Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-09-15
PRACTICAL NAVY COURSE
Lieut.. Logan Cresap's Strong Plea
In Behalf of Naval Academy
System
FAULT LIES WITH NAVY ITSELF
A Policy That Would Result in Elm
ininating Between Graduates
And Commissioning

In the various discussions which
have from time to time prevailed con-
corning the system of training mid
shipmen at the Naval Academy for
their subsequent duties as commits
stoned officers of the United States
Navy, there is one contribution which
should attract much attention, large
ly because of the directness and sue
cintness of the presentation of the
question, in an article in the United
States Naval Institute by Lieutenant
Logan Cresap, says the Army and
Navy Register. Lieut.. Logan Cresap
is native of Annapolis.
He entertains decided views on the
subject. which he epitomizes in the
single inquiry whether the present
system at the Naval Academy is the
best one for achieving the purpose for
which the government maintains that
institution. So far as the author is
concerned he is not able to accord to
the system such standard of practi-
cal usefulness and he points out that
with the officers of the Navy "re-
sponsible to the people of the country
for the internal administration of the
Navy Department and the training
of the Navy personnel" the burden
of makingsthe correction in the Acad-
nmy's system, if it needs correction,
"lies with the Navy itself.
Lieutenant Cresap calls at,ention
to the fact that in the training for
other professions than that of the
naval service it has been found neces-
sary to use the school as primarily
teacher of theory and to leave the CO.
ordination and application of this
theory to a further period of post
graduate application, while at the
Naval Academy the graduate is taught
to become, Immediately available for
operative duty. "Is it not possible, /"
he asks, "that in our endeavor to
make the graduate of use in the
service as soon as possible we have
failed to provide him with the neces-
sary foundation upon which to build,
not his first five years of active SER
vice, but the succeeding twenty-five?"
He pursues his interrogation: "In
what medical school do we fit young
men to become operating practition-
ers upon graduation? In what law
school do we prepare young lawyers
to become upon graduation, able to
handle law cases? Do any of our me-
chapical or electrical schools fit their
graduates to be Immediately available
for regular engineering work? Do
any of our business schools turn out
business men?" And finds it possible
To furnish q NEGATIVE renlv
With this comparison of systems
of training, Lieutenant Cresap in
clines to the belief that it would be
advisable to incorporate little more
theory, a course in "Thermodynam-
ics," a more complete course in
Electricity" more thorough course
in Calculus, add perhaps, the study
of Least Squares" and precision
of Measur ements, ;" give m r e
Strength of Materials" and "Ma-
chine Design" (and other subjects
more or less importantly at the Acad-
emy and to eliminate, if necessary,
enough practical work to meet the
required balance. He adds: "This
policy would also result in a better
system of eliminating between gradu-
alton and commissioning. In civil
life the process of elimination begins
to be forcibly felt at the expiration
of the two years probation. 1t is at
that time that-classes begin tc sepa-
rate to the various levels to which
their members are destined. With
our system as at present worked, the
eliminating practically ceases upon
graduation, to be actively taken up
about twenty-five or thirty years
later"
There have been numerous boards
detailed to look into this subject and
to make the Naval Academy course
practical" and there will probably
be other Investigations of the prob
lem. The only effective way of accom-
plishing the desired result of real
value in the education of midshipmen
for their careers in the Navy is, as
Lieutenant Cresap remarks, by the
Navy itself. 1t is not certain that
such an arrangement will be alto
gether satisfactory, with the differ
ent views entertained by the officers
themselves, but the suggestions made
by Lieutenant Cresap are entitled to
careful consideration to the end that
the Naval Academy may maintain its
usefulness in the maximum degree.
CANDY TABLE NETS S33A27