Marine corps

“ The increase of over 400,000 in the naval personnel came partly through expansion in the permanent strength of the navy, partly through the enlargement of the various naval reserves, fleet, auxiliary, coast defense and others, and to some extent through the national naval volunteers and the Marine and Hospital Corps. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ CASUALTIES OF NAVAL PERSONNEL.
Of the 60 naval medical officers, 12 naval dental officers, and 500 enlisted men of the Medical Corps of the Navy serving with the Marines in the American Expeditionary Force, 1 commissioned officer, and 12 enlisted men were killed; 8 commissioned officers and 101 enlisted men were wounded or gassed. ”

“ After parting; from you at Benedict, on the evening of the 20th instant, I proceeded up the Patuxent with the boats and tenders, the marines of the ships being embarked in them, under the command of Captain John Robyns (the senior officer of that corps in the fleet) , and the marine-artillery, under Captain Harrison, in their two tenders; the Severn and Hebrus frigates, and the Manly sloop, being directed to follow us up the river as far as might prove practicable. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Now that the last and most formidable of our enemies has acknowledged the triumph of the Allied arms on behalf of right and justice, I wish to express my praise and thankfulness to the officers, men, and women of the Royal Navy and Marines, with their comrades of the Fleet Auxiliaries and the Mercantile Marine, who, for more than four years have kept open the seas, protected our shores, and given us safety. ”

“ Officers and men in abundance were ready. The magnificent seafaring populations of the merchant marine and the fisheries were drawn into the naval service, and subsequently the whole mercantile marine was brought under naval control, and for practical purposes was embodied with the Navy. ”

“ Eminent naval authorities have, for many years past, recommended the formation of a corps, for the purposes of coast defence, composed of persons who, while not possessing the wider experience of the seaman, are accustomed to the management of boats, and in the constant habit of going afloat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Though landsmen continued even after the civil war to be given naval appointments, and though a permanent corps, through the ranks of which everyone must pass, had not been formally established, a body of real naval officers—men who could handle their ships, supervise the working of the armament, and exercise military command—had been formed. ”

“ The marine artillery and infantry do no service in the fleet. The former have charge of the manufacture of ordnance and the garrisoning of naval fortifications; the latter do garrison duty at dock-yards, arsenals, and in the colonies. The Génie Maritime superintend the construction of ships and engines, hydraulic works, buildings, hydrographic work, and civil-engineering duty. They have no duty in the fleet. Machinists have duty almost exclusively in the fleet or in the schools of instruction of firemen. The effective force of the fleet is 1783 officers and 46,500 men ”

“ In times of conflict and crisis, the Armed Forces rely on the Merchant Marine's sealift capability to transport critical equipment and supplies. Time and again, mariners have demonstrated their willingness and ability to meet daunting challenges. ”

“ No country can ever have a powerful marine, or, one likely to produce much influence in her wars, that does not pay rigid attention to the tactics of fleets. Your frigate actions and sailing of single ships, are well enough as drill; but the great practice must be in squadron. Ten heavy ships, in good fleet discipline, and kept at sea, will do more than a hundred single cruisers, in establishing and maintaining discipline; and it is only by using vessels together, that we find out what both ships and men can do. ”

“ The personnel of the navy has a double “cadre,” one for war and another, somewhat reduced, for peace, there being during time of peace a reserve division of officers composed of those whose services can best be spared. The corps and grade divisions of the personnel correspond with those of other navies, the names and cadres being as follows:
SEA OFFICERS.
The number of enlisted men in time of peace is 5836, increased for a war footing to 11,532. ”

“ The facts that modern ships cannot now as formerly carry a supernumerary force sufficient for such purposes, and are more dependent on fixed bases of supply and repair than in old days, point to a different method of using and applying the marine force to the sole purpose for which they are now necessary as a distinct branch of the naval service. If employed at the headquarters of a naval station, their efficiency as marines could be preserved by occasional embarcation of the officers and men in rotation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Gently rolling and heaving on the surge of a summer sea lay a mighty fleet of war-vessels. There were the capital ships of the Atlantic Fleet, grim dreadnoughts with their superimposed turrets, their bristling broadsides, their basket-masts—veritable islands of steel. There were colliers, hospital-ships, destroyers, patrol-vessels—in all, a tremendous demonstration of our sea power. ”

