Naval cadet

“ The poor lads form excellent raw material for our ever-increasing sea-service.
The training of a naval cadet—i.e., an embryo midshipman, or “midshipmite” (as poor Peter Simple was irreverently called—before, however, the days of naval cadets) —is very similar in many respects to that of an embryo seaman, but includes many other acquirements. After obtaining his nomination from the Admiralty, and undergoing a simple preliminary examination at the Royal Naval College in ordinary branches of knowledge, he is passed to a training-ship, which to-day is the Britannia at Dartmouth. ”

“ After refitting, we went for a cruise to the East Indies, where we found the new admiral who had come out to replace Admiral Hope; and, in the spring of the following year, having served for eighteen months as a naval cadet, I was promoted to the rank of midshipman, the captain and first lieutenant, having convinced themselves of my competency by asking me how I would manage to get a six-pounder to the top of a perpendicular hill, my answer to which question was that I would head it up in a cask and “parbuckle” it up. ”

“ After six months in the sea-going training ship an examination will be held, and again after twelve months. Any midshipman or cadet failing at either will be discharged.
[Pg 263]
APPENDIX IV.
(From “BRITANNIA” REGULATIONS, 1876.) Regulations Respecting Cadets While Under Training.
(1) The naval cadets who join the Britannia are allowed four terms (two in each year) to complete their course of study, at the expiration of which they go up for final examination.
(2) The terms are from about February 1st to July 15th, and from about August 31st to December 20th ”

“ The German naval officer receives much the same general education as any other boy before he enters the navy, whereas the British cadet, after entering, is submitted to an educational course specially devised with a view to his future naval career; his studies embrace physical science and practical engineering, and emphasis is laid upon athletics and as much sea experience as can be obtained in small craft. When the four years ashore are completed he goes afloat at about the same age as the average German cadet and makes a six months' cruise. ”

“ With the development of the modern man-of-war, the increasing mastery of technical detail which such duties of those of torpedo or gunnery officer entail would seem to make it inevitable that such officers should not be required to divert their attention or energies to anything else. This fact we may confidently expect to see reflected both in the training of the cadet at Annapolis and in American naval practice before very long—perhaps even during the war. ”

“ The crew, all told, may be a badly assorted one, and I have been in ships, only for a short spell, thank goodness, that were known on the station as "floating hells".
Much depends upon one's captain. If he is a kind-hearted, genuine fellow he can do everything to keep things smooth fore and aft. The ward-room officers take their cue from him, the gun-room follows the example which the ward-room sets them on deck or below, the midshipmen influence the warrant officers, and these in their turn the able and ordinary seamen and the first and second class boys themselves. ”

“ All those liable to be trained as Senior Cadets shall be allotted to the Naval or Military Forces, and shall be trained in the elementary Naval or Military exer­cises, and in musketry on open ranges up to distances of 500 yards, and shall be organised in Naval or Military units. ”

“ The other corps are drawn from civil life. Promotion is strictly by seniority in all grades. All officers except those in the Constructors’ and Professors’ Corps are obliged to pass a rigid examination in being promoted from one grade to another. The course of study at the Naval Academy is four years for both executive and engineer officers; the cadet then passes into the fleet for a period of two years for active service, at the end of which time he is eligible for promotion to the next grade. ”

“ The contrast between the old and the new régime is brought vividly before us when we learn that to-day a cadet midshipman--the lowest naval rank at present--of the same age has still a year of schooling to undergo before he can even undertake the two years' probationary cruise at sea required before he can be commissioned in the lowest grade. ”

“ Senior Cadets, not allotted to the Naval Forces, will be organised in battalions, each battalion being raised in a Battalion Area, and numbered according to the number of the Battalion Area in which it is raised. ”

“ Appointments to naval cadetships to be made by limited competition, except four annually to sons of gentlemen in the Colonies, and five Service nominations, selected by the Admiralty from sons of officers of the Army, Navy, and Royal Marines who have been killed in action, lost at sea, killed on duty, or died within six months of injuries received in action or on duty. ”

“ It is asked that if cadets are to man steamships without sails, what is the use of educating them to officer sailing-vessels? What was the necessity of building the “Bancroft,” if she was not to be used for the practice-cruises of the cadets? Why has it been proposed to build wooden vessels for their instruction? The superintendent of the Naval Academy, Captain Cooper, Secretary Herbert, and Secretary Long have contended that officer-like qualities can best be attained by experience in sailing-vessels. They believe [247] that intrepidity and alertness come from the old school of sailing-ships. ”

“ The first captain is assigned to the right flank, Company A, and his responsibilities are great. He requires dignity and strength of character beyond the other officers. The adjutant should be a model in bearing, carriage, voice, command, but his duties are more picturesque than formidable. As a rule, these high offices—the captaincies, adjutancy, etc.—are given to cadets whose scholarship and class standing are also high; for in the greater number of cases soldierly ability and character are there to be found. ”

“ The officers gave a dance one evening, and Pops and Connell, as was perfectly proper, attired themselves in their newest gray coats, with the gleaming chevrons and lozenge of first sergeants, and immaculate white trousers set off by the sash of crimson silk net. The ladies, young and old, declared the cadet uniform far more effective than the army blue ”

“ Cadet captains even cast their responsibilities to the winds that night and scampered about, slim, pyjama-clad figures, in the dim light of the lanterns, ruthlessly cutting down the prig who yearned for slumber, lashing-up a victim in his hammock and leaving him upside-down to reflect on certain deeds of the past year that earned him this retribution, floating about on gratings on the surface of the plunge baths, and generally celebrating in a fitting manner the eve of the day that was to herald in new responsibilities and cares. ”

“ Cadets of the First Class are therefore detailed for every kind of duty. They are company commanders, acting adjutants, lieutenants, officers of the day and of the guard. Whenever there is a chance to place responsibility upon the cadet, advantage is taken of it by the Commandant. ”

