May 2, 191 8 
Land & Water 
19 
The United States Navy : By L. R. Freeman 
Since the first units of the United States Navy appeared in these waters, 
the greatest interest has been taken in them. In this article Mr. Freeman 
depicts the spirit of the United States Navy and also describes the course 
of instruction through which an American Naval Cadet passes. The 
United States Navy, he points out, has been modelled on the British Navy. 
IN writing in L.'iND 
& Water some 
months ago on 
the coming of the 
American Army to 
France I quoted the naive words used by a French Staff Officer 
to describe the impression the new arrivals had made upon him. 
After speaking of the keenness of the American officers to 
learn from those who had had the experience, he concluded : 
"We hke them very much. In fact, they have been quite a 
surprise. They have not displayed the least tendency to 
show us how to run the war. Indeed, they are not the least 
American ! " 
I do not know that I have heard a British naval officer use 
precisely the same words in voicing his relief that his American 
"opposite number," whom he is now beginning to meet 
with increasing frequency and intimacy, has not fulfilled 
expectations in insisting on showing the British Navy how 
to win the war ; but that precise sentiment I heard implied 
many times, though, I am happy to record, less and less 
frequently as the favourable impression formed by 
those who have had opportunity of meeting the first 
officers from across the Atlantic, has had time to percolate. 
Save on the score of technical training and uniform, there 
is very little to differentiate the American naval officer from 
his brother in the Army who has furnished so agreeable a 
surprise to his Allies in France, and there need be no fear 
(whatever may have been expected from those who have 
not had the opportunity of meeting him before) that the 
former will not "keep station" at sea in the same quiet 
tmostentatious way that the latter has "fallen into step" 
on land. 
So far, since American naval activities in the war zone 
have been largely limited to the operations of their fleet of 
destroyers off the Irish coast, the two navies have had fat 
less opportunity to get acquainted than have the British and 
American armies. The liaison established at Queenstown, 
however, may be taken as a microcosm of the co-operation 
that will be established on a larger scale should the exigencies 
of the situation demand it. As thoroughly characteristic of 
the spirit in which the Americans are taking up their work 
in these waters, I may quote the words of an officer of one of 
their destroyers with whom I talked recently. 
"Green as we came to the job," he said, "in comparison 
to their three years of hard experience of the British, our 
taking over here was almost like a lot of boy. scouts replacing 
a regiment of seasoned veterans in the trenches. We were 
all for the job, however, and somehow we began to get results 
right from the get-away. Let me tell you, though, that if 
we had had to find out all the wrinkles of the game ourselves 
— if they had not given us the benefit of all they had been 
paying in ships and men for three years to learn — it would 
have been a far slower business for us, and a far more costly 
one as well. 1 take off my hat to the British destroyers and 
trawlers, and to the men who man them. I have not had a 
chance yet to see anything of the rest of their Navy, but if 
the officers and men are of the same stamp as those we have 
worked with here, when our capital ships come over it will 
be just like joining up with another American fleet." 
These sentiments seem to me thoroughly typical of the 
spirit with which the American Navy is taking .up its task in 
European waters, and such also was the opinion of a dis- 
tinguished British Naval officer to whom I quoted them 
not long ago. 
"I have known American Navy officers a good many 
years," he said, "principally on the China and West India 
stations, so that, persona:lly, I had none of the doubts about 
our ability to co-operate with them that may have been 
harboured by some of my friends who had been less fortunate 
than myself on that score. The fact that the average 
untra veiled Briton has had to judge the American wholly 
by such specimens as seemed to him the most characteristic 
among those coming to this side of the water — that is, by 
the Cook's tourist and the money-slinging millionaire, neither 
of whom are in the least representative — has been responsible 
for our getting, as a nation, a distorted picture of you, as a 
nation. It was that which gave the more conservative 
element in both our Army and Navy some doubts as to 
how we might settle down to pull in double iiamess. 
"One of the best things about the American naval officer 
— and one that stands him in good stead at the present 
time— is his open-mindedness. He may have come over 
here firmly believing that some gun, some explosive, some 
system of loading or fire- 
control, or any of a 
number of other things he 
has perfected to the best 
of his experience, is 
better than anything else of the kind that Britain or 
any other nation has got. But that does not blind him 
in the least to the good points of the latter, and no false 
sentiment, pride, or conservatism will prevent the 
incontinent scrapping of his own long-laboured-over invention 
to make way for what his open mind and sterling 
common sense tell him is better. It is this which makes it 
comparatively easy for the American to do a thing which 
is above almost all othefs difficult for the Briton — to profit 
and take advantage of another's experience. 
"An American destroyer — and the same will be true of 
any other ships of whatever class that may be sent over — 
takes its place as a unit of one of our fleets or squadrons 
just as easily and naturally as if a new British ship, manned 
by British sailors, had been commissioned, and that will go 
on just as long as it is necessary or advisable to increase 
your naval strength in European waters. Indeed, the 
effective smoothness of the system under which the 
American ships work with ours makes one feel that — quite 
without realising it — we have taken the first step in the 
formation of what has so long been talked of as a Utopian 
dream — an 'International Police Force.' It is hardly the 
time to talk of such a consummation at this stage of things ; 
but if it ever does eventuate, you may take it that an 
Anglo-Saxon naval force will be its foundation." 
Because it has been impossible to tell the public scarcely 
anything about American naval co-operation with the 
British, the historic significance of that event has been 
almost overlooked. As a matter of fact, however, it marks 
the first occasion in which the ships of one Allied nation 
have been practically incorporated (as far as the direction 
of operations are concerned) in the navy of another. Allied 
fleets have carried out operations together — as the French 
and the British at the Dardanelles, or the British and the 
Italians in the Adriatic — but never has the co-operation 
been more intimate— and, it may be added, more success- 
ful — than in the present instance. 
That the British and American naval officer would "hit 
it off" well personally from the outset no one with any 
acquaintance with both of them could ever have had any 
doubt. As a matter of fact, indeed, there is less difference 
between them than between the average American and 
Englishman, and even that is a good deal less than most 
people imagine. In the first place, they come from very 
nearly the same classes socially (I am speaking now of the 
regular "R.N." and "U.S.N."), in their respective countries, 
and there is very httle indeed to differentiate the English 
lad of thirteen or fourteen and the American lad of a year 
or two older, the one beginning his naval training at Osborne 
and the other at Annapolis. Differing in details though 
they are, the training of these two naval schools is far less 
divergent than that of English and American public schools 
and universities. That is to say, the naval schools of the 
two countries are aiming at precisely the same thing — the 
turning out of an officer who knows his business — whereas 
public schools and universities are working in a number of 
different directions. 
The system of appointing the American naval cadet ensures 
that each year's class is selected as nearly as may be from all 
parts of the country. Each member of Congress is required 
to make one appointment to both the naval and military 
academies, and, in addition to these, there are ten or more 
appointments at large made from Washington. In this way 
each State is represented in the Naval Atademy according 
to its population. Thus New York, with, say, forty mem- 
bers in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate, 
would have forty-two nominees, while Nevada, with three 
members in the House and two in the Senate, would have 
five. A Member of Congress has his choice of making the 
appointment open to a competitive examination or giving it 
direct to any boy fulfilling the requisite requirements. 
Even in the latter case, however, the prospective nominee 
must pass very stiff examinations calculated to establish his 
mental, moral, and physical fitness, and it is practically 
impossible for him to be pushed in simply because he has 
friends in high places. It is, I believe, becoming more and 
more the custom to resort to competitive examination, so 
that the boy named by each member is usually the brightest 
