Vol. XXXIX, No. 6 



WASHINGTON 



June, 1921 



THE 



MATDOMAL 

 m APM€ 



COPYRIGHT. I 921. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON. D C. 



ACROSS THE EQUATOR WITH THE 

 AMERICAN NAVY 



By Herbert Corey 



Author of "On the Monastir Road," "Cooties and Courage," "Shopping Abroad for Our Armies in 

 France," and "A Unique Republic, Where Smuggling is an Industry." 



w 



HY do you ask questions 

 about the ships?" inquired 

 the commander. "A navy 

 isn't ships. A navy is men." 



During the winter of 1920-21 I ac- 

 companied the American battleship fleet 

 on its winter cruise. The Atlantic fleet 

 of seven battleships and eighteen de- 

 stroyers, commanded by Admiral H. B. 

 Wilson, with the accompanying auxiliary 

 vessels of its train, joined the precisely 

 similar Pacific fleet under Admiral Hugh 

 Rodman at Panama. The combined fleets 

 cruised together to a short distance south 

 of Callao, Peru. There they separated, 

 the Atlantic fleet turning back to pay a 

 visit of ceremony to the Republic of Peru, 

 while the Pacific fleet continued on to the 

 Republic of Chile. 



Then a juncture of the fleets was again 

 effected and they cruised in company to 

 Panama, where the annual inter-fleet ath- 

 letic competition was held. En route 

 literally every moment possible was occu- 

 pied in the practice of maneuvers. 



ON SHIP DRILL DEPENDS WAR-TIME VALUE) 

 OE THE ELEET 



Upon the degree of perfection reached 

 in these ship drills depends in great part 

 the war-time value of the fleet. It will 

 not have been forgotten that in the battle 

 of Jutland Admiral Scheer saved the Ger- 

 man fleet because he was able to execute 

 perfectly an evolution which naval au- 



thorities had declared impracticable in the 

 hour of battle. 



Upon the second separation, the two 

 fleets left for their winter practice 

 grounds, on opposite sides of the conti- 

 nent. 



MAKING A GOOD SAILOR A BETTER 

 AMERICAN 



Throughout this period of close asso- 

 ciation I was over and over again im- 

 pressed with the truth of the statement 

 quoted. It is the conviction of the lead- 

 ers of the American Navy that "a navy 

 is not ships. It is men." They bend 

 every effort toward the production of a 

 personnel of extraordinary intelligence. 

 They do their best to provide them with 

 the best ships and guns and submarines 

 and air-craft that can be built. But they 

 hold fast to their guiding principle, that 

 the material elements of the navy are but 

 the instruments through which the genius 

 of the men can be expressed. 



Because the American enlisted man 

 does not, as a rule, care to serve more 

 than one term afloat, the navy's efforts 

 have been extended over a wider field 

 than those of other countries. 



The American is made into an excellent 

 sailor, as a matter of course ; but it is 

 likewise the navy's effort to make him 

 into a better American. With this end 

 in view, he is offered every opportunity 

 to gain an education ; he is taken on 



