TRAINING YALE MEN TO BE SAILORS IS DESCRIBED

Professor M. A. Abbott, of Yale, at a recent banquet at the Yale Club in New York, described the progress of the Naval Training Unit established at that university this winter. In claiming for Yale the first collegiate naval training course he spoke as follows:

"I think that we may claim that Yale has been the first university to undertake a naval course. At the end of January, when war seemed certain, Mr. W. E. D. Stokes wrote to the secretary of the university and offered-to start a fund with $1,000 if the Yale Navy would take up the work of training men for coast defence. We issued a notice asking for volunteers of seagoing experience. We expected about 50 men; 300 applications were received. Professor H. L. Seward, a man of great experience in coastwise navigation, laid out a course of instruction and organized a teaching staff. This division met three evenings a week for instruction, and at the end of March the results of the examination passed our most sanguine hopes.

"The Government placed the monitor Amphitrite at our disposal for a cruise during the Easter holidays. At the end of these holidays New Haven was made one of the naval bases of the Third Naval District, and Lieutenant Murphy was placed in charge. The university, with the consent of the rowing committee, handed over to the Government the University Boathouse to be used as a training school. This made a division in our ranks. The enlisted men, some 30 odd, went down to the boathouse and gave up their college work. About 150 others who wanted to finish their college course and also to receive naval instruction, retained their membership in the Yale Naval Training Unit.

"Now I should like to say a few words in regard to the future. It was our intention to run a naval camp during the summer for the boys who were not old enough to enlist, and we were going to run this camp in connection with the R. O. T. C.; but, as the Government has taken away all our military equipment, the plan has fallen through. Our plans for next year are of a somewhat larger and more ambitious scope. We have prevented to the best of our ability our boys from enlisting until they are of age. There will be, therefore, next year about 50 men who will still want naval training. Added to this number we hope that there will be many Freshmen. We, therefore, plan first to obtain a boat of sufficient size to enable us to go to sea in the afternoon and teach the boys the practical side of navigation.