Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-03-31
BETTER NAME.
Recommendation of Rear Admiral Wise
Relating to "Landsmen."

Washington, March 30-There will be
TO more .'landsmen'' in the navy if
Rear Admiral Wise commanding the
North Atlantic training squadron. can
have his way. He has made an earnest
recommendation that this unseaman-
like name be relegated to oblivion.
Commander Alexander Sharp, chief of
the enlisted mems division in the bu-
reau of navigation. has hailed with de-
light this chance to get rid of an an
cicnt title or reproach.
All that now separates raw naval re-
cruits from the jaunty, salt air name
of apprentice seamen'' is the approx
al of Rear Admiral Taylor. chief of the
bureau of navigation, and Secretary
Moody. This is considered almost as
sured. for Rear Admiral Taylor be-
lieVes things on modern warships
, should be as nautical as on square rig
gers and Secretary Moody has spent
more time at sea than any other chief
of the department.
The only persons in the navy who
! will continue under the rating of
| 'landmen' if the proposed change is
made are BARRIERS, yeomen, mess men.
jacks and musicians I'm
de-: the present system Il landsman is
a recruit more than IS years old. After
Il certain period Of training gives him
c'rtain proficiency. he becomes an Or
dinHry seaman and then Il seaman.
Boys not old enough to enlist as lands
men enter the service as apprentices.
| Recent legislation raised the adms-
sion age of apprentices from Is to Il
years. The lowest age at which Il lands
man can enlist is IS. The apprentice
receives only 50 a month, but the lands
man gets SIG. Admiral Wise's recon-
mondatiOn says:
| Men under training for scamen ought
not to be called landsmen. which is a
good term only for those with no knowl-
| edge at all of s2amcn's duties, such as
| mess men and similar billets
| 1t is submitted that the apprentice
| system is well known throughout the
! United States, is so highly thought OF III
| many places, and Is so attractive to many
boys and yOunG men that it would be 4
mistake to lose this valuable asset in olI
| present need Of men. which would be the
| case if the name apprentice were dropped
ard landsman or some other term with
ont its historic associations We're suostl-
| tuted Then, too, the apprentices who
| have risen in the service and tn" cX -ap-
prcntCcs who have re-cnlisted constitute
Il corpe d'elite and have a standing Whicf
VIII Always give tllt iidIIlc
weight and constitute Il title OF honor
ON the other hand 'landsman' has no such
force to it and the real meaning of the
| word is but a term a reproach among
sailors.
1T does not seem proper to call the
mass of our embryo Scamen, from whom
| we hope TO recruit the finest body of mef
| in the world. by such name. Lands
men they may have been on shore. but
| when they once don the uniform of the
Seamcn branch of the regular service let
! us give them Il more dignified name. one
they may be proud to write home about
and not one which will lay them open to
the jbes of their old associates.
Apprentice seaman is such name
expressing exactly the proper meaning
less clumsy than 'Iandsman' for training
in exact accord with the other rates long
established in the service. namely ordi-
nary seaman. and seaman. and not opci
to the objection of the simple word 'ap-
prentice which implies no particular call
ing and has come to mean boy Only.