THIS FLEET.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18457, 11 August 1925, Page 10

THIS FLEET.

AMERICAN

BLUEJACKETS.

YOUNG AND ACTIVE.

NOT TRAINED TO THE SEA

(special to "the pbess.")

[The folio-wing; article is from the pen of Captain Francis McCullaeh, a British journalist on the Pennsylvania, nnd the only Br tish correspondent with, the American Fleot.J

The American bluejacket is extremely well looked after. His quarters are- cool in summer and wellheated in winter, and always well ventilated. His food is very good and plentiful His time is so well divided up between naval exercises, physical drill, study, sport, concerts, and cinoma performances, that his four-yoars' engagement passes very rapidly. Some mon are given a- sound eourso of general education; but, apart from this, tho level of education in tho lower-deck personnel is remarkably high. Formerly somewhat of a "roughneck," tho Amorican sailor is now a good typo with a higher school education and ho takes an intelligent interest in the history, agriculturo, industries and current politics of tho lands ho visits.

The ignorant and brutal old sea-dog of the typo so frankly depicted by Smollet seems, in comparison, as far removed from us as the cave-man. Indeed, in all the qualities which constitute civilisation, tho ordinary seaman of an American battleship is distinctly abovo tho ship's captain of 200 yoars ago. Ho is cleaner, morally and physically. Ho is bettor educated. Ho read 3 more. Ho has greater self-rospoct and self-restraint.

Seeing the World. I mot this morning on tho dock of tho Pennsylvania a young seaman who is not above tho averago lovol of the men aboard this vessel, but who would, in many respects, bo considered as distinctly above the level of Rodney's captains. Ho comes from a farm in Montana, and has a practical as woll as a theoroticl knowledge of tho most up-to-date and complicated agricultural machinery. He is going back to his farm after this cruise, as by that time his four years' term of enlistment will have expired. "I wanted to soo tho world," ho said to me, "and, aftor I havo been in Australia and Now Zealand, I shall havo seen most of it. I like this life afloat, but I'm twenty-one now, and must got back to work." The questions he asked me about Australia and New Zealand wero searching and to the point. He is anxious to see the interior of those countries, so as to get an idea of the farming methods used. Tho big town has no lure for him at all. He likes it once in a while, as a change; but as a place of permanent residence. "No, sir." He sketched me the plan of development he proposes to put into operation as soon as he gets back to the farm, and it struck me* as extremely sound and practical. Then he went on to talk with real enthusiasm of the splendid mountain scenery around his home in Montana. Ho was born in Western America, but his father came from Belfast and his mother from Southern Ireland.

I must say that he struck me as n more valuable type of citizen than the "absent-minded beggar" type which Mr Kipling so much admires; and, unfortunately, that type exists in real life as well as on paper on the other side of tho Atlantic. One of the most popular marching songs in Kitchener's Army at the beginning of the Great War contained this line, "Where tho wind blows, there blow I," and I regret to say that • this accurately expressed the vague and undisciplined mentality of many among those who sang it.

Young Men and "Live Wires." Of course the Yankee bluejacket has a deep fund of romance in him, otherwise he would not fall to the brilliant posters of the*, Eecruiting Department and to the wiles of the recruiting officer; but leas than a fourth of the bluejackets enlist for a second term of four years, and very few decide to make the navy a career and to retire eventually on a pension. Officers tell me that this condition of affairs leads to the average bluejacket being a "live wire." Having made up his mind to return to civil life as soon as his four years are up, ho keeps fit and interested, and generally learns a trade so that, when he docs leave, ho has no difficulty in finding work ashore. Sometimes he becomes a skilled artisan, sometimes he becomes an electrical engineer, a "movoy" picturo expert, a first-class photographer. ■ His officers contend that, even though ho does not remain in the navy, such a man is more valuable than a heavyweight of forty would be—a heavyweight who looked forward to automatic promotion and retirement, and whose ambition was the negative one of keeping out of trouble.

Very Few Foreigners. I have often heard it stated by foreigners that many of the Yankee bluejackets are not American at aIL It is true that, until the SpanishAmerican War, a considerable proportion of them were American citizens, born abroad, in Grc?t Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, and other parts of Europe, and that there were among them a good many foreigners who had, on joining, signified their intention of becoming citizens. But since the beginning of the Great War there have been very few foreigners aboard American warships. On the Pennsylvania there is, I think, only one foreigner, a sailpr who was born in England. "But we don't, of course, regard him as a foreigner," said one of his officers to me; and, as a matter of fact, Englishmen, New Zoalanders and Canadians are never regarded in the American Navy as foreigners. They are in a different category from recruits hailing from any part of the European Continent, especially from those countries which are occupied by the Latin races. Our solitary English sailor's nickname is, bv the way, "Limey," a word formed from "lime juice," which beverage is supposed by tho American bluejacket to be added to tho drinking water aboard all British ships. Those ships are consequently called "limojuicers"; and the use of this term of contempt is a good instance of how illogical sailors sometimes for limeju'ice and other temperance drinks are more common to-day in United States ships than in English ships. As is well known, the American seaman divides the inhabitants of the European Continent into two great classes, the Dagoes on the south and the Dutchmen on the north. To give precise statistics on the composition of the American Navy, the latest naval rosters show the percentage of foreigners

(Continued at foot of next column.)

to be only 0.16 against 05.61 of nativeborn Americans, while naturalised citizens are 2.37 and natives of colonial possessions 1.68, Must the Bluejacket he a Seaman? Many people say that the American bluejacket is inferior to the British and the Japanese because he is not, as a rule, a seafaring man, whereas on British and Japanese warships there are always men who have been trained to the sea aboard fishing smacks or mercantile marine vessels. The Americans admit this, but their naval officers tell me they don't want the seafaring man, and that tho modern battleship does not want him. They could get largo numbers of the' famous Gloucestershire fishermen from the New England coast if they wished, but they d 6 not wish. As it is, they have got as many sailors as are necessary. They maintain that seafaring men are not needed in a super-Dreadnought, which is, after all, only a huge, complicated fortress that happens to be afloat. In modern naval warfare the . ancient mariner who can tie sailors' knots ia of much less importance than the educated mechanic who understands all about machinery and a good deal about electricity and gunnery; and the American Fleet is manned by just such young mechanics.