CHAPTER XXV.

MIDSHIPMEN'S PRACTICE-CRUISE.

Cadets who have received the certificate of proficency at the midshipmen's examination are sent immediately to Wilhelmshafen for training on board the gunnery ship. The course, which is mainly practical, lasts one month. At its close they are ordered to the squadron of evolutions, in the ships of which they make the summer cruise. The squadron is composed usually of three or more large iron-clads, and cruises for several months in the Baltic and North Sea. Returning from this cruise about September, the midshipmen are embarked at Kiel in the midshipmen's school-ship for a two years' cruise. Here they receive not only a thorough practical training for service as sub-lieutenants, but also an extended course of theoretical instruction to prepare them for the first officers' examination (Erste See-Offiziers-Prüfung).

As the midshipmen's practice-cruise lasts two years, and as there is a class ready to go out every year, two ships are set apart specially for this service. They are screw-steamers of modern type, fully rigged, so that they are available for sailing or steaming. They are supplied with a full battery of breech-loading rifles, and with all the appliances and equipments necessary for a training-ship. Among these is a complete library of professional works and works of history, poetry, and fiction in French, German, and English. The professional list embraces the latest works in all branches, including several American books. There is a full supply of instruments connected with steam-engineering, navigation, hydrography, and land surveying, for the midshipmen are landed from time to time for practice on shore. The ship is also supplied with a torpedo outfit. The cruise generally extends to China. The practiceship for the cruise of last year was the Leipzig, a screw-corvette of 12 guns and engines of 700 horse-power.

The routine of study (Stunden-Plan) is made out by the captain of the school-ship and approved before the beginning of the cruise by the Admiralty. Slight changes may be made for weather or other emergencies, but more extensive changes on the cruise must be sanctioned by the Ministry. Semi-annual examinations are held on the work of each semester, and annual examinations at the end of the year. The captain is present at oral examinations. The same marking system prevails as at the Naval School. The captain transmits marks and reports to the Admiralty, and gives the necessary warnings to cadets who fail to reach the standard. The captain attends the class instruction from time to time, and forms an opinion of the value of the instruction given. He appoints the cadets' officer, who has charge of the mess funds, clothing and outfit, and allowances, and of all private interests of the midshipmen. In foreign ports midshipmen are organized in parties to visit places of in

terest. They are encouraged to go to balls and social entertainments, and are given every possible opportunity of conversing in foreign languages. The punishments are similar to those of the cadets.

For duty on board, the midshipmen are permanently divided in four watches, under the four division officers. These watches are rearranged every quarter. One midshipman acts as sergeant of the division, and the duty is taken in turn. Journals are kept by the midshipmen, and inspected daily by the division officer. In the journals they are required to make sketches of such objects and places as may be designated.

When the ship is under steam the midshipmen do watch duty in turn in the engine-room, where they receive instruction from the machinist in charge. At the end of this watch they have to make a report to the officer of the deck of the number of revolutions made, the position of the manometer and vacuum-gauge, the quantity of coal consumed, and the temperature and saturation of the boiler.

When the ship is under sail the midshipmen are stationed in turn as midshipmen of the tops. In port, each acts in turn as signal officer. They act by turns as gun-captains at great-gun exercise, and they are sent in charge of boats.

According to the daily routine midshipmen turn out at 6.30 a. m. From 8 to 9 they have instruction, or superintend the cleaning of the guns, after which they have instruction and exercises till dinner. In the afternoon, from 2 to 4, they again have instruction, and after the evening muster, at 4.30, they take part in the general exercises, either as topmen or at their regular stations. The evening is generally devoted to study, but on two evenings in the week they have fencing and gymnastic instruction.

The arrangements for living, mess, &c., are similar to those in the cadets' school-ship. A room is assigned to the midshipmen on the gundeck, in which they eat, sleep, and study. The senior cadet in each division performs in turn, for a week at a time, the duties of officer of the day (du-jour-Dienst), as far as the mess and study periods are concerned, and is responsible for quiet and order in the steerage.

The mess is managed by a board, composed of the cadets' officer, paymaster, and two midshipmen, elected by their companions for a term of three months. The steward is engaged by contract at the beginning of the cruise, and two seamen are detailed as waiters.

Midshipmen sleep in hammocks. The personal service of the midshipmen is performed by seamen who volunteer for the duty, and who receive special compensation and exemption from all ship's duty for certain hours in the morning. One servant is allowed to two midshipmen. Midshipmen are forbidden to contract debts; and if a midshipman is negligent and thriftless in pecuniary matters, the captain, as an extreme measure, may turn over his pay and his private allowance (Zulage) to the officer of his division, as a trust, to be administered according to the officer's discretion.

An amusement fund is formed by the paymaster out of sums reserved · S. Ex. 51—12

from the private allowance, and from other sources, which is expended in excursions made from time to time by parties of midshipmen.

The theoretical course of instruction includes navigation, steam-engineering, seamanship and naval tactics, gunnery and torpedoes, official duties and organization, ship-building, English and French. Navigation, gunnery, and engineering are taught by the navigating and gunnery officers, and by the engineer, respectively. Instruction in the direction and care of the ship's stores is given by the paymaster, and the other subjects are assigned to the various officers of the ship according to their qualifications. No officer is given more than two subjects of instruction. In order to give to instructing officers the needful time to prepare their instruction, they may be relieved of the deck, weather permitting, by the sub-lieutenant of the watch, from 8 a. m. to 12, and from 12 to 4 p. m.

