Marine (armed forces)

“ Many were the occasions that distinguished the Naval and Military Forces of his Majesty during the present active year, which, from their number, cannot fall within my detail. Both Corps seemed animated with a spirit of unsurpassed zeal and enterprize, which the Marine of France, her Commerce, and her coasts most bitterly felt. This era exhibited many early specimens of the courage and talents of some individuals, whose merits and great abilities very justly placed them in high commands during the subsequent stages of their lives, and whose names can never be mentioned but with encomium. ”

“ Naval forces, with only about 7,000 men, constitute less than 5 percent of the armed forces' personnel strength. They man a variety of vessels, however, including escort ships, patrol boats, torpedo boats, two submarines, and miscellaneous supply and service vessels. ”

“ I am more than a soldier, for I do all that the soldier does and at the same time I belong to the navy and go to sea." Thus the marine proves to himself that he is "it," as the soldiers and sailors would say.
"The marines get aviation, searchlight, wireless telegraph, heliograph, and other drill. They plant mines, put up telegraph and telephone lines in the field, tear down or build up bridges, sling from a ship and set up or land guns as big as 5-inch for their advance base work.
"It is a belief with marines that the corps can do anything. ”

“ Then he called a marine and had him show the woman to the fore-top. It is the experience of a lifetime for a naval officer who has cruised in the Mediterranean and rocked over the high waves of the south Atlantic to be placed in command of a brick battleship, which rests peacefully alongside a little pier and [Pg 78] is boarded by hundreds of reckless sight-seers every day. ”

“ At the present time marines are used in the United States Navy on board ship and to guard naval stations at home and in the insular possessions; and when on board ship they constitute a quickly available infantry force for service abroad. Sailors are also drilled as infantry and artillery, but as their chief duties are connected with the ship, when they are landed the fighting efficiency of the ship is greatly reduced. ”

“ They are also instructed in many exercises pertaining to the navy, as rowing, naval signalling, gun drill, &c. In action they act as riflemen, and on many ships serve a portion of the guns. When circumstances require a force to be landed from ships present to guard American interests in foreign countries, legations, &c., the marine guard is usually sent, though, if numerically insufficient, sailors are landed also. Marines also garrison places beyond the territorial limits of the United States which are under navy control. ”

“ There is this difference, however: an army usually obtains its recruits from men totally unacquainted with military life, while a navy, in case of sudden increase, is mainly supplied from the merchant marine with professional sailors, who, though unacquainted with the use of artillery, &c., on ship-board, are familiar with all the other duties of sea life, and not unused to discipline. Moreover, raw seamen and marines, from being under the immediate eye of their officers in time of action, and without the possibility of escape, fight much better than troops of the same character on land. ”

“ Regular navy personnel include 3,100 afloat, 4,500 staff and support ashore, 1,800 beach patrol troops, 1,700 trainees, 500 coastal warning types, 200 in a motorized communication battalion, 650 combat engineers, 700 coastal defense missile personnel, 100 in helicopters, 50 anti-aircraft personnel, and 700 police and guard types. About 10% of the regular navy personnel are officers. ”

“ It is very difficult to outmanœuvre a Frenchman, as you know. Send a few armed marines on the forecastle ahead. I am afraid the only way to get hold of this tartane is to disable the men on board of her. I wish to goodness I could think of some other. When we close with her, let the marines fire a well-aimed volley. You must get some marines to stand by aft as well. I hope we may shoot away his halliards; once his sails are down on his deck he is ours for the trouble of putting a boat over the side. ”

“ The side boys offer the man ropes as the official steps on the gangway and the captain receives him as he steps on the quarterdeck. As the two walk aft the marine officer, in quick, sharp tones, commands, "Present arms," and the whole marine guard, drawn up in line on the port side of the quarterdeck, bring their rifles up in salute, while the bugle sounds a flourish and the drum a roll, two for an admiral, three for an ambassador and four for the President. The marines on a ship are collectively called the guard ”

