sibility," said one of
the most experienced admirals the world has known, "is the test of a
man's courage"; and where the native fitness exists nothing so
educates for responsibility as the having it. The responsibility of
the lieutenant of the watch differs little from that of the captain in
degree, and less in kind. To early bearing of responsibility Farragut
attributed in great part his fearlessness in it, which was well known
to the service before his hour of strain. It was much that the
government found ready for the extreme demands of the war a number of
officers, who, instead of supervising the washing of lower decks and
stowing of holds during their best years, had been put betimes in
charge of the ship. From there to the captain's berth was but a small
step. "Passed midshipman," says one of Cooper's characters, "is a good
grade to reach, but a bad one to stop in." From a fate little better
than this a large and promising number of young officers were thus
rescued for the commands and responsibilities of the War of
Secession.

II

NAVAL CONDITIONS BEFORE THE WAR OF SECESSION

THE VESSELS

Less far-reaching, because men are greater than ships, but still of
immense timeliness as a preparative to the war, was the reconstitution
of the material of the navy, practically coincident with the
regeneration of the personnel. The causes which led to this are before
my time, and beyond my contemporary knowledge. They therefore form no
part of my theme; but the result, which is more important than the
process, was strictly contemporary with me. It marked a definite
parting with sails as the motive reliance of a ship-of-war, but at the
same time was characterized by an extreme conservatism, which then was
probably judicious, and certainly represented the naval opinion of the
day. It must be remembered that the Atlantic was first crossed under
steam in 1837, a feat shortly before thought impossible on account of
coal consumption, and that the screw-propeller was not generally
adopted till several years afterwards. In 1855 the transatlantic
liners were still paddlers; but the paddle-wheel shaft was far above
the water, and so, in necessary consequence, was much of the machinery
which transmitted power from the boilers to the wheel. All battle
experience avouched the probability of disabling injury under such
exposure; not more certain, but probably more fatal, than that to
spars and sails of sailing-ships. Despite