Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-10


SUCCESSFULLY commanded five squadrons.
In the japanese navy, Admiral Togo IS
fiftv-four years old, the rear-admlrals
average forty-nine, and the vice-admirals,
to which we have no corresponding grade,
are under 6fty-three.
OF course, it will be Immediately urged
that if our adnirals are so quickly to
retire, the younger. captains will all the
sooner rise to replace them. True; but
with what experience? As captains only;
and the result is another list of mex
perenced admirals, also of advanced
years. 1t is important to keep clearly in
view what has been dwelt upon already,
namely that the times have changed
since the days of wooden line-of-battle
ships and that an admiral must have
time for education as an admiral, after
he gets his commission. But apart from
this, let us look at the age condition of
the eighty-seven captains. At the pres
ent moment three are SlXty-one, fifteen
are ffty-nlne, eighteen are tfty-eight,
twentv-four are ffty-seven, eighteen are
fifty-six, six are fifty-five, and three are
tifty-four. The average age is therefore
tifty-seven and two-tenths years.
Let us now replace the nineteen ad
mirals to be retired within the next two
years with captains, and see how much
our condition will have become improved.
OF these nineteen new adnirals, seven
will be sixty-one, SIX sixty, and six
fiftv-ni1le, and of the five old ones still
on the list, two will be siXty-one and
three sixty. Does that make us any
better off than we are now? The average
age of our admirals in round numbers is
at present sixty and eight-tenths years.
1t then will be almost exactly the same.
In fact the youngest admiral on the list
will be about a year older than the
Youngest is now.
1t would take far too much mathemat-
les to enter into the necessary actuarial
computations here; but the result of
captains of such advanced age as ours,
briefly stated, is that we have none
whose legal time of active service is now
such as to permit him to make one
cruise 1.-TWO years. in command of
battle-ship, one cruise in command of a
squadron, and still have a sufficient period
left for one cruise in command of a fleet.
That is to say, it has become wholly
impracticable for US to convert the cap
tains we have into efficient fleet ad
mirals, because their age prevents their
ever getting the necessary experience
and out of this there is no way, short of
discovering an elixir of youth and max
ing them take it by executive order.
Let us see how it is elsewhere. The
Japanese captains average age is forty
four and tWo-thirds. Our captains there
fore average some thirteen years older.
They also average nine years older than
the English and German, and seven years
older than the Russian captains. Japan
has battle-ship captains of thirty-six.
The youngest captain in the English navy
is about thirtv-three. England COM
pulsorilv retires captains at fifty-tive, SO
that under her law everyone but three
of ours would have been superannu2tcd
already, and the Others too would go in
a few months. An officer of forty-four in
our navy is lieutenant commandcr, gen
orally a subordinate on battle-ships and
armored cruisers, and eligible only to
minor commands Officers from thirty