“ Battles were fought in which the finest ships in the world, armed with the best and heaviest guns, commanded by officers of unrivalled skill and resolution, and manned by officers and crews perfectly trained, and acting in battle with just the same swift, calm exactitude that they had shown in drill—and yet the enemy was not sunk and victory was not won. ”

“ If comparatively so useless as soldiers, why have marines at all in the Navy? Know, then, that what standing armies are to nations, what turnkeys are to jails, these marines are to the seamen in all large men-of-war. Their muskets are their keys. With those muskets they stand guard over the fresh water; over the grog, when doled; over the provisions, when being served out by the Master’s mate; over the “brig” or jail; at the Commodore’s and Captain’s cabin doors; and, in port, at both gangways and forecastle. ”

“ All large ships of war carry soldiers, called marines. In the Neversink there was something less than fifty, two thirds of whom were Irishmen. They were officered by a Lieutenant, an Orderly Sergeant, two Sergeants, and two Corporals, with a drummer and fifer. The custom, generally, is to have a marine to each gun; which rule usually furnishes the scale for distributing the soldiers in vessels of different force.
Our marines had no other than martial duty to perform; excepting that, at sea, they stood watches like the sailors, and now and then lazily assisted in pulling the ropes. ”

“ Before we can appreciate this aspect of the work of the Navy in the war, we must gain some idea of what is implied by the military service of these armies in the field. It is not enough to dispatch armies. ”

“ The major is, of course, responsible for the conduct, drill, and military efficiency of his detachment, which may number about 100 men, but he has, in addition, to inspect those of other ships in the squadron or fleet from time to time, and to command and drill the marines of the fleet when landed together for drill or tactical instruction. He or the captain of marines in another ship has charge also of the gunnery of his men, who are told off to man some of the guns in the ship, and may very possibly be himself stationed in one of the control-positions in time of action. ”

“ The vice-admirals carry theirs at the fore-top-gallant-mast head, and the rear-admiral carries his at the mizen-top-gallant-mast head.”
“Oh, oh, that is it! Then we know at last what is the meaning of ‘the red flag at the fore.’”
“Yes, that must be now pretty plain to you. The marines are a very efficient part of the British force; they are not to be out-done either in courage or patriotism. For some time in my younger days I belonged to them, and it was then that I picked up what knowledge of nautical tactics I possess. ”

“ They are sea-soldiers, or soldiers enlisted for service either on shore or on board ships-of-war, and who are [II-362] known as Marines, although all sea-going persons are really marines.
Most powers which possess navies have also marines, France being an exception. They constitute a separate military body from the seamen and other enlisted men of a war-ship, and are trained to fight either as infantry or as artillerists, and especially for participation in naval engagements. ”

“ Whereas, at first, craft of ten guns with forty or fifty men had been considered adequate for the service, three or four years later ships were afloat with a score of heavy cannon and a trained crew of a hundred and fifty or two hundred men, ready to engage a sloop of war or to stand up to the enemy's largest privateers. In those days single ship actions, now almost forgotten in naval tactics, were fought with illustrious skill and courage, and commanders won victories worthy of comparison with deeds distinguished in the annals of the American Navy. ”

“ Such international uses of the navy accentuate the value of the Marine Corps, now a naval army of 10,267 men and officers. Little has been said heretofore in this book of this valuable, indeed invaluable, force, as its duties are merged largely in the general duties of the navy. It differs from the army proper in its mobility and ever-readiness for foreign service. Its mobility is that of the navy itself; its transport is ever ready; its supply train is the fleet. ”

“ Naval men have served on nearly 2,000 craft that plied the waters, on submarines, and in aviation, where men of [Pg 310] vision and courage prevent surprise attacks and fight with new-found weapons. On the land, marines and sailors have helped to hold strategic points, regiments of marines have shared with the army their part of the hard-won victory, and a wonderfully trained gun crew of sailors has manned the monster 14-inch guns which marked a new departure in land warfare. ”

