Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-02-02
AN ANALYSIS OF THE
MODERN MAN-O'- WARSMEN.
Article in Issue Of the Fleet Review by
Local Chief Electrician.


This months issue OF The Fleet Re
view. published monthly at Washing
ton, ID. c., in the interest of men in the
naval service. contains an article con
tributed by Mr.. George L. Sipp. chief
electrician, U. s. ". who resides at
Ridgewood avenue, Germantown.
Mr.. Sipp has been stationed at the
Naval Academy for some time, and has
made many friends in Annapolis. He
will leave here this week for Philadel-
phia, where he will await orders. he
having been detached from the Naval
Academy: The article, under the cap
ton. Some Observations of an Old
Timer-An Analysis Of the Modern
NANCY arsman." says:
In my early days in the service the
Navy was composed of men recruited
from the seacoasts of the world, very
desirable class for the Navy when we
had the old type of ship. They were
good seamen honest and knew how 10
obey orders. but their education was
limited to the school of the ship. Many
OF them could not read line But
with the advent of the new navy, the
Department saw the necessity of a
trained man in ordnance and other
branches. so started the gunnery
school. / can remember some of the
graduates. how they were looked down
upon by the old-timers' as too good TO
be common sailor They were class
ed as educated seamen and sea ora
tors. And. looking back into the past.
t4sha n ~ hn nil
schools and their graduates has taken
place. can see a steady Improvement
both in methods and the type of men
turned out.
Now that the Navy is about 80 per
cent American born, recruited from all
states and American possessions, | feel
it an honor to have devoted lifetime
TO such an organization We will take
the electrical school as an example, in
my mind the most valuable to the SER
vice. In the past six months there have
come directly under my observation
nine graduates from that school. who
are doing regular duty aboard ship,
but have all taken up studies to fit
themselves for better positions i'm life
through correspondence and other
courses. One is preparing himself for
entrance to the Naval Academy. An
other is taking a course for civil serv-
ice: the third, correspondence course
in craftsmanship. the fourth studying
advanced photography; others per
fecting their education in geometry
and the higher branches. and still an
other finishing payment and manag-
ing producing farm in the South. All
are making the best of their idle time
fitting themselves for advancement in
the Navy or for civil life
I'm looking up their moral and So
cial condition, ! find that only two OF
the nine use liquor at all and they
only moderately. | learned through
their conversation that the better
plays, magazine articles, and books are
not strange to them. as was the case
with the 'old-timer Instead of the
more vicious amusements of the past.
you can find the modern man-o'wars-
man. when ashore, attending various
lodge meetings and following the
crowd generally.
1T is not my intention to puff UP the
service and make it appear that the
man of the Navy has LOST his punch
and effect, but to bring TO the attention
of the many people in civil life who do
not realize that the Navy has advanc-
ed with the times i'm its enlisted per-
sonnet and is not composed of the old
salt tradition teaches so much about.
When some judge takes it upon him
self to sentence a boy of criminal ten
denotes to- the Navy instead of re-
form school, let him realize that he
might make that boy the associate of
son of the local bank president. the
leading physician, or even the son of
the Rev. So-and-So, of his immediate
district, who is following the honor
able vocation of an American man-o'-
warsman"
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