THE MEN BEHIND THE GUNS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 36

THE MEN BEHIND THE GUNS.

THE AMERICAN TRAINING SYSTEM,, AUCKLAND, August 13.

One can imagine what a perfect, hell $ battleship in action must be, even when the enemy's shells are not landing on itar own decks. We go down below into the gunroom, which the Yankee "middies" call the steerage. Here it is that they write and read and live their social life on board. It has not exactly all the comforts of a horn«, but there are worse hom«r in some places on land. We are introduced to more " middies *" — grown men most of them, — and after an exchange of courtesies and a pleasant chat we move on to other sights and sounds. " Where's the bear?" asks our guide of a sailorman, who, with 4oz glove* on, yt working at a punch-ball, and making it _ go pop, pop, pop against a board fastened overhead, sounding for all the world like a miniature Maxim gun. " Guess JieV along here," is tEe reply \ and taking off the gloves he hands them to a companion, who quickly gets to work on the balT, while the bear is trotted out. He is a black fellow, about as big as a collie dog/ and looks for all the world like a hug« lady's nruff with a little head on the end of it. Each of the 16 battle&hips has a bear ac a sort of a m«6cotte. They were sent from Seattle, and preeeaied to the fleet* while in Washington. The men play with them, and fondle and cuddle them just as if they were big cats, but Brunski is an uncertain playmate, and likely to give you a nasty nip if you are not on the lookout., He was taken on deck for me to photograph him. "Does he bite?" asked Mr Macdonald, who is a lover of animals. " Guess, there are some of his playmates on this outflfe walking around with a couple of scars on their arms," was the reply, and thereafter we treated Brunski with due respect. Laxer on we saw in the 'tween-decks a beauti-fully-drawn certificate declaring that Fighting Bob Evans, as he is called, had been duly initiated along with the men who had on this voyage crossed the line for the first time. The certificate, which was scrolled with graceful mermaids, was duly signed by " Neptune Rex " and " Davy Jones, his Majesty's scribe." The discipline on the American, ships seems slack .in comparison with that on, the British ships. It was a curious sight even to a colonial, fo see a squad of men marching up between the crowds^— some of them smoking and others with their hands in their pockets. A British lieutenant, or even New Zealand Volunteer officer?, would have marched them at attention— at all events until they had left the main streets, — but the American idea of managing men is different from ours. " Our officers," said a New York visitor, "treat their men more as men. Your officer* treat them more as machines." There may be something in this. As to which system produces the better fighting man must be left to experts to decide. The pay of the American officers is another thing that strikes a visitor. The mid&hiprnan who showed us over the Georgia was 25, but his pay was £300 a year. The previous evening I met ond of them at supper — a bright and brainy fellow of 21, who laid down the law on everything under the sun, from turrets and trusts to navigation and the differential ca-leulus. The system is one that makes an officer acquainted with many things. They are not specialists, as are the British officers. Having put in a year or a few months at navigation, an American lieutenant will turn his attention during another year to gunnery or engineering. Thus * one day he may be '' taking the meridian," and the next he may be superintending a squad to traim and lay a turret gun. Both systems, no> doubt,' have their advantages. Some authoiittes say the more highly specialised man mu.«t win in the end, but after full inquiry and a close study of both) navies I have reluctantly come to tha conclusion that the American system i« tho better one. If that awful day should 1 ever come — which God forbid ! — when the' navies of two great Powers should bepitted against each other in the grim hell! of mod era naval warfare, the navy that cad replace a gunnery expert from thej navigation or the engineering department, an engineer from the gunnery or thcnavigation section, or a, navigator fromt the turret or engine room, mv.4, in myj 1 humble opinion, to ufce an Americanism, find itfeelf "on the top of the dust heap."

