st
officer of the deck he had ever known. But in early middle life
disease overtook him, and, though flat on his back, he had been borne
on the active list because there was nothing else to do with him. In
that plight he was even promoted. There was another who, as a
midshipman, had lost a foot in the War of 1812, but had been carried
on from grade to grade for forty years, until at the time I speak of
he was a captain, then the highest rank in the navy. Possibly,
probably, he never saw water bluer than that of the lakes, where he
was wounded. The undeserving were not treated with quite the same
indulgence. Those familiar with the _Navy Register_ of those days will
recall some half-dozen old die-hards, who figured from year to year at
the head of the lieutenant's list; continuously "overslaughed," never
promoted, but never dismissed. To deal in the same manner with such
men as the two veterans first mentioned would have been insulting; the
distinction of promotion had to be conceded.

But there were those also who, despite habits or inefficiency, slipped
through even formal examination; commanders whose ships were run by
their subordinates, lieutenants whose watch on deck kept their
captains from sleeping, midshipmen whose unfitness made their
retention unpardonable; for at their age to re-begin life was no
hardship, much less injustice. Of one such the story ran that his
captain, giving him the letter required by regulation, wrote, "Mr. So
and So is a very excellent young gentleman, of perfectly correct
habits, but nothing will make an officer of him." He answered his
questions, however; and the board considered that they could not go
beyond that fact. They passed him in the face of the opinion of a
superior of tried efficiency who had had his professional conduct
under prolonged observation. I never knew this particular man
professionally, but the general estimate of the service confirmed his
captain's opinion. Twenty or thirty years later, I was myself one of a
board called to deal with a precisely similar case. The letter of the
captain was explicitly condemnatory and strong; but the president of
the board, a man of exemplary rectitude, was vehement even in refusing
to act upon it, and his opinion prevailed. Some years afterwards the
individual came under my command, and proved to be of so eccentric
worthlessness that I thought him on the border-line of insanity. He
afterwards disappeared, I do not know how.

Tal