest they exhibit in drilling
instructing him on every little valuable de-
tail as the occasion arises, plainly show
that they have got him in their minds
and observation proves that the boys who
are thus picked out by the old-timerS up
forward as being worth these efforts are the
lads who get the warrant officers blouses
when their apprenticeship is over Ask any
warrant officer in the United States navy
to-day about the struggle he had to finally
attain the wearing Of a sword from the
wearing of a iigure-of-eight knot. and he
will begin to speak aiTectionately OF two or
three grumpy, savage old bo'Sun'S mates
or quartcrmasters to whom he claims he
owes most of his success. 1t is matter of
pride with the old-timers to thus boost
lad up the ladder.
GOOD DISCIPLINE.
Observation shows that the apprentices
who go into the blue-jacket Uniform as
tough" and incorrigible boys become SEN
sible, self-restrained. and reliable seamen
by the time they attain their majority. On
the other hand, the lads who exhibit traits
of gooGy goodness upon their entrance to
the service, become, in nine cases out of
ten hard customers in the course OF their
apprenticeship, and not of much account
either for men-of-war or the shore. The
reason for this is not hard to discover Be
fore entering the naval service the unman-
ageable boys have had their period Of boy
ish WildnesS. and are about ready, when
they find themselves in the bell-bottom
trousers to make something out of their
opportunities. Being tough, they
the Durly roughness of speech ard
manner displayed by the od-timers. The
milll-and-water, ginger lacking boy, on the
contrary, who enters the service with his
mind somewhat too fully stocked with pre-
cepts, maxms, rules of conduct and shin
ing examples of the great, good and illus
tTicus, steps into a world entirely new and
strange to him when he puts his foot over
the starboard gangway of a man-of-war.
and. after the absorbent fashion of such a
kind of boys. he Immediately begins to be-
come unconsciously inoculated with the
purely surface manners of the older men
under whom he serves, emphasizes the dis
play OF these manners in his own person
and sooner or later becomes more or less
of rOwdy.
From his very first day on board either a
unfledged youngster is expected to hop right
cut of his boyhood, and TO assume, to all
intents and purposes the full status of a
man. He lives among men that have ranged
the world most of their lives; he works
alongside OF them. and almost as much
timers; he puts up with the same amount of
hardship, toes the same mark of discipline,
is quite as responibe at the mast for dere
lotions and just liable to tour in the
brig in double irons for misconduct, as his
older shipmateS who regard the circum-
navigation of the globe as bagatelle.
The boy who at the outset OF his naval
life sheds a lonesome tear or two in his
hammock but who keeps up brave front
when in view of his Shipmates, is the lad
who may be always marked for q winner.
1t would be out of nature for youngSter
of any sort of sensibilities whatsoever to
plunge into man-of-war life, with all of it's
apparent rigidity at first sight. without be-
ing bit taken aback and oppressed by the
roughness of it all. The navy is composed,
as q whole fore and aft, of genuine, maScu-
line men, and of deeply affectionate
and unswervingly loyal men, too,
when their esteem, and confidence
AADw, hYgf