Everyone who has seen anything of thvej Anieiican officer is charmed with him. I have discussed with him at supper, over the coffee and cigar, the most momentous

questions of empire, and 10 minutes later I have listened to him talking most (humorous and .delightful nonsense to the girls in the drawing room. Their manners are charming, especially those of the southern men, who are, as a rule, of good family. On the racecourse yesterday it .■was not an unusual thing to see young, good-looking officers talking to ladies for 10 minutes bare headed, and the careful manner in which they look after their (fair charges in the dense crowds or when crossing streets in which the traffic is abnormal puts before the casual colonial '^ courtesy and attention that is quite foreign to him, but none the less charming and gallant. One can scarcely realise ihat these will be the grim men who will handle the death-dealing guns in times of war, standing by the levers calm and collected, but unflinching, watching the rammers sending their great charges home and ascertaining later to what extent they have scored destruction and carnage amongst the enemy's ships, settling perhaps with the turn of a screw or the

pressure of a lever the fate of a, nation. , Even the bluejackets and the negro eer- . .vants show an unwonted consideration for" others, and in their shopping expeditions they exhibit the most unfailing politeness and patience. Only on one occasion did I notice irritation openly expressed. It was when an American Dutchman at tne post office insisted on the right to send a post-card to New York for a halfpenny. He had done so eteevrbere, and be insisted upon His right to do it here. Mention of th» Dutchman leads me to Baw a word or two about the cosmopolitan nature of th« fleet. When I was in Samoa I went with the column to recover the abandoned barrel of the Colt gun which was hidden in a cocoa plantation, "when the natives surprised an expedition. It was entirely a. British expedition. The Americans had been losing men<»in the Philippines, and had suddenly "pulled out." They did not want to lose any more officers, especially in a " nigger " war in an unimportant island, but we had to take with us the man who had 'hidden the barrel of the gun. It was a point of honour to recover ft. The American bluejacket went straight to the place ■where he had put it, and, after looting in a heap of dried cocoanut tree fronds, he (brought it to light. I remember being very anticti struck with his bump of locality, so on the march back I got -into conversation •with him, and asked him what State in »the Union he belonged to. " Oh," he replied, " I come from Devonshire, England. My father and his father before him were soldiers in the British army." It was a case of "common bloodi' once more, but there are others of foreign blood in the American navy, though they appear to be all good citizens. There is, for instance, on one of the big battleships my friend the Spaniard, who is a full Peruvian. Smail,

clive-6kinned, black-eyed,- Senor Ritalde is the very antithesis of the "common blood." When he joined the fleet he did not know a word of our common language, but he learnt it in a few months, and now he speaks it well, but with a strong American accent. His chum the midshipman, who taught him, is very proud of his progress, and tells with delight how one day he suddenly came out with the word "infallible" in the right sense. Born at Lima, he is intimate with earthquakes and bull fighle, and he seems to enjoy the one as much as the other. Then, to take another type, there is Le Breton, a charming debonair, witty Frenchman, very wood looking, with a. charming smile and beautiful teeth. He learned to like afternoon tea

in London, where he stayed for six months, and at such a function, when he i 6 about, the average colonial has to take a, back seat. At a function the other day at which he was present a well-known Auckland M.P. recited an original poem written 10 years ago, in which, apropos of Britons and Americans, a line occurred about "clasping our brother's hand" "I don't see any brother about," said Le Breton, with his charming smile, " would a sister's dlo instead?" And the pretty girl next to him blushed.

In a former telegram I gave you a little pen picture of the Admiral. His staff I found to be most charming, capable, and competent men. Their job is no sinecure, and -Ehey have a thousand and one things to think of and decide upon promptly m a day. There is Grant., the Chief of Staff, who sums you up quickly through hfa pince-nez, affable, imperturbable, and capable. There is the quiet, self-contained Fullenwider,,-- flag lieutenant and press censor, 6low of speech as becomes a diploma*, and careful ahvays not to tell you anything he thinks you should not know. And there is the tall, spare-built, reddishiaired fleet engineer (Lieutenant-com-mander Cone), with his charming soft voice and pleasant smiTe — a man who holds in the hollow of his hand the control over power potential and vast. Such types of men cannot fail to impress one with the personnel of the navy of the United States.