t
elicit. I knew such a one who said of himself, "Before I take the
trumpet I know what ought to be said and done, but with the trumpet in
my hand everything goes away from me." This was doubtless partly
stage-fright; but stage-fright does not last where there is real
aptitude. This man, of very marked general ability, esteemed and liked
by all, finally left the navy; and probably wisely. On the other hand,
I remember a very excellent seaman--and officer--telling me that the
poorest officer he had ever known tacked ship the best. So men differ.

Thus it happened, through the operation of a variety of causes, that
by the early fifties there had accumulated on the lists of the navy,
in every grade, a number of men who had been tried in the balance of
professional judgment and found distinctly wanting. Not only was the
public--the nation--being wronged by the continuance in positions of
responsibility of men who could not meet an emergency, or even
discharge common duties, but there was the further harm that they were
occupying places which, if vacated, could be at once filled by capable
men waiting behind them. Fortunately, this had come to constitute a
body of individual grievance among the deserving, which
counterbalanced the natural sympathy with the individual incompetent.
The remedy adopted was drastic enough, although in fact only an
application of the principle of selection in a very guarded form.
Unhappily, previous neglect to apply selection through a long series
of years had now occasioned conditions in which it had to be used on a
huge scale, and in the most invidious manner--the selecting out of the
unfit. It was therefore easy for cavillers to liken this process to a
trial at law, in which unfavorable decision was a condemnation without
the accused being heard; and, of course, once having received this
coloring, the impression could not be removed, nor the method
reconciled to a public having Anglo-Saxon traditions concerning the
administration of justice. A board of fifteen was constituted--five
captains, five commanders, and five lieutenants. These were then the
only grades of commissioned officers, and representation from them all
insured, as far as could be, an adequate acquaintance with the entire
personnel of the navy. The board sat in secret, reaching its own
conclusions by its own methods; deciding who were, and who were not,
fit to be carried longer on the active list. Rejections were of three
kinds