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ENGLISH AND GERMAN FLEETS
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British Bluejackets and Marines are drawn principally from a seafaring stock, and are enlisted, on a voluntary system, for twelve years, at the end of which they are eligible for re-engagement for a second term of ten years, completion of which entitles them to a pension.[1] Two-thirds of Germany's sailors are conscripts enrolled for three years, the greater proportion of whom have never seen the sea,[2] and are looked upon rather as "soldiers on board ship than seamen."[3]
Germany's short-service system accounts for the large number of her reservists. If England adopted the same system, her Reserve would be immense; but she has no need to increase it, since her active-
- ↑ The Ocean Empire,p. 97.
- ↑ "Early in October the [German] Fleet will lose at least one-fourth of its trained men, their places being taken by a like number of raw recruits, most of whom have never before set foot on shipboard."— German Naval Notes from The Navy's Own Correspondent, see Number for October 1911, p. 269.
- ↑ The Ocean Empire p. 101.
