On August 2, I received orders to report to the U. S. S. Langley at Boston for fifteen days’ training in engineering duties. The first requirement was a physical examination by the local naval doctor. After successfully passing that, I reported on board the Langley on August 17, 1923.
There was no question which of the ships at the Boston Navy Yard was the Langley. A long gray ship covered completely by the flat flying deck, stack on one side, a few planes secured to the deck, no sign of a bridge at first glance, an odd-looking ship, but still not unattractive.
The first day was spent in getting shaken down, looking over the ship and getting acquainted with the officers. The quarters were very comfortable, with the exception of the noise caused by a motor driven potato peeler on the other side of the bulkhead. It commenced operation at 6:30 every morning, and ran intermittently all day. I secretly sympathized with the crew for the frequency with which they were fed potatoes, until one morning there was a procession of them marching up to the officer of the deck with their plates in their hands, complaining because they did not get enough fried potatoes. It has been my experience that noisy quarters are the rule rather than the exception on large naval ships with modern machinery. The boy that took care of the room was in the brig, but that could not be considered as unusual. All in all, my quarters were quite satisfactory.
Besides being the first aircraft carrier, the Langley was the first Navy ship to be electrically propelled. The original layout was excellent, and her performance was so good that the Navy Department has made that type of propulsion standard for battleships. There have been practically no changes since the machinery was installed over ten years ago. In spite of the age of the ship, and the fact that she was out of commission for a period before being converted into an air carrier, the machinery is in excellent condition; functioning very satisfactorily. Of course, such performance is not automatically obtained, but is the result of constant care and up-keep on the part of the engineering department.
The second day on board, I was agreeably surprised by being assigned active duties in the engineering department. It is not unusual for ships’ officers to feel that as long as a reserve officer on board for only fifteen days, it is not worth while to assign him any regular duties which may interfere with their routine, or cause them any trouble. Conditions on the Langley were entirely different. All of the officers were sincerely interested in the reserves, and left nothing undone in their efforts to prepare the various reserve officers on board for duties afloat.
On this day, I was given the day’s duty, had charge of the electrical gang, and officiated as Senior Assistant. There is nothing like responsibility for obtaining experience. I soon found myself in the thick of the ship’s routine; wondering after every decision which regulation I was violating. I was not cast loose entirely, as there were competent junior officers and chiefs who did not interfere, but who were always available for advice, and always had a weather-eye out to see that the machinery was not wrecked.
I stood day’s duty one day in three, and never before realized so fully the multitude of details that arise in the course of a day’s work in the engineering department. There were innumerable small repairs to be made, and invariably we were well into a repair before it occurred to me that we had not secured permission to cut off the electricity, or the steam from the galleys or whatever it was that we had shut off.
This type of work was comparatively simple with the well-trained personnel of the engineering department, but the question of liberty and the rights of watch standers was one which was very difficult for me to comprehend. The captain’s special liberty orders, the liberty that watch standers rated, and the regular liberty periods, all interfered with the ship’s work, and the word became a bugbear when you were trying to make progress on repair jobs. No period of the afternoon seemed free from requests from men for liberty.
The experience with the electrical gang was most interesting and practical. I had to a great extent forgotten my previous experience in handling a group of enlisted men, with the result that I was practically green when I took this gang over. It consisted of fifteen husky specimens', a couple of them electricians, and the rest merely “rated.” They were the blacksheep of the engineering department, and most of them only had a short time remaining to serve. Under the circumstances, there were just about enough men to attend the regular duties of the electrical gang such as dynamo room, exciter platform, gyro and engine room watches; running the movies, maintaining the I. C. system, shop and crane motors, running the searchlights, and attending to the numerous orders from the officer of the deck for minor lighting repairs.
It is the policy of the engineer officer, and one which I strongly favored, to have the ship’s force make as many of the ship’s repairs and alterations as possible. This policy is not only a great money-saver for the Navy, but gives valuable instruction to the ship’s personnel in practical engineering. Only the cost of material is charged against the department for a job completed by the ship’s force, which is to a great extent balanced by the increase in skill and knowledge of the personnel. Many of us are familiar with the costs of simple ship jobs when performed by navy yard or shipyard workmen.
