"They come into the navy to fight," said one of the officers of the
fleet, "and they want to get into the thick of it. We turn out qualified
gun crews in three months--and that is going some." A large majority of
the new men of the fleet come from farms, especially from the Middle
West. More than 90 per cent of the seamen are native-born, and on any
ship may be heard the Southern drawl, the picturesque vernacular of the
lower East or West side of New York City, the twang of New England, the
rising intonation of the Western Pennsylvanian, and that indescribable
vocal cadence that comes only from west of Chicago.
Not only gunners were developed, but engineers, electricians, cooks,
bakers--what-not? They are still being developed on our home ships, but
in the meantime the fruits of what was done in the time dating from our
entrance into the war to the present summer are to be noted chiefly in
the North Sea, where our vessels lie waiting with their sisters of the
British Fleet for the appearance of the German armada.
Let us transfer ourselves for the time being from the general to the
particular: in other words, to the deck of a great American dreadnought,
which, together with others of her type, has been detached from the
Atlantic Fleet and assigned to duty with Admiral Beatty's great company
of battleships and battle-cruisers. This battleship has entered the war
zone, en route to a certain rendezvous, whence all the American units
will proceed to their ultimate destination in company.
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