GUNNERY AND AIMING DRILL AT THE NEWPORT NAVAL TRAINING-SCHOOL.
The last paragraph of this is what boys are usually required to read. The officers are not very strict about the hard words, and so almost any boy can pass the test. After being admitted, Uncle Sam gives each boy an outfit. His parents or guardian must sign a paper giving him to the government until he is twenty-one years of age. He becomes known at once as a third-grade apprentice, and in a few days he is sent to a training-school at Newport, where he is taught rudimentary things about a sailor's life and work. After remaining at Newport for six months he is transferred to one of two training-ships. These are the Essex and the Alliance. He remains on one of these for six months, and takes a cruise. On the voyage he learns how to handle the sails, how to sew and splice, and how to handle guns. Innumerable other things about a sailor's life he also picks up, and when he returns he is transferred to a modern man-o'-war, where he becomes an apprentice of the second class. Here he takes his place with the regular crew, and has his allotted share of the daily routine to perform. He is examined every three months, and usually he becomes an apprentice of the first class in six months, when he has a rank which corresponds to the rank of seaman with sailors.
When a boy becomes twenty-one he may leave the service, or enlist again, and be independent of parents or guardian. There are three grades of enlisted men in the navy—landsmen, ordinary seamen, and seamen. Besides these the following are enlisted: machinists, masters-at-arms, and coal-heavers, and from these classes there are other special classes. The boy who enlists after he has served his apprenticeship usually goes into the highest grade—that of seaman. After a while he may be promoted to be a warrant-officer, and so reach the highest grade.
When a man enters the navy he enters one of the three grades—landsman, ordinary seaman, or seaman. If he has had no experience whatever on shipboard he becomes a landsman, and practically is taught all he knows on shipboard. If he has had some experience on ships, but is not expert in all branches of his work, he becomes an ordinary seaman. If he has served five years at sea and is intelligent, he usually goes to the grade of seaman. Such men are competent to "reef, hand, and steer," as the expression goes; that is, they are competent to do all the work required of a sailor without further instruction. As fast as their terms expire men and boys may re-enlist, and at each re-enlistment they receive a slight increase of pay.
As third-class apprentices the boys get $9 per month; when they become second-class apprentices they get $15 a month, and when they become first-class apprentices they get $21 a month. If they re-enlist after they are twenty-one they get three months' extra pay at the rating they had when they became of age, and, in addition, get one dollar a month more pay than they received as apprentices.
There are other ways for men to get into the navy than those I have mentioned, but these are what might be called special enlistments. For example, a man may enlist as a fireman. There are two grades of these, according to skill and experience. Then there are machinists, who must pass an examination, and stewards, carpenters, musicians, and the like. These special grades require skilled labor to some extent, and of course higher pay goes with their work.
It is imperative when a boy enters the service that his parents or guardian shall sign papers giving him to the government until he is twenty-one. When a boy applies who has no parents or duly qualified guardian the officials supply him with a guardian. They do this through the generosity of a lawyer in New York, named Herbert Van Dyke. He becomes their guardian, and all such boys are known as "Van Dyke" boys—a discrimination which from the name should of itself be quite aristocratic. Mr. Van Dyke has become the guardian of probably 1500 boys since he has been in this kind of work. He does it entirely from motives of philanthropy, and there is no doubt that he is a public benefactor. Many a boy has been started in an honorable career in the navy through his kindness and generosity. He performs a most welcome service not only to the boys, but to his country as well. He does this so quietly that almost nothing is heard of him, and it is simply a matter of justice that credit should be given to him.
It is a mistake to think that there is room in the navy for "bad boys," that is, boys who are unmanageable at home or have done some crime. There is a popular idea that when a boy becomes utterly bad, and fit only for the reform school, his parents may get rid of him, and hope at the same time to make a man of him, by getting him into the navy. No such boys are taken if the officials know of it. The uniform of the United States is honorable, and only honorable persons are expected to wear it. No others are wanted. When the officials find out that a boy has a bad record morally, he is rejected forthwith. Even with the applicants who are fit morally to wear the uniform, only about one-quarter are taken, but no one is rejected so quickly as a boy who ought to go to a reform school rather than into the navy, even though he may be able to pass the mental and physical examination with ease. There is no law to prevent the enlistment of aliens in the United States navy, but it is a singular fact that so popular has this branch of the public service become in recent times that for the last two years practically none but Americans have entered it.