The electrical gang were struggling with two ship’s jobs when I took charge. One was the installation of an auxiliary lighting system in the fireroom, while the other consisted of wiring a 45 KW. exciter set with necessary switchboard changes, cable runs, etc. These appeared simple, as I looked over the arrangements and assigned men for each job. I was called away shortly after the men had started work. Returning about an hour later, one man out of three was working on one job, and no one on the other job. The chief electrician had released a couple of men in response to a request from the officer-of-the deck, while the other men had adjourned to the electrical shop for lack of some material. I gathered the gang together, located the missing material, and work commenced again. An inspection an hour later resulted in the same condition as before, except that this time some of the men rated a rest because they had stood watch at some previous time.
Then I decided to concentrate on the motor generator set wiring job and abandon the other temporarily. I placed a chief electrician in direct charge of this job, with instructions to detach no man from the work without instructions from me, and to report immediately any delays in the work. Work then proceeded at a fairly satisfactory rate. One day, I missed the chief electrician and found him detailed to direct visitors on deck. Forewarned by this experience, I was able to head off an assignment for shore patrol duty that he was due to serve the next day.
Sometimes, you were thoroughly dissatisfied with the way the men did the work. The hours available for ship’s work on a ship are not long, but the men were late starters and early finishers. Tut again, when an emergency would crop up after hours, you were agreeably surprised at the cheerful way they volunteered to do extra duty. Considering that they turned-to on week-day mornings at 5:30, and the numerous watches they had to stand, you soon acquired more tolerance in dealing with them, and more sympathy toward their requests for liberty.
One morning, the work was delayed because there was only one hack-saw. Upon making a request to the officer in charge of the tool room for an additional hack-saw, I found that enough tools had been issued to equip several ships of this type. The men did not take care of them, and were always short of necessary tools, which naturally caused him to place restrictions on the issuing of tools. However, he issued the extra hack-saw to me, so that our work would not be hampered. Imagine my chagrin the next morning when the extra hack-saw was missing. One of the men had carelessly left it lying on the deck the night before, and it had disappeared. This made me a convert to the strict accounting of tools, and thereafter the electrical gang did their work with one hack-saw.
Every time we got under way, all outside work stopped, so the time was insufficient to complete the job before I left the ship. I did acquire, however, a very valuable experience in dealing with enlisted men, which I never would have acquired in the position of an observer.
While I had the ship’s duty, there were all sorts of incidents that arose that were of interest, besides adding to my fund of experience. One of my privileges was to handle the controls of the ship while getting under way. While struggling to keep the machinery in step with the rapid signals from the bridge, I thought several times of the numerous articles that have appeared recently in the Naval Institute on the desirability of all officers having a working knowledge of the engineering department. Even with the quickest type of maneuvering machinery afloat, it was not possible to keep up with the bridge when they signalled full speed ahead, full speed astern, and two-thirds ahead, as quickly as they could move the telegraph.
One cold night when everything was working smoothly, I turned in at 8:oo o’clock to get a full night’s sleep. At 9:00 o’clock, a messenger routed me out, saying the chief engineer wanted to see me. I quickly dressed and was informed there was to be a searchlight display that evening at 11:00 o’clock. I made the necessary preparations and lay down for a one-hour nap. I was awakened again by a loud bugle call, a rush of men and the call of “Fire.” I stumbled down to the engine room, reported “Ready” to the bridge, dismissed the men at “Secure,” and then it was time for the Searchlight Display.
The flying was wonderful. From the vantage point of the nets attached to the flying-off deck, it was an incomparable sight to see the fliers take off from the deck, swoop down until it seemed as if they would crash into the sea, and then slowly rise and bank for a turn. Then the practice landings, where they would hover over the deck, lightly drop, bounce off and away for another flight. Finally, after the gear had been adjusted, the dropping to the deck, the operation of the gear and the almost miraculous stopping of a fragile plane traveling at fifty miles an hour, in the space of approximately twenty feet without injury to plane or pilot, was indeed wonderful.
