and Unpreparedness 151 



incessant practice in handling the ships and the 

 guns at sea, in all kinds of weather, both alone 

 and in company, year in and year out, that made 

 them able to keep up the never-relaxing night 

 blockade at Santiago, to steam into Manila Bay 

 in the darkness, to prevent breakdowns and make 

 repairs of the machinery, and finally to hit what 

 they aimed at when the battle was on. In the 

 naval bureaus the great bulk of what in the army 

 would be called staff places are held by line officers. 

 The men who made ready the guns were the same 

 men who afterward used them. In the Engineering 

 Bureau were the men who had handled or were to 

 handle the engines in action. The Bureau of Navi 

 gation, the Bureau of Equipment, the Bureau of 

 Information, were held by men who had commanded 

 ships in actual service, or who were thus to com 

 mand them against the Spaniards. The head of the 

 Bureau of Navigation is the chief of staff, and he has 

 always been an officer of distinction, detailed, like 

 all of the other bureau chiefs, for special service. 

 From the highest to the lowest officer, every naval 

 man had seen and taken part, during time of peace, 

 in the work which he would have to do in time of 

 war. The commodores and captains who took ac 

 tive part in the war had commanded fleets in sea 

 service, or at the least had been in command of 

 single ships in these fleets. There was not one thing 



