The Forgotten Sailors: A Call for Reform in the U.S. Navy
A seasoned veteran of the U.S. Navy writes from Port Townsend in 1886 to lament the decline of practical seamanship and the lack of decent pensions for sailors who have served their country for decades.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
There is nothing more painful to the old sailors than to see the decline in the organization and discipline of the Navy. I have served in the Navy of the United States at different periods since the year 1845, and I can see the change that has taken place. When I first entered the service, there were no national vessels I ever saw that could perform evolutions or gunnery with greater dexterity than an American man-of-war; but latterly, I have to acknowledge that orders are executed in a disorderly manner by what may be termed a mob in comparison to what it formerly was. The education of the officer during the past 30 years has taken an upward stride in theory, while the education of the seaman has deteriorated simply from the great number of machines now in use on board our ships. The officer generally rejects all practical hints from the seaman or petty officer. But the officer should bear in mind that the practical man may become a theoretical one, but the theoretical one will never become the practical until he goes through a practical training. The American navy only comprises ten or twelve thousand enlisted men. Small as this force is, it can be made the nucleus of sixty thousand if we have the ships and organization. But the cream of the difficulty lies in the lack of practical men. I hope the Americans might copy with profit from John Bull, and that is, after a man has served the Government for a period of 25 years, give him a pension of two-thirds of his last pay. As it is, a man will grow gray and blind in the service, and still he has to get until the doctor refuses to ship him, and then he often has to beg in making his final years.
“The practical man may become a theoretical one, but the theoretical one will never become the practical until he goes through a practical training.”
This 1886 critique of institutional decay and the treatment of the working class resonates strongly with contemporary discussions about how rapid automation and corporate management can alienate skilled laborers. Much like the 'gray and blind' sailors of the 1880s, modern workers in the maritime and tech sectors are often left without a safety net despite years of service.
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