“ As no grace is said after breakfast, each cadet is at liberty to leave as soon as he has finished, and to repair to his own gun-room until the bugle sounds for divisions at 9 o’clock. At the call we all “fall in” by terms in the big hall which is called the quarter-deck. The Lieutenant of each term then inspects his cadets and reports to the Commander that they are “correct,” after which the Commander in his turn reports the whole six terms to the Captain. ”

“ He will get trampled on by all behind, and when finally he is able to rise to his feet, dazed and bruised, after the rush has gone by, he will be assisted on his way by the unsympathetic toes of the cadet captain’s boots. ”

“ Suddenly there rose on the still evening air the tramp of coming soldiery, quick and alert, louder and louder, swifter than the bounding of his heart and far more regular. Suddenly through the broad space between the academic and the north end of the mess-hall, straight as a ruler, came the foremost subdivision, the first platoon [31] of Company A, and instantly in response to the ringing order, "Column right," from some deep manly voice farther towards the rear, the young cadet officer in front whirled about and ordered "Right wheel." ”

“ He has, furthermore, the responsibility of seeing that only third and fourth term cadets use the sailing cutters, that they do not go out in squally weather, and that they are recalled if it turn out squally afterwards. In a landlocked harbour such as Dartmouth very fierce squalls may come down if the wind rises suddenly.
The cadet captains and chief captains have to assist their superiors in maintaining discipline; as the difference in age is not great, it has always been a somewhat difficult matter to get them to do their duty, especially if it entails reporting another cadet. ”

“ The method of training executive officers for the German Fleet differs in some important respects from that which obtains in England. In the British service the cadets, who enter when they are, on the average, thirteen and a half years of age, have not completed their general education, and consequently spend four years at the Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth respectively before they go afloat in a training ship. ”

“ If they makes my Sairey portion of my necessary kit.
"Advance Notes" (Military) .—The bugler's.
[Pg 33]
Boatswain (to newly-joined cadet) . "Come, my little man, you mustn't cry on board of one of His Majesty's ships of war. Did your mother cry when you left?"
Cadet. "Yes, sir."
Boatswain. "Silly old woman! And did your sister cry?"
Cadet. "Yes, sir."
Boatswain. "Stupid little thing! And did your father cry?"
Cadet. "No, sir." ”

“ There is something strange about the partiality young ladies manifest for the cadets. I have seen many an instance where a young lady would use all her power to be with a certain cadet, and at his graduating hop and afterward she would bestow her favors on some member of the next class; a cadet and an officer, although one and the same man, were different persons in her eyes. ”

“ The singularity of the sailor’s training and experience tends to make the naval profession both isolated and exclusive. And that its daily life is based upon the strictest discipline, that gives absolute power to the captain of a ship because it is necessary to hold him absolutely responsible, inevitably grafts upon this exclusiveness a respect for seniority which gives to its action in every field the indisputable finality bred of the quarter-deck habit. ”

“ It is on the above grounds that it is contested that the cadet system, as popularly understood, is not considered to be reliable as a solution to the fulfilment of the requirements laid down for the training of a citizen soldier. ”

“ At nine, the bugle sounds assembly—the principal assembly of the day, "Cadets' Divisions" it is called. All the officers are present. The cadets are again inspected, and they are marched off to their various studies for the morning. Mathematics and navigation are learned with the naval instructors. Then there are French and drawing, English, seamanship, instruments and charts, natural philosophy and many difficult things which it is considered necessary for these little fellows to master before they are fit to go to sea. ”

“ These are cadets chosen as "monitors" to have charge of the others.
The silence bugle sounds, though no one is supposed to make a noise after the assembly has sounded. The officer of the day comes along, a lieutenant, whose duty it is to look after the cadets that day. "Open order! March," is his order; "Rear rank, dress," says the chief captain, and he walks round the two lines, and sees that the cadets are properly dressed. That white lanyard you see round their neck is for holding their keys. A sailor always has a knife at the end of such a lanyard. ”

“ Reading the Articles of War constitutes a solemn occasion and when it is finished one realizes as never before what a serious thing it is to swear allegiance to Uncle Sam as part of his naval force.
The organization of the ship's force soon becomes well fixed in the mind. There is one head to it all, the Captain, on whom falls final responsibility for everything, discipline, safety of ship and men, work of every kind. He is assisted by about twenty-five commissioned subordinate officers and midshipmen and nearly a dozen warrant officers, besides numerous petty officers and their mates. ”

“ Cadets who elect to devote their time to other forms of athletics, however, are regarded with no reproach, but men who absent themselves in order to attend teas or to go “spooning” are looked upon with some disfavor. Corps spirit ranks everything in the eyes of the cadet, and he justly demands that it come first. ”

“ No soldier is considered fit to command others until he can command himself. They purposely put a fellow through all manner of predicament just to test his grit. Don't let anything ruffle your temper, and they will soon find you need no lessons." And so, like a sentry, he patiently tramped his post, listening to the music of the band at an evening concert out on the Plain, and keeping watchful eye for the coming of cadet officials. Along towards nine o'clock up came Cadet Lieutenant Merrick, commanding the plebes; and "Pops," as he had been taught, halted, faced him, and stood attention. ”

“ Thought you all came into the Navy to see life!"
The Commander laughed. "We're beginning to forget there is such a thing as the beach."
The Captain lit a cigarette. "Not a bad principle either—saves your plain-clothes from wearing out." He settled down in an arm-chair somebody had vacated. "Like an old Gunner of a small ship I was in once in the West Indies; he only went ashore three times during the commission—once at Trinidad, and once at Bermuda, and each time when he returned he had to be hoisted on board in a bowline." ”