El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-10-17
GERMANY LACKS
OFFICERS FOR
NEW VESSELS
Reservists Are Called On to
Serve in the Navy; Com
manders Are Scarce.
ONE NEW CRUISER
PROVES A FAILURE
BY HERBERT TENPLE.

7 ONDON, Eng, Oct. lit is learned
from a former resident Of
Wilhelmshaven. who has much
first hand knowledge OF the subject.
that the kaiser's navy IS going to be
hard Up 10 find competent officers and
satisfactory men for its new ships
This dearth of personnel will handicap
the Germans considerably
Both Great Britain and Germany are
rushing their ship yards and Will soon
BY reinforced 1t is known that three
new German hattleships, the GrOsssr
kurfurst, the Markgraf, and thekoe-
mig, are nearing completion and perhaps
have already Joined the fleet They
have a displacement OF $4,000 tons and
carry ten twelve inch guns Their
armOr belt is fourteen inches thick
The Berlin admiralty is confident they
will touch % or p knots
Germans Officers Scarce.
To man these ships with competent
officers ana men will be a difficult
question. There are a number OF Of
ficers and men stationed on shore, but
vide full compliments for these three
new ships. the new battle cruiser Derf-
finger, and the reserve batIleships,
cruisers, and light cruisers
They will have 10 be manned by
reservists who do not know modern
ships and are most probably peasants
who have only done their three years
compulsory service in the navy and
and endeaYOred to forget that sucn
thing as the sea exists.
The greatest. difficulty. however, viii
be to get competent senior executive
officers for these ships. Those Ct
ucers who are in shore billets, with
the exception Of the junior officers.
are mostly men who have oemOnstrl--
ed their unfitness for the higher posi-
tons aflOat, and are allowed TO dis
appear gracefully from the service by
putting IN a year or two IN post
ashore before retiring
be.s pal, the man hat broket thebm
Even the Sick Called Out.
To show how short Of competent Of
ficers the German navy is. It may be
mentioned that Capt trancks Of the
light cruiser Ariadue. which was SUNK
in the HeligOland, fight had retired
from the navy on account OF very bad
health few weeks before war broke
out
The German navy has the call on
the services OF a number Of mercantile
marine officers, but these men are only
given subordinate positions and can
not attain higher rank than Lieutenant
commander
ficult, If not inGeed impossible 10 find
sufficient engineer officers for these
new ships. When war broke out there
were at most 80 naval engineers 1Old-
ing shore appointments and there is
sucn scarcely OF naval engineer o.
Ulcers that OF late warrant officers
have taken the place Of engineers in
all torpedo boat destroyers- Mo-c-
over, there are very few reseryistts en-
glneerS 10 be called up.
Great cruiser Failure.
In this connection a. may be inter
estlng to record thal The much 5oomed
GerT an battle cruiser Non der Tam
has proved a failure owi1s 10 he- en-.
gines- When she was first commits
stoned she made a speed of p kncts,
but since then she has never done any
.Sing. Last year she had TO be re-
stlted twice. and the second time she
WIS in dOckyard napds for three
no lths and could nUt take part in
the summer maneuvres. one Of her
engineers told me that every time
they tried to force her the engines
broke down.
Commander Not n Genius.
Admiral Won Ingenohl. who Is IN
command Of the High Seas fleet is not
thought to be a genius by the officers
Of the fleet, and his appointment two
years ago caused considerable surprise
except TO those who knew that he was
a great fayOrite with the kaiser.
Admiral Won POhl. who Is now on
the Admiralty staff at Berlin was to
have been appointed 10 the command.
but at the last moment he incurred
the kaiser's displeasure, and as a
punishment his appointment was can
celled Won Pohl is looked upon in
German naval circles as undoubtedly
the cleverest Of all the German Gd-