and Unpreparedness 143 



ment only a source of laughter or exasperation to the 

 few, ominous though it may be for the future. A 

 colonel who issued the wrong order would cause con 

 fusion. A ship-captain by such an order might 

 wreck his ship. It follows that the navy is compara 

 tively free in time of war from the presence in the 

 higher ranks of men utterly unfit to perform their 

 duties. The nation realizes that it can not improvise 

 naval officers even out of first-rate skippers of mer 

 chantmen and passenger-steamers. Such men could 

 be used to a certain extent as under-officers to meet 

 a sudden and great emergency; but at best they 

 would met it imperfectly, and this the public at large 

 understands. 



There is, however, some failure to understand that 

 much the same condition prevails among ordinary 

 seamen. The public speakers and newspaper writers 

 who may be loudest in clamoring for war are often 

 precisely the men who clamor against preparations 

 for war. Whether from sheer ignorance or from 

 demagogy, they frequently assert that, as this is the 

 day of mechanics, even on the sea, and as we have a 

 large mechanical population, we could at once fit out 

 any number of vessels with men who would from the 

 first do their duty thoroughly and well. 



As a matter of fact, though the sea-mechanic has 

 replaced the sailorman, yet it is almost as necessary 

 as ever that a man should have the sea habit in order 



