Naval patrol

“ No very formidable armada was that of a handful of pygmy vessels, commanded by (p. 358) a young officer who had never heard the thunderous cannonade of a naval battle, or seen the decks of his ships stained with the blood of friends and daily companions. Yet the work of the little squadron saved the United States from invasion, won for the young commander a never-dying fame, and clothed the vine-clad hills, the pebbly beaches, and the crystal waters of Put-in-Bay with a wealth of proud, historical associations. ”

“ All Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers, when assembled for drill or inspection, or voluntarily doing any naval duty either afloat or on shore, will be under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, or Senior Naval Officer of the district within which such Royal Naval Artillery Volunteers are undergoing drill or inspection, or doing duty. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 Navy is a small Service, small in numbers, and to this very smallness is partly due the beauty of its Soul. For it is a picked Service, and only by severe selection in their youth can those be chosen who are worthy to remain among its permanent members. The professional officers and men number only some 150,000, and the great temporary war expansion—after the inclusion of Naval Reservists, Naval Volunteers, and the Division for service on land, did little more than treble the active list. ”

“ There can be no impropriety, however, in making the general statement that in all navies the endeavor is made to keep the mobilization plans continually up to date, and to have them prepared in such detail that every officer and enlisted man in active service, the retired list, the naval reserve, and the naval militia, will become instantly available for a predetermined duty, and that every shore station and every necessary vessel will be ready to take part. ”

“ Here again we may discern some of the larger implications of that potent and far-reaching agency of naval warfare, the command of the sea. If a belligerent not aiming at the command of the sea, and having no sufficient naval force wherewithal to secure it, thinks to crush his enemy by directing sporadic attacks on his commerce, he will, if history is any guide, soon find out his mistake. His naval forces available for this purpose, are, by the hypothesis, inferior to those of the enemy. ”

“ I aver, and I shall die in this opinion, that no man that is an officer, who knows his duty, will make the signal for line abreast to steer down upon an enemy, until the fleet has been stretched and extended in a line of battle, according to the 19th Article of the Fighting Instructions. ”

“ Allow me to express my warmest thanks for the honor you have done me in accompanying me during the operations, and personally affording your assistance and advice; as also to convey my thanks to the whole of the captains, officers, seamen, and marines landed from the squadron under your command. I trust we have convinced these daring pirates, as well as the enemies of our country in all parts of the world, that his Majesty’s navy and army, when acting together heart and hand, are invincible. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The officers of the Voulnteers will do their utmost to assist the naval officers to preserve discipline. They may, if they think fit, set an example to their men by taking an active part in all the duties and manual exercises. They may fall in at quarters, and take any number at the gun. In short, they may become, as much as they please, active working seamen and efficient practical gunners. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On the 12th Aug. the first division of troops, consisting of about 10,000 men, in about 200 transports, sailed for the enemy’s coast, escorted by a squadron of men of war, commanded by Vice-Admiral Mitchell. Contrary winds and very tempestuous weather prevented the fleet from reaching the point of debarkation until the 26th, on which day the whole of the vessels were anchored in safety; and on the following morning the troops were landed near the Helder, under cover of a warm and well-directed fire from the bombs, gun-brigs, and other small vessels. ”

“ The class of recruits required for the Royal Navy Artillery Volunteers possess advantages of intelligence and education, far beyond those which the practical seamen can enjoy; and we may anticipate, from the experience already acquired, that they will form some of the smartest gun's crews in any branch of the naval service. There is neither insurmountable difficulty, nor unduly fatiguing labour, in the drill at the great guns. ”