“ A small number of sea soldiers were permanently kept on men-of-war even in very ancient times, the number varying from 15 to 50, according to the size of the vessel. When the heavy guns of ships had gradually caused the employment of soldiers as the fighting complement of ships to be done away with, there ensued an interval in which there were no marines. ”

“ All in all, in patrol, in convoy duty, in actual combat, our navy in the war accomplished with utter precision a stupendous task, a task of multifarious phases—all performed in that clean-cut, vigorous, courageous, painstaking, large-minded way which we, throughout ail the years, have been proud to regard as typical of the American Navy. ”

“ For this service the Vice-Admiral prepared a gunboat, and armed the launches of the fleet with heavy carronades, landed two battalions of seamen, about 1000 strong, in addition to 800 soldiers and marines, and sent ships frequently round the bay, to prevent suspicion of an attack, when any favourable opportunity might offer. ”

“ Thus it is that the United States marines have fulfilled the glorious traditions of their corps in this their latest duty as the "soldiers who go to sea." Their sharpshooting—and in one regiment 93 per cent of the men wear the medal of a marksman, a sharpshooter, or an expert rifle-man—has amazed soldiers of European armies, accustomed merely to shooting in the general direction of the enemy. Under the fiercest fire they have calmly adjusted their sights, aimed for their man, and killed him, and in bayonet attacks their advance on machine-gun nests has been irresistible. ”

“ Where an army officer has a change when he leaves the trench for his billet, there is none for the naval officer, who, unlike the army officer, is Spartan-bred to confinement. The army pays its daily toll of casualties; it lies cramped in dug-outs, not knowing what minute extinction may come. The Grand Fleet has its usual comforts; it is safe from submarines in a quiet harbour. Many naval officers spoke of this contrast with deep feeling, as if fate were playing favourites, though I have never heard an army officer mention it. ”

“ The marine is sometimes termed soldier and sailor too, which is not correct. He is not a sailor and does not claim to be. When not in barracks ashore he lives aboard some war-ship afloat; and on shipboard he does certain guard work and handles the secondary batteries. ”

“ They are trained, clothed, and equipped very much as are soldiers of the land forces. In their preliminary instruction on shore, at navy-yards and naval-stations, they are instructed and drilled in the duties of infantry soldiers, field-artillery men, and as machine-gun companies. In preparation for their duties as landing-parties from ships of the navy, for expeditionary duty, and as defenders of naval advance bases, they are further trained in the use of portable search-lights, the wireless telegraph, the heliograph, and the various other methods of signalling. They study range-finding ”

“ The bones of the officers and men of the Navy lie in every country in the world, or along the highways of commerce; they mark the resting-places of martyrs to a sense of duty that is stronger than any fear of death. The Navy works and strives and serves, without any misgivings and without any complaints, only that it may be considered the chief and best guardian of the interests of this people, of the prestige of this nation, and of the glory and renown of its flag. ”

“ Adequate squadrons are maintained in the several quarters of the globe where experience has shown their services may be most usefully employed, and the naval service was never in a condition of higher discipline or greater efficiency.
I invite attention to the recommendation of the Secretary of the Navy on the subject of the Marine Corps. The reduction of the Corps at the end of the war required that four officers of each of the three lower grades should be dropped from the rolls. ”

“ By Navy Regulations one mess-man is allowed for every twenty men in the mess.
[#] A Navy and Marine Corps command, by voice or bugle, meaning for the men to continue work, drill, or occupation in which they were engaged when interrupted. ”

“ The Commander in Chief (as well as the members of the Court Martial) is highly sensible of the active exertions of the Officers of his Majesty's ship Excellent, in quelling the late mutiny on board her, and also the Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, and Private Marines belonging to the said ship, who, by their firmness in resisting the attempt to seduce them from their duty, and in opposing men in actual mutiny, have increased, if possible, the high character the corps has so justly acquired ”