A United States Midshipman in the Philippines

These books are written in an endeavor to portray the life led by young officers in the naval service. The writer’s own experiences warrant the belief that the incidents are not unusual. The midshipmen are not merely automatons. To one of Napoleon’s pawns an order was an order, to be obeyed, right or wrong. But the doctrine, “their’s not to reason why” when “some one has blundered” is no longer accepted as an excuse for poor results. In these days of progress we court-martial an officer who stubbornly obeys an order, when he knows that to do so will injure the cause he has sworn to uphold.