National Geographic Magazine/Volume 31/Number 4/Naval Training Station of Newport, Rhode Island

Underwood & Underwood	500 NEWLY MADE BLUEJACKETS OF THE U. S. NAVY READY FOR ACTIVE SERVICE Having completed the necessary course of instruction at the Naval Training Station, Newport, R. I., these youths, bearing their white canvas bags, which in the navy take the place of “wardrobe trunks,” stand on the threshold of the great adventure—war—with honor and sacrifice for country as the two great prizes. The Newport Naval Training Station is to the bluejacket what West Point is to American army officers and Annapolis is to the future admirals of our fleets. Here he receives instruction in the essentials of seamanship. At the present time all the pupils at this school are undergoing intensive training to fit them for the immediate needs of the hour.
American Press Association	A NAVAL MILITIA BUGLER SOUNDING A CALL “TO THE COLORS” In twenty million American homes fathers and sons are waiting for this call, and when the summons comes there will be no shirking of responsibility. Mothers, wives, and daughters also will hear this challenge, and with hearts steeled to sacrifice will bravely bid farewell to those who go to battle for America and humanity.
Underwood & Underwood	A NATIONAL GUARDSMAN COMPLETELY EQUIPPED FOR SERVICE On his back this American fighting man carries his blanket roll, small shovel, bat, etc. His canteen is at his belt. He is armed with a .30 caliber U. S. Army rifle. Minimum weight for maximum efficiency is the principle upon which his whole outfit has been designed.
United States Navy Department
U. S. S. “CONSTELLATION” MOORED TO A WHARF: NEWPORT, R. I. Born into the American Navy in 1798, the same year which marked the advent of the more famous Constitution, this stalwart fighting craft, flagship of Commodore Thomas Truxton, carried the Stars and Stripes to victory in two of the most brilliant naval engagements in the history of our nation. Like Old Ironsides, the Constellation is preserved as a shrine at which bluejackets and marines become imbued with the spirit which animated American seamen in the early days of the Republic.
United States Navy Department
GYMNASIUM INSTRUCTION IN THE NAVAL TRAINING STATION: NEWPORT, R. I. Upon the sturdy strength of these youthful shoulders the United States will rely confidently in the death struggle with the sinister German submarines; and no American doubts the courage or the stamina of these about-to-be fighting men of a navy which has never yet known inglorious defeat.
United States Navy Department
YEOMEN'S SCHOOL, NAVAL TRAINING STATION: NEWPORT, R. I. In order to perform efficiently and expeditiously the clerical work on board a modern warship, yeomen must be proficient in stenography and typewriting; hence this group of young enlisted men resembling a class in a business college.
United States Navy Department
SCHOOL FOR SAILORS, NAVAL TRAINING STATION: NEWPORT, R. I. Instead of working at a blackboard with chalk, these pupils solve their problems on a wooden rail with rope. The course in elementary seamanship conducted in this rigging loft includes a mastery of the subject of knotting and splicing.
United States Navy Department
PASTRY CLASS, COMMISSARY SCHOOL, NAVAL TRAINING STATION: NEWPORT, R. I. To be “well versed in the arts of pies, custards, and tarts” is an accomplishment no less vital to the success of a navy than gunnery or signaling. Each must do his bit on a warship, and one of the most important of these is cookery, which keeps in fighting trim the man who points the gun and the officer who navigates the ship.
United States Navy Department
CLASS FOR BAKERS, COMMISSARY SCHOOL, NAVAL TRAINING STATION: NEWPORT, R. I. Napoleon's axiom as to the part of its anatomy on which an army travels applies with equal force to a navy. Uncle Sam is careful to see that his marines and bluejackets are provided not only with ample but with wholesome food; hence his schools for cooks.
United States Navy Department
LEARNING THE NATIONAL AIR An open-air singing class at the Naval Training Station, Newport, R. I. American bluejackets and marines are not expected to rival grand opera barytones and tenors, but they are supposed to know how to sing “The Star Spangled Banner.”
Underwood & Underwood
LINED UP FOR INSPECTION Naval recruits at the Newport Naval Training Station. The cruiser Birmingham can be seen in the background.
Lieutenant Commander James B. Gilmer, U. S. S. New York
OCEAN SPRAY: U. S. S. “NEW YORK”
United States Signal Corps
CLASS IN TELEPHONY: ENLISTED MEN, U. S. ARMY The province of the telephone in modern warfare is constantly broadening. It is one of the agencies which has robbed battle of much of its picturesqueness, romance, and glamor; for the dashing dispatch rider on his foam-flecked steed is practically a being of the past, more antiquated than the armored knight of medieval days. A message sent by telephone annihilates space and time, whereas the dispatch rider would, in most cases, be annihilated by shrapnel.
American Press Association
DEPARTMENT STORE EMPLOYEES PREPARING FOR WAR “An army of clerks and shopkeepers!” was the scornful epithet which the militaristic Prussians hurled at Britain's first hundred thousands sent to the trenches. But derision soon changed to admiration. Among America's first five hundred thousand, also, there will be many clerks, salesmen, bookkeepers, and floor-walkers, including some of the 600 stalwart young men shown here—men who are giving a portion of their luncheon time each day to physical training on the roof of the big New York department store in which they are employed. The girls in the background are salesgirls who have organized as a corps of nurses under the direction of the store physician.
Underwood & Underwood
“WAKE UP, AMERICA!” It was an inspiring moment when, during the great parade up Fifth avenue, New York, recently, the boy scouts charged with flags flying.
Underwood & Underwood	BATTLESHIP ABLAZE IN MID-OCEAN Owing to the perfect organization of the crew of a thousand or more men on a superdreadnought, a fire at sea is not usually so serious as a landsman would imagine. With the first alarm each individual on board becomes a fire-fighter, rushing to his post of duty. Water comparments are closed and preparations are made for flooding the magazines if the flames threaten these store-rooms of destruction.
Underwood & Underwood	SALUTING THE FLAG An impressive ceremony which took place in Fifth Avenue, New York, opposite the Union League Club reviewing stand during the recent “Wake Up, America” celebration. Thousands marched in the procession; hundreds of thousands lined the great thoroughfare and voiced their approval in a succession of cheers.

Source: Untitled series of images (April 1917), The National Geographic Magazine 31(4): 345–361.