314 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from U. S. Navy Department 



physical training: shelf drill at a naval station 



"In the naval service men are in training for a generation to fight perhaps for only a 

 single day." The training is mental and physical, for a battle is won or lost in a few minutes, 

 and each man must fit perfectly into his place in the fighting machine (see page 313). 



ated for the sole purpose of increasing 

 the fighting efficiency of the fleet. 



In times such as these, we naturally 

 think only of the fighting side of the 

 navy. But just as we need, in the con- 

 struction of a battleship, to apply the 

 work of more trades than are used in 

 any other single structure built by man, 

 so the navy, in its organization, utilizes 

 a very large number of the arts and sci- 

 ences, and produces as by-products, so to 

 speak, of its main work many results 

 which are of general interest and appli- 

 cation in the maritime, engineering, in- 

 dustrial, or purely scientific fields. Thus 

 the navy maintains a large number of 

 building and repair yards in addition to 

 a big gun factory which makes a major- 

 ity of its guns. 



In other words, the navy, as one of the 

 largest employers of labor in the United 

 States, has to deal not only with the 

 problems incident to this, but with prob- 

 lems of civil and mechanical engineering, 

 such as must be handled in the industrial 

 world. 



the: navy studies international law 



Even the Naval War College, founded 

 primarily for the "study of problems of 

 modern warfare in a manner at once sci- 

 entific and practical," is one of the few 

 institutions of the United States where 

 the science and problems of international 

 law are carefully studied. Officers of the 

 navy are among our leading experts on 

 international law, and, indeed, they need 

 to be, for it falls to them more than to 



