Evening star., 1942-08-26

ldkllR courses, bOdCSWdln T.. LdWl0r
would bring a station wagon to the
National Maritime Union hall in
Boston and to piers where coal COL
liers lay and take the men to the
school. Later Mr.. Lawlor was
taken off this work and assigned to
other duty. That was the end and
now very few seamen of cargo and
coal and oil carriers know it is pos
slble for them to 60 to the school.
Another thing that hurt attend
ance at the Boston school was the
objection by owners of coal steam
ships to paying their men while they
attended the courses. In Britain,
seamen are paid by the DENIS while
attending the school and. in addi-
ton, they receive full pay through
out the year whether they are ashore
or aboard ship. (American seamen
are never paid while ashore or at
tending school)
In the Boston school, men are
taught only to strip the guns and
put them together again. There is
no firing range. or dome" as it is
called in the Glasgow school. This
makes the course dull and uninter-
esting. It is like teaching someone
to play baseball in a small room
where one cannot throw the ball
around.
Movies Show "Aim-Of
Movies showing the principles .of
"aim- Pa method whereby you
learn to estimate the speed of a
plane and the angle Of approach,
thus being able to aim ahead of the
plane in order that plane and pro-
jectiles shall meet-are absolutely
necessary. You see them in Glas-
gov, not in Boston.
In Glasgow they teach more in
two hours than the Boston school
teaches all day. The instructors at
Glasgow are Royal Marine sergeants
detached for teaching. They them
selves have received instructions on
how to conduct their classes. They
put bench on each side OF long
table for the students to occupy. No
unnecessary talking is permitted and
no one may leave his place and
wander around.
From my observation of two days
at the Boston school I would say
that the lack of Informative movies
sandwiched between practical lee
lures, also movie Firing Dome
and firing range, is very serious
shortcoming. might say that the
greater part of the British instruc-
ton movies are taken from actual
battle scenes.
Pictorial Object Lesson.
recall one movie scene in the
Glasgow school, an extremely i'm
pressive one, in which a gunner
fired his Lewis gun before the Ger
man plane was within range When
it came within range his magazine
was empty and before he could put
on a new magazine the plane
dropped bomb alongside the ship
and machine-gunned the gunner
fatally. In the picture another
gunner came up, put on a new
magazine, took a careful aim of
and waited until the next plane
came within range. Then he let
go. AS result the plane dropped
no bombs and as 1t passed over the
ship it began to spiral and plunged
into the sea. That was a pictorial
object lesson student will not
forget.
In Boston I was told that they
have no airplane recognition class
In this class students are taught to
distinguish friendly and enemy
planes from all angles. This is
done with movies, lectures and
models. This is an extremely i'm
portant course and we should
have it.
My contention that merchant
seamen should attend gunnery
school as comprehensively and Ell
clently conducted as the DEMS
presupposes that a change be made
in the Navy regulations which pre-
vent merchant seamen from doins
duty or handling a ships defensive
armament. They may do so only
on Panamanian vessels or Other
foreign ships.