Martinsburg statesman. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1869-1906, 1906-05-11
ENGLISH NAVAL PIGEON
Costs Fifteen Thousand a Year
to Maintain the Service.
BIRDS USELESS TO-DAY
Training Carried Out With Great
Care-Cannot Fly at Night
Weather Conditions Must Be Fav-
orable-Offlcers and Laymen Pro-
testing Against Needless Expense.

testing Against Needless Expense.
English statesmen are jubiliating
over having reduced naval estimates
to the extent of some millions, and
yet have overlooked the fact that
many obsolete departments are still
in full swing, says the Pittsburg De-
spatch. One section Of the service
after another has been, to use ma
val term. swept by broadsides, and
yet the Anticipated pigeon service
first instituted by one Noah of Ark
notoriety-still remains in being. A
number of protests have been made.
through the press and privately,
against keeping up this branch of the
service, yet the naval board clings
to 1t as II wireless telegraphy were a
mere Pigment of the Imagination.
According to recent estimates. the
birds employed by the English navy
for carrier purposes. number no less
than 1000; and cost, approximately,
something like $4,000 a year to
keep in training. Pigeons are kept
at each of the four home naval
ports, Portsmouth, Chatham, Ply
mouth and Pembroke. and besides
these, birds are installed at Malta
and Gibraltar.
The training of these birds Is car
ried on with great care and the ser
vices of many skilled officers
whose attention might be devoted to
some more up-to-date part of the
naval service-are employed in this
work. This branch of the service is
specialized and stats are appointed
at each Of the points mentioned to
keep the service efficient. Each bird
has a pedigree and history sheet,
with a complete record of perform
ances. A good deal of "ofYice work"
is connected with keeping tab" on
the various birds. and both naval
officers and laymen are asking
what's the use in maintaining at
such expenditure both of money and
brains an institution that ia far be-
hind the times? Perhaps. however,
this is quite according to the fitness
Of things. for there is a fairly we'll
grounded belief that the famous
British navy Is, after all. not what It
is cracked up to be.
The pigeons are especially trained
to fly certain distances in given d.
rections. and each bird, Is. OF
course. instructed to seek out, in
fight, one particular point Of objec-
tive. Birds are taken at an early age
II lty{o dixrtI Cd IN
tween 100 and $50 miles. the dis
lance being gradually increased as
the bird learns more of the service
and it's muscles harden for longer
flights.
In coming naval maneuvers 1t is
said that naval pigeons" are to be
much in evidence, and 1t will then
be proved whether or not they are
of much use, either in time of peace
or war. In the first place, the birds
are not trained to fly at night, and,
as their distances are limited, 1t Is
difficult to see just where they would
come in from ship moving two or
three hundred miles in a few hours.
In addition to the fact that the birds
cannot fly at night, 1t has been found
out that weather conditions must be
favorable for the best results, and
besides this, the wind must be in the
direction In which 1t is intended to
fly the carrier. In the event OF war
breaking out and birds being placed
on outward bound warships, there is
no regular "boardship" coops for
them, and no seamen trained to ar
range the messages they would have
to carry. At present all the flights
have been arranged from shore to
ship, and none from ship to shore
the birds being kept at the naval
bases already mentioned.
1t is rather singular thing, and
Is arousing not little comment in
naval circles in England - and
abroad also-that, while the naval
estimates have been smashingly
dealt with, no one has blue-penciled
this obsolete and inefficient branch of
the service in the alleged best navy
in the world"