The enlisted men of the navy, who often grew bored to the point of desertion in peace, became keyed up to a high pitch of efficiency, and crowds of fine young fellows, from the interior as well as from the seacoast, thronged to enlist.

The navy officers showed alert ability and unwearied industry in getting things ready.
There was one deficiency, however, which there was no time to remedy, and of the very existence of which, strange to say, most of our best men were ignorant.

Our navy had no idea how low our standard of marksmanship was.

We had not realized that the modern battle-ship had become such a complicated piece of mechanism that the old methods of training in marksmanship were as obsolete as the old muzzle-loading broadside guns themselves.

Almost the only man in the navy who fully realized this was our naval attache at Paris, Lieutenant Sims.