Marine officer

“ From experience in ours, as well as from my former intimacy with many officers of note in the British navy, I am convinced that the parity of rank between sea and land or marine officers is of more consequence to the harmony of the sea service than has generally been imagined... I propose not our enemies as an example for our general imitation; yet, as their navy is the best regulated of any in the world, we must, in some degree, imitate them, and aim at such further improvement as may one day make ours vie with and exceed theirs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I cannot conclude this letter without assuring their Lordships that every captain, officer, seaman, and marine, have most zealously done their duty; nor will it, I hope, be thought taking away from the merits of others, in drawing their Lordships’ particular notice to the energetic exertions of the captains, officers, and men employed in the gun-boats: they have been constantly under fire, and gone through all the hardships of their situation with the utmost cheerfulness. ”

“ Finally, he is to superintend, and assist at the stowage of the hold, taking especial care that all the ballast and provisions are properly stowed therein.
Mate of a merchant-ship, the officer who commands in the absence of the master thereof, and shares the duty with him at sea; being charged with every thing that regards the internal management of the ship, the directing her course, and the government of her crew.
The number of mates allowed to ships of war and merchantmen is always in proportion to the size of the vessel. ”

“ The great benefits he has conferred upon our Naval and Mercantile Marine, upon commerce, navigation, and science generally, are too well known and admired at home and abroad to tolerate even the appearance of putting down, or aside, such an officer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I would venture to suggest to my countrymen that there should be a full realization of the fact that the Naval Service as a whole is a highly specialized profession. It is one in which the senior officers have passed the whole of their lives, and during their best years their thoughts are turned constantly in one direction—namely, how they can best fit the Navy and themselves for possible war. The country as a whole has probably but little idea of the great amount of technical knowledge that is demanded of the naval officer in these days. ”

“ It is absolutely safe to predict that the Naval Officer of 50 years hence will smile when he reads that his forefathers had to have an officer of Commander’s rank appointed to a ship solely for charge of the main engines. ”

“ Intensive training of all officers is being conducted in the fleet with the purpose of preparing them to assume the duties of positions of higher responsibility which they must immediately occupy in the event of the fleet being mobilized, and some progress has been made on plans to train in peace time the abundant and excellent naval officer material to be found in the colleges and elsewhere throughout the country. ”

“ While the duty abroad was pretty strenuous at times, yet the average American has the faculty of making friends in every port, which helped to pass the few hours at his disposal when not engaged in coaling ship. How we did envy the boys in the oil-burners!
The chief petty officers and petty officers of the American Navy are exceptionally intelligent and proficient in their duties, and on many occasions helped the average Reserve officer over rough places. ”

“ Ships in ordinary hoist merely an ensign. The boatswain, gunner, and carpenter, who are called the warrant-officers, always remain on board, even when the rest of the officers and crew are paid off, and the ship laid up in ordinary. These valuable personages, under the general superintendence of the captain of the ordinary, an old officer of rank, and assisted by a few lads to row them to and from the shore, keep the ships clean, and guard against fire and pillage, to which they might otherwise be exposed at their moorings in the different creeks. ”

“ At the Admiralty the principal naval member of the Board is made responsible not only for the distribution and movements of ships—a definition which includes the whole domain of strategy and tactics —but also for the fighting and sea-going efficiency of the fleet, its organisation and mobilisation, a definition so wide that it includes the greater part of the administration of the navy, especially as the same officer is held responsible for advice on all large questions of naval policy and maritime warfare, as well as for the control of the naval ordnance department. ”

“ Their practical experience in handling ships of all sizes, shapes, and speeds under a great variety of conditions is in reality much more extensive than naval officers could possibly enjoy. I was sure that they could quickly pick up steaming and turning in formation under the direction of naval officers, the convoy commander being always a naval officer. ”

“ A Royal Naval officer is, in a general sort of way, though of course there may be a black sheep among them here and there. I fancy it is just the wide seas and the breath of God’s winds that wash their hearts and blow the bitterness out of their minds and make them what men ought to be. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Until 1816, the junior lieutenant was nominally lieutenant-at-arms, and drilled the seamen, assisted by the serjeant of marines.
MASTER-ATTENDANT. An officer in the royal dockyards appointed to assist in the fitting or dismantling, removing or securing vessels of war, &c., at the port where he resides; to inspect the moorings in the harbour, to visit all the ships in ordinary, and to attend at the general musters in the dockyard, taking care that all the individuals registered in the navy-book are present at their duty.
MASTER MARINER. Shipmaster or captain of a merchant vessel. ”

