Show NAUTICAL NOVELTIES furnished by the U S navy recruiting station at salt lake city the first trials of the U S S monitor were a failure the chorus 0 of boos rose to a howl two weeks later her defects rectified she had a more nearly successful trial run it was only five days before she was to make h history aist ory ct but in t that ica t short h 0 r t sp space a ce 0 of f t time e sh she was as 0 once n c ne nearly a r I 1 y sh shelved c lve d and twice all but sunk she sailed from new york on oil march 6 two hours after she had left a telegram arrived directing her to washington instead of hampton roads providentially she missed it if she had gone to washington she would have been rejected by the government for she was far from meeting the ov er stringent specifications of her contract one of which provided that she should be fitted filled with sail on the way down the coast she i ian an into heavy weather some fool at the navy yard had wedged her turret up and plugged the gap with a rope gasket the rope washed away torrents of water poured in the blowers work coal gas filled the ship steam began to fail the pumps stopped the steering gear broke twice it seemed the end had come and it would have come except f for or a fortuitous circumstance there was aboard a chief naval engineer named alban C Sl imers lie he bc belong long there but he had supervised the installation of the monitors ors remarkable machinery and he was determined to see that it worked so he came along as a casenger pa he was the only man aboard who understood machinery and could have set it right in the black and terrible night of march 78 7 8 when everybody else had given up hope when the accompanying convoy i i had lost sight of the monitor and believed her sunk it was and newton her own chief engineer who worked in darkness and oily water amid hot metal and noxious gas until they were overcome and pulled the monitor through what she did in hampton roads thirty six hours later was history before nightfall of the fateful sunday but though it set the union aflame with renewed hope though it changed not only the design of warships but the entire course of history from that day to this it was not a patch on the miracle she achieved by ever getting there at all a a the navy has turned to one of sciences newest and most powerful life savers X rays for use in the new york and Phi philadelphia ladelpha I 1 navy yards built at the westinghouse long island city works it will focus its penetrating ray on vital members of the new fighting fleet ordered by congress and on vital parts of the navys new air fleet capable of detecting all imbor tant defects in metals up to three inches thick the new units are expected acted to pick out flaws not only invisible to the unaided eye but indistinguishable in the finished radiographs radiography radio graphs to all but experts specially trained to read them once spotted by the experts however the defea defective tive areas will be automatically replaced with a consequent proba probable ble saving of life and limb on the high seas val guidry storekeeper second class U S navy attached to the U S S argonne has apparently changed the familiar slogan join the navy and see the world to join the navy and get an education with less than four years in the navy guidry is the proud possessor of a college degree he registered as a senior at the university of southern california on the ath of january in 1937 and after attending evening classes until the of march in 1938 completed the requirements for his degree and now he is a graduate of U S C and a bachelor of science in education with his degree he plans to return to his home in louisiana and become a school teacher when his enlistment expires this summer |