All About Naval Apprentices.
Please tell me all about naval apprentices and how to become one.
George Sykes.
Plum Valley, Neb.
Boys between the ages of fifteen and eighteen years may enlist to serve in the navy until they shall arrive at the age of twenty-one years. The consent of parents or guardians, however, must first be obtained. These boys, after being sworn in, are sent on board of naval vessels and are carefully trained for the service of the navy. Before a boy is accepted he is obliged to pass the examining board of officers, satisfying them that he is of robust frame, intelligent, of good moral character—for the navy is in no sense a reformatory—that he has a perfectly sound and healthy constitution, and that he is able to read and write. The elements of an ordinary English education are given the apprentices, and their professional studies embrace the knotting, splicing, hitching, and bending of rope; fancy marlinespike seamanship; sewing canvas; bending, reefing, and furling sail; the names and use of the various gear in the way of standing and running rigging; and the manner in which it should be set up and rove; terms for the different parts of the ship; military tactics; broadside exercise; rifle drill; the loading and firing of the great guns, as well as the handling of smaller pieces of ordnance, such as Hotchkiss and Gatling guns, etc. Auxiliary to these studies the boys are taught rowing and swimming.
Apprentices are enlisted as "third-class boys," and receive $9.50 per month. Their food is also given to them; but their outfits of clothes, furnished to them by the paymaster of the vessel when they join, are charged against their accounts, and they receive no money until the indebtedness has been wiped out. While serving on board of naval training vessels, apprentices may be promoted to "second-class boys," and have their pay increased to $11.50 per month, and when doing duty on cruisers of the navy they are eligible to higher ratings and pay as a reward of proficiency and good conduct.
The highest rank that an apprentice may hope to gain is that of warrant-officer, so that he cannot look forward to a grade beyond that of gunner or boatswain—the pay of which, however, reaches $1800 a year after a certain period of service. Warrant-officers are, like all other officers of the navy, retired after reaching the age of sixty-two years, and a generous percentage of their active-service salary is paid to them as long as they live.
Recruiting stations for apprentices are to be found in New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, where boys may apply at any time. Address "Recruiting Station for Naval Apprentices, Navy-Yard." The naval school, known as the Naval Academy, is situated at Annapolis, Md., and is entirely distinct from the apprentice branch of the service. At the latter institution young men are prepared to become officers in the line and in the engineer corps of the navy. During the war of the rebellion the Naval Academy was temporarily transferred to Newport in Rhode Island.