Naval Duties and Discipline: With the Policy and Principles of Naval Organization (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Naval Duties and Discipline: With the Policy and Principles of Naval Organization

Tms little work has grown up under my hands in a curious manner. During the engrossing labors of a previous command of a new vessel which I had commissioned, I was importuned by the executive Officer and others to Write internal rules and regulations. I had Often before been requested to do so, but my mind had been always persistently Opposed to it. Yet it seemed positively necessary to have some regulations of details of duty, whereby the young volunteer officers might be guided as well as instructed. I therefore resolved to make the attempt, and in so doing, I found that in order to explain clearly the exceptions to rules, and how and when to make them, was the most difficult thing to perform of the whole task. Every rule must have its exceptions. Hence it was that, in the endeavor to state things clearly, and not to have a constantly recurring clash of orders and counter orders and disorders, my labors swelled into the proportions of a'woflc. I gave up the attempt as a failure, knowing that experience, good judgment, in fine, educa tion, must be the reliance of a commander upon his subordinates. The result Of all this is a book, and one which I modestly hope may be productive of far more good to our growing navy than any system of rules and regulations.

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