170 



NATURE 



[June 25, 1903 



be divided into two categories, well trained and less 

 trained; these are the equivalents of the " specialised " 

 and " not specialised " of the Admiralty memorandum 

 setting- forth the scheme. 



The well trained or specialised officers have to deal 

 with (i) navigation (but so far without a navigating 

 school), (2) gunnery with a gunnery school, and (3) 

 torpedoes with a torpedo school. We may say that 

 the lieutenants performing these specialised duties 

 comprise roughly about one-third of the total numbers. 

 They get special allowances for their special duties. 



But it must at once be stated that there are many 

 duties on board ship for the proper performance of 

 which special training, not of a scientific character in 

 the ordinary acceptation of the word, is equally re- 

 quired, and, of course, these duties have to be provided 

 for. They are carried on by the " unspecialised " 

 lieutenants, who are roughly twice as numerous as 

 those who have received a full scientific training. 

 These are employed as watch keepers and in con- 

 nection with general ship duties. They are " deck 

 officers " as opposed to the scientific officers. The less 

 scientifically trained or deck ofificer gets little or no 

 allowance ; on the other hand he Is expected to spend 

 money in painting ship. We see then that under the 

 present system the officers performing each particular 

 piece of work, whether scientific or merely pro- 

 fessional, are for the most part in water-tight com- 

 partments ; there are differences in the amount of 

 special instruction they receive, the kind of work they 

 do, and the allowances they get. 



It was pointed out In the previous article that accord- 

 ing to the present practice the less scientifically trained 

 officers get the lion's share of promotions; that. In 

 fact, the promotion has been In the Inverse ratio of the 

 scientific nature of the work done. 



It has been urged in defence of this practice that 

 scientific knowledge is of less value in the higher 

 ranks than that which is derived from a complete 

 mastery of all the details of a ship's general organ- 

 isation, which can only be gained by the constant 

 performance of the " deck duties " to which reference 

 has been made. So that If we take the navigator, the 

 most Important scientific officer, on the one hand, 

 and the first lieutenant, the most important deck 

 officer, on the other, the thing works out in this way. 

 The navigator, because his duties are so onerous 

 and are never changed, knows nothing of deck 

 duties. The first lieutenant, because his duties are 

 never changed, is unlikely ever to become a competent 

 navigator. The navigator, because he has not had an 

 opportunity of learning deck duties, has his promotion 

 retarded so that he can never get on the active list of 

 admirals. The first lieutenant, because he is neces- 

 sarily familiar with deck duties, is the first to be pro- 

 moted, and Is thus sure of employment on the active 

 list of admirals. 



The baneful effects of such a system as this, which 

 are two-fold, were fully set out in our previous article. 

 The Admiralty indicated its contempt for scientific as 

 opposed to mere professional training, and the Ad- 

 mirals' list was swamped by men who knew little of 

 navigation, although this, of course, finds one of its 

 NO. 1756, VOL. 68] 



highest outcomes in handling ships in tactical exercises 

 and in order of battle. 



It was next shown that while, as determined by the 

 scheme, the interchangeabillty of all officers. Including 

 the engineer officers, must be secured ten years hence, 

 there were reasons why the interchangeabillty of at 

 least some of the duties of the existing executive officers 

 should be commenced at once. We rejoice to learn 

 from the new circular that this also is to be done. 



Lieutenants (N.) will in future be placed on exactly 

 the same footing as regards executive command and 

 ship's duty generally as gunnery and torpedo 

 lieutenants, and are not to be excused from any ship's 

 duties except those which interfere with the special 

 duties pertaining to them. They will be appointed and 

 succeed to the position of first lieutenant, If a vacancy 

 occurs, in all ships where a commander is borne 

 exactly in the same manner as any other specialist 

 officer. 



In rendering the special report on th6 qualifications 

 of a navigating officer, a further clause li fo be added, 

 dealing with his capabilities as an executive officer. 



Further, midshipmen who show special aptitude 

 are, whenever possible when the ship is under way, 

 to be taken off other duties, and to navigate the ship 

 Independently from the after bridge, fixing positions 

 on the chart, and bringing the result of such work to 

 the navigating officer. 



Instead of one commissioned qfficer taking sights 

 and working the reckoning daily, arrangements are 

 to be made, when practicable, for one junior lieutenant 

 or sub-lieutenant to be taken partially off watch-keeping 

 so as to work with the navigating officer for ten work- 

 ing days under way. 



The officer thus told off is to be on deck when coast- 

 ing, making the land, going In and out of harbour, 

 &c., and is to be In every way encouraged to get an 

 Insight into navigating duties. If at the end of the 

 ten days the captain is satisfied with his work, he 

 will be relieved and another officer is to be told off for 

 this duty. 



These Important changes can be urged on two 

 grounds. In the first place, there is the obvious bene- 

 fit to the Service which will be secured when all cap- 

 tains and admirals are made equally acquainted with 

 both their scientific and professional duties by inter- 

 changing them while they are lieutenants and com- 

 manders. In the second place, the preparation and 

 simplification of the carrying out of the new scheme, 

 by which another class of specialised officers, the en- 

 gineers, will be introduced in the future, will be vastly 

 facilitated by organising and testing the best way of 

 interchanging duties on a small scale over a limited 

 area. 



We have referred chiefly to the navij^tor among 

 the scientific officers, and no doubt the Admiralty has 

 dealt with him first, because his duties are the most 

 specialised; but If the interchange Is advantageous In 

 his case, the other specialists will follow, and, speak- 

 ing only from the scientific side, knowing nothing of 

 professional difficulties to be surmounted, it seems to 

 us that such a preliminary experimental study of the 