Extra pay is given to officers engaged in duties of instruction on board the school-ship, at the rate of 2, 2.50, or 3 marks (mark= 25 cents) a day, according to the subject taught. The aggregate of these "supplements" is limited to $618 per annum, representing 912 hours of instruction, of which 96 hours are given to fencing. This leaves 816 hours, which may be taken as the total time devoted annually to theoretical instruction on board the practice-ship, an average of nearly fifteen hours a week through the whole year.

The hours of instruction are as follows:

At the close of the second and fourth semesters annual examinations are held in navigation, engineering, and gunnery; at the close of the third semester are the final examinations in seamanship and official duties; and at the close of the fourth, the final examinations in torpedoes, ship-building, naval tactics, and naval administration.

The programme of studies is arranged with reference to the regular ship duties of instructing officers, so as to work as little inconvenience as possible. At the same time, it is always kept in view that the ship is a school-ship, and that the first object of the cruise is to give regular and thorough instruction, practical and theoretical, to the midshipmen. The system is therefore free from the objections to instruction on shipboard in the English service, where the attempt is made to have a school on board the cruising ships of the fleet, and where, of course, instruction must become a secondary consideration, beside the all-important demands of actual service; where, moreover, midshipmen are considered not only as students, but as officers having regular duties to perform.

The arrangement of studies is such as to give three hours of theoretical instruction a day, one in the morning and two in the afternoon. The details of the theoretical course are as follows:

NAVIGATION.

FIRST SEMESTER: 4 hours a week.

The course begins with a short review of plane navigation, including compasses, deviation, log and lead, and charts. The subjects taken up in the course are nautical surveying, with the instruments on board the ship; preparation of charts; calculation of position, construction of nautical instruments, chronometer, sextant, circles, compasses, &c.; setting up of the binnacle and azimuth compasses, and determination of deviation; practice in observing with the sextant and with Pistor's circle; arrangement of the nautical almanac; correction of harbor surveys; and correction of the chronometer error by hour angles of the sun.

SECOND SEMESTER: 3 hours.

Astronomical navigation; review of the relations of hour angles and time; calculation of the meridian passage and altitudes of the fixed stars; of the hour angle and chronometer rate, from observations by the midshipmen of the sun, moon, planets, and fixed stars.

THIRD SEMESTER: 3 hours.

Determination of chronometer error by equal altitudes of sun; preparation and use of chronometer tables; latitude and longitude by Sumner's method; calculation of latitude by altitude of pole star, by ex-meridian altitude, by double altitudes; rising and setting of constellations; calculation of variation by sun's amplitude or azimuth.

FOURTH SEMESTER: 3 hours.

Calculation of time of high and low water; meteorology and geography of the sea; winds and currents; laws of rotary storms; general review.

SEAMANSHIP AND NAVAL TACTICS.

FIRST SEMESTER: 2 hours.

Putting in and taking out masts and bowsprit; rigging shears; getting up and taking down tops, caps, topmasts, yards, and spars; setting up standing rigging; reeving off running rigging; bending sails; arrangement and use of the anchor and cables; securing the anchor, gearing used for this purpose; shipping stores; getting ready

for sea.

SECOND SEMESTER: 2 hours.

Boats and their management; striking topmasts and lower yards; shipping guns and other heavy weights; effect of wind on the sails; maneuvering under various circumstances of wind and weather; getting under way, anchoring, tacking, wearing, heaving to, bracing back, and scudding; furling and reefing sails in a stiff breeze; anchoring on a lee shore in a gale; hoisting and lowering the screw.

THIRD SEMESTER: 2 hours.

Clearing ship for action; getting a ship off when aground; setting up jury-rigging; repairs of masts and yards; docking ship; shipping and unshipping rudder; juryrudder; rules of the road; exact knowledge of German signals, of the international · code, and of the semaphore signals; review.

FOURTH SEMESTER: 1 hour.

Naval tactics, including fundamental knowledge of evolutions, the relative fighting qualities of ships in an engagement, the attack of fortified and unfortified places and coasts, and the protection of harbors and mouths of rivers.

GUNNERY.

FIRST SEMESTER: 2 hours.

Principles of construction and use of guns; carriages, equipments, and small arms, on board the school-ship; inspection of ordnance materials; exact knowledge of the detail drill, with the guns on board, of the range-tables, and of the regulations for the inspection and care of the guns, before, during, and after use.

SECOND SEMESTER: 1 hour.

Review of the whole subject of gunpowder, its preparation and inspection, ignition, combustion, and energy; regulations for the transportation, bringing on board, and care of powder and other ammunition; preparation of fuses; filling cartridges and shells; arrangement of magazinę and shell-room; use of boat and field guns (taught in connection with landing parties).

THIRD SEMESTER: 1 hour.

Special exercises, as hoisting in guns on covered decks, shifting guns to fire ahead; pivot guns; service of guns in saluting; special regulations for naval guns not on board the school-ship.

FOURTH SEMESTER: 1 hour.

Foreign guns and small arms, with practical applications of instruction in visits to foreign men-of-war; general review.

TORPEDOES.

SECOND SEMESTER: 1 hour.

Explosives; loading, filling, and unloading torpedoes; fuses, their preparation and adjustment; contact-apparatus; properties of dynamite and gun-cotton.

THIRD SEMESTER: 1 hour.

Defensive torpedoes; planting and taking up; avoidance of enemy's torpedoes; construction and use of offensive torpedoes.

FOURTH SEMESTER: 1 hour.

Laying and inspection of electric torpedoes, inspection and care of wires; measuring instruments; review.