“ It would be hard to find anywhere, on land or sea, a scene more vividly expressive of human efficiency than is presented by the bridge of a warship executing a maneuver even of the simplest sort. Officers, signalmen, and helmsman, alert and intent on the perfect team-work needed to fit the operation of the ship into the working of the larger machine, the fleet, execute their orders in a way that testifies to the high character of their training. Into such a scene came Admiral Bishop with all his pomp, as the signals were being sent which directed the patrol boats to their stations. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Commanding Officers of Stations or Vessels of United States Navy:
The palpable and criminal intercourse held with the enemy's forces blockading and invading the waters and shores of the United States is, in a military view, an offense of so deep a dye as to call for the vigilant interposition of all the naval officers of the United States. ”

“ Every exertion was immediately made to send a force sufficient for the object; a body of marines from the squadron, a company of infantry from Fort Trumbull, and a part of Captain French’s militia company of artillery, with a field-piece, and a considerable number of volunteers, were soon in motion: a part of the marines and volunteers in carriages, and Captain French, with his detachment and field-piece, arrived at the river at 4 o’clock ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After successful landings it may be necessary to place the transport fleet and its escort in command of the chief of the land troops. Even the battle fleet should be under his direction when a change of base is necessary or when the land and sea forces are in joint action. For technical naval questions the chief command would be assigned to an officer of the Admiral Staff. In a joint attack on a coast city the advantage of harmony and cooperation is readily seen. ”

“ Patrol duty is a grind. The sea where we work is filled with wreckage for a distance of 300 miles off shore, and you can take almost any floating object for a periscope. Yes, we shoot at everything; ours is not a business in which to take chances. Convoy work is more interesting and more exciting than the round of patrol. The advantage of the convoy over the picking up and escorting of a merchantman by a patrol-boat is that in the convoy from six to ten destroyers can protect from ten to thirty merchantmen, while under the patrol system one destroyer watches one merchant craft. ”

“ The conduct of the officers and men who have been employed on this occasion, deserves my highest commendation; I cannot more forcibly impress their merits upon their Lordships’ attention, than by remarking, that the service was undertaken, not only in the face of, but immediately under the whole line of the enemy’s land batteries, and their field-artillery and musketry upon the coast, but also under that of upwards of 160 armed vessels, ranged round the inner side of the bay ”

“ 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. ”

“ A gun is fired at eight o’clock in the morning from the ship where it is to be held, and a union flag is displayed at the mizen peak. If the weather be fine, the ship is arranged with the greatest nicety; her decks are as white as snow—her hammocks are stowed with care—her ropes are taut—her yards square—her guns run out—and a guard of marines, under the orders of a lieutenant, prepared to receive every member of the court with the honour due to his rank. Before nine o’clock they are all assembled; the officers in their undress uniform, unless an admiral is to be tried. ”

“ Upon the high poops, where floated the standard of either nation, gathered round each chief the little knot of officers through whom commands were issued and reports received, the nerves along which thrilled the impulses of the great organism, from its head, the admiral, through every member to the dark lowest decks, nearly awash, where, as farthest from the captain's own oversight, the senior lieutenants controlled the action of the ships' heaviest batteries. ”

“ The French squadron, consisting of three sail of the line and two frigates, from l’Orient, having taken shelter in the Saintes, in the vicinity of Guadaloupe, where they were blockaded by Sir Alexander Cochrane with a superior force, I detached a corps, of between 2000 and 3000 men, under the command of Major-General Maitland, to co-operate with the navy in the reduction of those islands, and to destroy or capture the ships of the enemy, or to force them to sea. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In a railroad station in Paris this officer encountered a friend who was a commander in the Royal Naval Air Service, and the traveller thereupon decided that nobody could give him a better idea of the war in the brief time at his disposal than this man. Hence, after a dash to the hotel and taking chances of getting his suitcase, the sea-fighter, with only a tooth-brush and a piece of soap, finally joined the flying man, and off they went to the war. ”

“ These aptitudes vary: but we have a very large number amongst us instinctive seamen, whom not even bad food, worse lodging, incessant drudgery, systematic tyranny, and ill-usage of all kinds, have deterred from the pursuit of their vocation. With this class of men, the naval war service — or, a better term, the naval police service — would become the most popular of all kinds of work. ”