One memorable day, we followed the fishermen’s race. It was almost calm, but nevertheless the fishing craft footed along at a good speed. The sea off Eastern Point was simply covered with craft of all types, destroyers, mine sweepers, yachts, excursion boats, and the miscellaneous boats of all types that accompany an important race. Fortunately, the commander was a yachting enthusiast, so that the Langley was in close touch with the race at all times. It was a striking sight when the boats made the turn, and then ran free with all sail set, almost beside our ship. An exhibition of flying while under way, and an interesting day was over.
Three years ago, I made a similar cruise on a regular Navy ship, the effect of which did not wear off for some time. It was practically a “Dock” cruise, most of the time being spent in the Hudson River. The duties assigned me were perfunctory, and the only benefit I received from the cruise was my pay. The Navy received nothing in exchange.
On the Langley, the officers welcomed me as if I were to be permanently attached to the ship. The engineer officer freely gave me his time, both in and out of hours, in instructing me in his duties and in the daily problems I would encounter. Due to his efforts, I very quickly brushed up on naval matters, and left the ship with full confidence in my ability to assume duties on shipboard. This experience has naturally restored my interest in the Navy, and I again have the feeling that I “belong.”
Contrast this training with that of my previous cruise, or with the training cruises described in the September Proceedings of the Naval Institute.* The usual type of Naval Reserve Cruise is made on small or obsolete types of craft, with an all reserve personnel, and under anything but service conditions. In a great number of cases, there is no discipline, no training, a disproportionate number of officers of varying capability, and the whole affair is unreal and inefficient. No one can say that this type of cruise trains a man to report on board a modern naval ship in time of emergency, and perform the duties corresponding to his rank or rating. If the training of Naval Reserve does not fulfill this purpose, it cannot be considered successful, and the Reserve Forces cannot be classed as efficient.
These cruises cost the Navy Department a large amount of money for pay, uniform allowances and mileage. The Naval Reserve Force has now become small enough so that men with suitable qualifications can be trained efficiently for service on commissioned naval ships with the same expenditure of money.
The essential part of this training should consist of an annual fifteen-day cruise on a regular naval ship of modern design. This cruise should be made obligatory for all Naval Reserve personnel. The enlisted men should be merged with the crew, while the officers should be given active duties under the supervision of the regular officers.
The regular officers must co-operate with the department to give the reserves the most intensive training possible in the fifteen-day period. The fitness report of each Reserve Officer should be carefully made out, based on his showing on shipboard, and it should be the duty of the commanding officer, both for the benefit of the Navy and the Reserve Force, unhesitatingly to report upon reserves that are manifestly unfit for the high standards of naval service.
The training of reserves during the year presents more of a problem. Outside of the large seaport or lake towns, it is doubtful if regular drills are of value. Many officers have responsible positions in civilian life which would seriously interfere with regular attendance at drills. In inland towns and scattered districts, it is difficult to bring the men together, or to maintain interest when they do get together. Perhaps the best solution is to make these drills voluntary with some small additional remuneration for those that perform these drills. This might be in the form of retainer pay, which will not be paid those who do not volunteer for the drills.
A well thought out correspondence and problem course would be a valuable aid in maintaining the efficiency of the officer personnel. This is followed out in the Army with very good results. Problems and instruction in navigation, seamanship, ship routine and modern gunnery could be given the deck officers, while problems in ship routine and the modern developments of marine engineering could be given the engineering officers. It would do no harm to give the engineer officers instruction in navigation and gunnery, as practically all of them follow the engineering profession in civil life.
No one can deny that there should be a radical change in the training of Naval Reserves to make them efficient for duty afloat. The essence of that training should be service on modern naval ships under service conditions. A few men well trained for active duty are of immensely more value to the Navy than a Naval Reserve which consists of numbers only.
The present system is not only deficient in the training of the personnel, but tends to cause capable men to lose interest and drop out. Why not abandon the present recognized inefficient system of training, and adopt one more suited to naval requirements?