Naval Training Ships, for the education of apprentices, are to be
noticed in connection with other matters treated of in this chapter.
This was begun at least fifty years ago, when it was thought to be
proper to correct the large proportion of foreign seamen in our Navy
by training native-born boys to man our squadrons. Many boys were,
under the law then enacted, enlisted to serve between the ages of
thirteen and twenty-one, and to be brought up as naval sailors. For a
time things went very well. A large number of boys became excellent
seamen and petty officers before they arrived at twenty-one. But many
boys enlisted under the idea that the apprentices were to be made
midshipmen, and, as that did not take place, great dissatisfaction
occurred, and the system was gradually broken up.
In 1863 a renewed attempt was made at establishing a Naval Apprentice
System, and a great deal of labor of brain was spent by officers upon
it. There was success, but it was hampered very much by the fact that
all the boys put in the apprentice ships took away from the number of
men allowed by law to man cruising vessels of the Navy. Still, the
officers persevered, and there is now, at New York, and Newport, a
well established naval apprentice system, which graduates many lads of
intelligence and sufficient education to make them valuable persons on
board our modern men-of-war, when they become petty officers.
The Naval Training Ships for Apprentices must not be confounded with
the Training Ships belonging to Philadelphia and to New York and
Boston, which have been in successful operation for some years. These
vessels are loaned by the government to the cities which pay the
expense of their maintenances, except the salaries of the officers, who
are detailed from the Navy. The “School Ships,” as these are commonly
called, are sailing vessels of the old type, without their guns, so
that they are more comfortable; and every effort is made to preserve
the health of the boys who are received. These ships make--as a general
rule--two voyages in the year. One is to Europe, in summer, and one
to the West Indies in the winter. In the Philadelphia ship there are
generally about eighty or ninety boys, with a sufficient number of old
sailors to teach them how to pull and haul. Some of the graduates of
this ship, after two years’ service and study, have obtained very good
berths in merchant vessels; and are in a fair way to being masters. But
it all depends upon themselves and how much they are really worth.
[Illustration: U. S. S. OREGON.
Battleship. Twin screw. Main battery, four 13-inch, eight 8-inch and
four 6-inch breech loading rifles. Secondary battery, twenty 6-pounder
and six 1-pounder rapid fire guns and four Gatlings. Thickness of
armor, 18 inches. 32 officers, 441 men.]
A wrong impression has gone out about these training ships, in many
quarters, which is that boys who were bad, or unmanageable, went to
them. In old times bad boys were sent to sea to be beaten into shape,
but they do not take that kind now.
To be admitted on board an apprentice ship a lad has to be physically
sound, and to have good certificates as regards his moral character.
The great mistake persons make is in regarding these ships as penal
institutions for the reform of boys. On the contrary, the moment a
lad is convicted of theft, or of any disgraceful proceeding, he is
discharged; and the standard on board is kept high in that way. What we
have said will be sufficient to indicate the purposes of the Training
Ships.