The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-06-22
THE QUALITY OF THE
AMERICAN NAVY

The Great Lakes Naval Training stat
ton, situated on the shore of Lake |
Michigan, near Chicago, is the largest
aud hest institution of its kind H. the
world. It was planned and built nm
der the direction of Rear Admiral AL,
bert Ross, L. s. n Having COM
pleted his work ;he admiral was in |
vited to address the Chicago Asso-
citation of Commerce, and the GLOW
ing extracts, taken from the address, |
throw some interesting side lights on
the spirit and personnel of the Ameri- |
can Army and Navy, a spirit when
is shown by the high standard of nm
sparing service, ana which is exempli-
fed by The manner in which the Army
engineers have constructed The Pan
anna Canal.
81 had no idea ! was to be s2rA.;ed
for this work wnen ! came bacl; from
a 27,O90.mlc trip inspecting the col
lieries and the coal handling facilities
Of the world" said Admiral Albert
Ross. "A day or so after my return
went into the office of the chies Of the
Bureau of Navigation. He was in
conference with the secretary of the
Navy.
"Here's an officer that viii build
your n ant exclaimed the secretary
as | entered.
what plants? | asked
why the Naval Training School
of the Great Lakes
81 was surprised. Mr. Secretary
saio, excuse me but / am not a civil
engineer nor an architect. ! am al
poor devil that goes to sea for a liv-
ing
when can you go? insisted the
secretary.
al have not written out my report,
l just came in to report my return.
The chief of the bureau hasn't even
said he is glad to see me back, but I
can go on the job tomorrow morning
"The Secretary-it was Paul Nor
ton-said, Gould you go tonight?
81 can do better than that can
go now l replied, and l went
Admiral Ross then described some
of the work that is being done by our
big ships. Take the Delaware for
instance" he said "She went to sea,
performed her usual trial trips, etc,
and when the government wanted to-
honor the dead Chilean minister as
highly as possible, the Delaware was
chosen to take his body around to
Valparaiso. Although taken unaware,
the captain prepared his ship immedi-
ately. There were no protestations
on his part that the ship was not pre-
pared She went around to the Pa
cif1c, and returned, making a record
passage and then she went out on an
other trial and exceeded her contract
speed.
"She was chosen in consequence for
the naval review at the coronation of
King George, and when she went over
to the coronation services, before she
got in, she hauled the fires, and she
painted and washed everything below,
and when the English commandant
sent over the offer of his ash-ladders,
the captain said, We have no ashes
When they offered him water, he an
swered, We don't want any water.
We'll said the commandant, we will
seno the coal alongside We don't
want any coal, thank you, was the
reply.
She took her coal in the United
States, and she went over on that trip
and came back on the same coal
Now, that is the record Of one of tie
ships in the United States Navy. And
on her return, she went out on the
target range, and it is a question now
of what she did. They could not make
any record because on Iue ulSI Snl'O
the target was entirely destroyed. Now,
that is one of our great ships. She is
not the greatest, because the Florida
and the Utah have Joined the fleet
and they are our greatest product We
improve on every ship that we make.
Her performance showed the men
that the Navy is bringing up today.
The Navy is taking our youths off the
street, making real men of them. We
teach them trades, because every man
that goes aboard ship has got to &C,
CURE a half dozen trades; and every
year we turn out 10000 men back into
civil life, and we take on $4,000 9th
ers to take their places,
In a recent boiler explosion, the
firemen crawled over the tops OF the
boilers to the steam valves to turn
them of. In the North Dakota they
waded through fire and oil to rescue
H.. - thotr oouradaa Nm annfhaI