“ It is essential in this case that the periscope should not arise needlessly above water and betray the presence of the U-boat.
The commander must possess the absolute confidence of his crew, for their lives are in his hands. In this small and carefully selected company, each man, from the commanding officer down to the sailor boy and down to the stoker, knows that each one is serving in his own appointed place, and they perform their duties serenely and efficiently. ”

“ Sometimes larger craft will pass, manned by gentlemen wearing the ordinary naval officer's caps but dressed in khaki shirts and breeches. They are naval reserve officers and are out with the fell purpose of laying mines of a harmless nature, and when they pass M——, R——, and I give up enticing the wily crab to fix itself to the piece of mutton we have dangling at the end of a string, and have a good look to see if we can recognize any of our club members. ”

“ I believe there are few exceptions to this rule; and I think it may be observed, that, in the navy, precisely as an officer rises in the service, so his means of travelling to good purpose are improved likewise. As he advances in rank, his introductions to society become more easy and extensive, and his facilities for seeing strange things are multiplied at every step, till at length, when he arrives at the command of a ship, he finds himself in one of the most agreeable situations, perhaps, that the nature of things admits of, for viewing the world to advantage. ”

“ You can hardly find a finer, keener, better-trained bunch of men anywhere than the officers of our navy, but the profession has grown so complex and the duties to be learned so manifold that it takes an exceptional man to grasp all the possibilities science has developed and to see them in a proper perspective. The average naval officer takes far more interest in ordnance and gunnery than he does in communications. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ He is a representative young naval officer, proud of the history and traditions of the navy, thoroughly equipped by highly specialized training for the work in hand, high-spirited and yet recognizing that the high order of ability and daring found in the personnel of the navy can only be made available to the nation's service by discipline. ”

“ For these services the United States naval commander-in-chief received the thanks of the Panama Railroad Company, the several Pacific Mail Steamship Companies, and all the consuls and foreign merchants.
These are a few instances of which the writer is cognizant of what the navy does in time of peace. Scarcely a naval officer of moderate experience and length of service but has witnessed similar scenes in different parts of the world. They do not attract the attention of the public, and naval officers are not apt to blow their own trumpets.—March 13, 1884. ”

“ He told us that by the Navy Regulations he was instructed, as our commanding officer, to keep up, in such sad conditions as we were thrown into, the organization and discipline of the Service so far as applicable; that he would in the event of our rescue [29] (which we should all hope for and look forward to) be held responsible for the proper administration of law and order; that officers and crew should fare alike on our scanty store of food, and that with care we should probably make out, with the help of seal meat and birds, a reduced ration for some little time. ”

“ Here was one who had commanded men--who had directed skilled labour for the six impressionable years of his life. And he who directs skilled labour is apt to differ in manner, in thought and habit, from him whose commands are obeyed mechanically.
The naval officer is a man of detail--he tells others to do that which they know he can do better himself.
They said on board the Kittiwake, which was a small ship, that Fitz,--“old” Fitz, they used to call him--was too big for a seafaring life. ”

“ Men are enlisted in the navy, and officers are commissioned as in the army, but with different ratings and ranks. |Administration of the navy.| The navy also has its code corresponding to the Articles of War and its system of courts-martial. The Marine Corps, which in organization, drill, and discipline, is really a military organization, comes under the control of the Secretary of the Navy because it is primarily intended to furnish a landing force after attack. ”

“ A careful study of the illustrated weekly papers will give us a fair knowledge of the appearance of the average naval officer, and we shall also gather from this same source that when he’s not rushing about after niggers with a field-gun, he’s employed attending balls at various Government Houses, or talking to beautiful ladies on a huge electric-lighted quarter-deck, what time the moon calmly shines on some picturesque Mediterranean harbour. ”

“ One [52] thing more: the officers say you are no seaman, and they don't want a fellow in command of the ship who don't know his duty. No officer likes to have one above him who knows less than he does about seamanship."
"I don't suppose I know as much about a ship as those students who have been on board two or three years; but I think I am competent to perform my duty, at least with the advice of the principal, in any position." ”

“ The naval officer on board his ship, face to face with the difficulties of the profession, and in daily contact with the grim implements which remind him of the eventualities of his calling, naturally sees in organization mainly a means to an end. ”

“ After this, by order of the officer of the deck, silence reigns. At a word from the commander the senior lieutenant begins to read the articles of war, and as he does so all heads are uncovered. Simple yet eloquent is this expression of the faith in [Pg 79] which every naval officer must live. "The commanders of all fleets, squadrons, naval stations and vessels belonging to the navy," runs the wording of the first article, "are required to show in themselves a good example of virtue, honor, patriotism and subordination." ”