“ The number of men appointed to the small arms, on board his majesty’s ships and sloops of war, by order of the admiralty, are,
The lieutenants are usually stationed to command the different batteries, and direct their efforts against the enemy. The master superintends the movements of the ship, and whatever relates to the sails. The boatswain, and a sufficient number of men, are stationed to repair the damaged rigging; and the gunner and carpenter, wherever necessary, according to their respective offices. See also the articles Cannon and Exercise. ”

“ 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 marine force of the enemy is so considerable in these seas, and so over proportionate to our infant navy, that it seems quite necessary and wise to send our ships to distress the commerce of our enemies in other parts of the world. For this purpose, the Marine Committee have already ordered some vessels to France, under your direction as to their future operations, and more, we expect, will be sent. ”

“ The watching fleets of the present day have none of the charm and change to occupy their mind which accompanied the sailing-ship navy, making and shortening sail, trimming sails, tacking, and wearing, necessary for cruising on the look-out. There were no air-vessels, mines, submarines, or torpedoes in the old days, no under-water warfare. The strain upon officers and men of the sea-going fleet in these days is terrific: nothing to occupy their thoughts as in the days of sailing-ships. ”

“ The Navy furnished during the war to the United States Shipping Board 200,000 trained enlisted men, as well as 20,000 trained officers, to man its new ships, and the training for these men, in addition to that for fireman’s and seaman’s duty given at the regular naval training stations, was provided in nearly fifty different schools, from those for carpenters, cooks, yeomen, signalmen and divers, to those for mine sweeping, searchlight control and aviation aerography. ”

“ On both ships of the Navy and naval-manned merchant ships sea-training constantly went on of those who had finished the courses at training stations, camps and schools, each ship of whatever type receiving its quota for a certain length of training in specified duties. Training bases in Europe for men who had already had some service aboard ship furnished material for refilling the crews of destroyers, part of whose complement had been sent back to this country to form the nucleus of new destroyer crews. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Our officers and enlisted men are learning to handle the battleships, cruisers, and torpedo boats with high efficiency in fleet and squadron formations, and the standard of marksmanship is being steadily raised. The best work ashore is indispensable, but the highest duty of a naval officer is to exercise command at sea. ”

“ Our Navy is, to the outward eye, but small, but what makes us stronger than other navies is discipline and strict obedience to superiors. These principles will help our Navy to prosper and become great in times of peace, so that it may promote the welfare of the country, and, let us pray God, destroy the enemy in war. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 organisation of a body of seamen working ashore is much as follows: A battleship, on receiving orders to land every available man for service like the one we are dealing with, would probably have the following numbers told off: Marines 80 to 100, four companies of bluejackets consisting of one lieutenant, two midshipmen, with fifty petty officers and men each. Two Maxim guns, crews consisting of two officers and twelve men each; two field guns, crews consisting of eighteen men and two officers each. ”

“ These united causes originally suggested the expediency of forming an establishment of marines, who were raised and embodied with the sole view of being a nursery to man our fleets. They were always quartered in the vicinity of our principal sea-ports, where they were regularly trained to the different methods of ship-fighting, and to those various manoeuvres of a vessel, in which numbers were necessary. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If we are now asked what a fighting navy should really be we must say that it should be capable of fighting upon the high seas with the navies of rival nations, and that it is the business of the technical boards of the Navy to indicate the nature and composition of the fleet required for the purpose. ”

“ Seventy-five per cent. of the personnel is represented by conscripts mainly from the inland districts whose term of service is three years, and who see the sea for the first time after entering the Navy. Enrolment takes place each October, and after two or three weeks of rudimentary instruction on shore, they are distributed among the battle-fleet and the torpedo flotillas. Hence, at the outbreak of war, 25 per cent. of the German personnel had been under training about 34 months, 25 per cent. ”