| OCR Text |
Show ' AMERICANS ARE j I SAILORS STILL By Frederic -J. Haskin. Have you ever been a sailor? Do you want to be a sailor? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, the I'nited States shipping board needs your services. Incidentally, you have a chance to enter upon -one of the great American Ameri-can businesses of the future merchant mer-chant shipping. If you want to know how to enter the United States merchant marine, writo to The Salt Lake Tribune Information In-formation Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C, and inclose in-close a three-cent stamp for reply. WASHINGTON, D. C April 22. As the American merchant marine, after its long decline, mounts once more to the first place among the carrying fleets of the world, Americans are eagerly grasping grasp-ing the opportunity to return to the sea. During the past year thousands of men who had sailed deep water in years gone by have left their dry-land occupations to offer their services to the United States shipping board. Many of them have sacrificed sac-rificed more lucrative employments to sail through submarine-infested waters under the American flag. Many of these have frankly given as their reason, that they have always longed to return to the sea.' w When the American shipbuilding programme pro-gramme was first -projected, the prediction predic-tion was commonly made that men could not be found who were qualified to -sail them. The event has proved that there were thousands of men In the United States who had been deep water sailors and had retired from the sea- only because be-cause of the decline of our merchant marine; ma-rine; that there are thousands of fishermen fisher-men and lake and river boatmen who would welcome the chance to go to sea, and that In all parts of the country there were young men who had never been on salt water, bul who had felt the lure of it. It is gratifying in a purely sentimental way to know that Americans stili possess the skill and spirit that made them once the greatest maritime people in the world. And of great practical as well as sentimental value is the fact that the new American merchant marine is to be truly American, In personnel as well as ownership, from the stokehole to the bridge. One of those who asserted from the first that Americans would be found to man American vessels was Henry toward of Boston, a New Englander who had spent his life in the shipping business, and, like many another New Englander, lived in the hope of the day when the American flag would again hold a foremost fore-most place in the ports of the world. When we entered the war, Mr, Howard went about preparing a plan for recruiting recruit-ing and training officers and crews for American merchant vessels. When the shipping board was- created, he laid his plan before it. Mr. Howard is now director di-rector of the recruiting service of the United States shipping board and has established between forty and fifty training train-ing schools and training vessels. In ten months these schools have fitted to pass the examinations of the United States steamboat inspection service, 1500 deck officers and 1200 engineers, and has under training on school ships thousands of young men who will act as sailors, firemen, fire-men, coal passers, oilers, water tenders, cooks and stewards. Mr. Howard has also perfected a recruiting re-cruiting service, in which he has been greatly aided by Louis K. Liggett of Boston, Bos-ton, who is the manager of a great chain of drug stores. The American drug store is peculiarly suited for use as a recruiting recruit-ing station, because it is patronized by all classes and types, and thousands of seamen have been enrolled through these stores. This programme of recruiting brought forward a surprising number of men who needed no training, but were able at once to pass the examinations of the inspection inspec-tion service and obtain licenses. During the first ten months of recruiting, 5000 officers in all were licensed. The first training school for marine officers of-ficers was opened in the astronomical laboratory at Harvard last June. There are now forty-one such schools in operation opera-tion in the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coast states and in the Great Lakes region. re-gion. Although no man is accepted for these officers' schools unless he has had two years of experience as a deep-water sailor, applicants for entrance were numerous nu-merous and a large proportion of them met the qualifications. This system of training schools has its headquarters in the Custom House, Boston, Mass. The instruction in these schools is under the direction of Professor Alfred E. , Burton, dean of the Massuchusetts Institute of Technology, who is a practical navigator as well as a scientist, and a number of well-known astronomers, explorers and navigators are members of his teaching staff. The course lasts six -weeks and is designed to fit the man for a license as a second or third mate. If the student .needs additional experience, he is sent to sea as a reserve officer for two months. In addition to these schools for officers, the recruiting service has opened eight schools for engineers at eight of the principal prin-cipal technical schools of the country. Here men with experience as oilers or water tenders or fireman on ocean steamers, steam-ers, as engineers or assistant engineers on lake, bay or sound steamers, as locomotive loco-motive or stationary engineers, and nen with certain college training are fitted to pass the examinations for licenses as marine engineers. These schools have already produced about 1200 engineers, and, like the deck officers trained by the recruiting service, all of them are American Ameri-can citizens. All of these schools, of course, are free. They offer a splendid opportunity for men with a little experience expe-rience or training and first-class ability to win a high place in the marine profession. pro-fession. Mr. Howard claims for his training schools for officers and engineers that they prevented a shortage of men in these grades last year, even before 'the shipping ship-ping board began launching vessels. While these training schools were in operation the recruiting service received thousands of letters from young men in all parts of the country, who had had no experience at sea. They wanted to know-how know-how they could fit themselves to enter the merchant marine. The number of these applicants convinced Mr. Howard that the new merchant marine could be manned as well as officered by American citizens. He accordingly obtained ap-. proval for a -plan by which two coastwise passenger ships were commissioned as school ships for the training of these inexperienced in-experienced men. Two more such training train-ing ships have subsequently been commissioned, com-missioned, and a fifth is being fitted out on the Pacific coast. Several thousand apprentices are learning the business of seamanship on these vessels. The course lasts from one to two months. The men are put through a rigorous daily regimen, which lasts from 6 in the morning until 9 at night. It includes, however, several hours for recreation, and one of the favorite fa-vorite amusements is the singing of old-time old-time sea chanties of the American merchant mer-chant marine. |
