Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1933-06-21


shipping was concerned.
But when steamships replaced sailing vessels,
the United States began to lose her place In the
sun In this regard and the Civil war saw the end
of our dominance of the seas with merchant
men. In the years that followed various efforts
were made to regain the place we had lost to
other nations, but these efforts were not highly
successful. AT the opening of the World war we
had only IT ships carrying the American flag
and American trade to foreign ports, and Amer
lean seamanship, as a consequence, had almost
become a forgotten tradition.
But recent years have seen a change being
wrought, and today, under more recent stimulat-
ing governmental policies supporting our peace
time navy" the merchant marine, we have
climbed up to second place In world tonnage
and now a total of 600 ships pillow their way
through the seven seas to more than 500 ports
in foreign lands.
To provide for the increased complement Of
trained desk officers and engineers to man our
constantly increasing peacetime navy, Uncle
Sam has four nautical training schools, mostly
aboard real ships, where boys can study. grad.
uate and stand a good chance Of becoming third
officers or assistant engineers In the merchant
feet at a rate Of pay ranging from S125 a month
for third mates upwards to $500 for shippers and
engineers, and with cruises to interesting for
eign ports sprinkled in while they are getting
their education.
These nautical schools are: The New York
State Merchant Marine academy, now based at
the Brooklyn navy yard aboard the u. S. S.
Empire State and the Annex; the Pennsylvania
Nautical school, based at Philadelphia, aboard
the u. s. S. Annapolis; the Massachusetts Maui
tfcal school, based at Boston, aboard the u. s. s..
Nantucket, and on the Pacific coast, the Cali
fornia Nautical school, based at California City,
on San Francisco bay, aboard the u. S. s. Call
fornia State. Every year the 500 young men, be-
tween the ages of seventeen and twenty-one
years, undergo training In these four schools.
For a birds eye view OF life at the academy,
let's visit the u. S. s. Empire State.
AS one drives into the Brooklyn navy yard a
khaki-garbed United States marine corporal
steps up to the visiting automobile, asks the
callers business and sends for a bluejacket, who
conducts one past battleship-gray painted de-
~stroyers, cruisers and other navy vessels locked
In the yard. A couple of turns along railroad
tracked streets lead to the gangplank of the U.
S. S. Empire State.
A rife-belted seaman clicks his heels, salutes
and leads on to the shippers quarters forward,
below the bridge. The skipper is Capt. L. b.
Green, second assistant superintendent of the
academy, commanding the training ship. He Is
n graduate of the United States Naval academy
at Annapolis.
A sharp wind slices across the navy yard, but
Captain Green marches down a gangway con-
Meeting the training ship with its auxiliary yes
sci lying alongside-the Annex. The latter is a
converted sailing ship. Her once towering fore
mast and mainmast are stubbed. She carries
no rigging, but has a broad deck for boat and
other drills. Below decks she IL laid out for
school rooms, dormitories, electrical and me-
chanical work shops.
Cadets In the Annex are nominal newcomers.
Here they are taught mathematics, navigation,
hygiene, rope and wire cable use and splicing,
signalling, fire prevention, launching and han
ding Of boats and a hundred other maritime
duties. Here, too, they have their first taste of
discipline aboard ship.
The cadets are hard at work. In one room,
equipped with regulation school desks, they are
deep In trigonometry. Below, In the hold Of the
Annex, they are working In the machine shop.
Others are bending and weaving heavy wire
cable ends around an oval eye. Stlll another
group has taken a heavy water pump apart and
In buslly at work putting 1t together again
Captain Green proceeds through the passages,