Civilian sailormen who have sailed on vessels commanded by naval officers have been inclined to smile over the minutia of navy discipline and have expressed doubt whether the naval men would find a certain rigidity any more useful in a given situation than the civilian seamen would find a looser ordered system. We can but base judgment on facts, and among the facts that have come under the writer's observation, was the difficulty which the German officers of the _Vaterland_ encountered in taking their vessel into her dock in the North River. The very last time they attempted it the great hulk got crosswise in the current in the middle of the stream, and caused all sorts of trouble. Our naval officers, however, made no difficulty at all in snapping the steamship into her pier. She steams up the Hudson on the New York side, makes a big turn, and lo! she is safely alongside her pier. Any seafaring man will tell you that this implies seamanly ability. Following is a list of the larger German ships which were repaired by the navy engineers, with the names under which they now sail: FORMER NAME PRESENT NAME _Amerika_.................._America_. _Andromeda_................_Bath_. _Barbarossa_..............._Mercury_. _Breslau_.................._Bridgeport_. _Cincinnati_..............._Covington_[1] (sunk). _Frieda Lenhardt_.........._Astoria_. _Friedrich der Grosse_....._Huron_. _Geier_...................._Schurz_. _George Washington_........name retained. _Grosser Kurfurst_........._Aeolus_. _Grunewald_................_Gen. G. W. Goethals_. _Hamburg_.................._Powhattan_. _Hermes_...................name retained. _Hohenfelde_..............._Long Beach_. _Kiel_....................._Camden_. _Kaiser Wilhelm I_........._Agamemnon_. _Koenig Wilhelm II_........_Madawaska_. _Kronprinz Wilhelm_........_Von Steuben_. _Kronprezessin Cecelie_...._Mount Vernon_. _Liebenfels_..............._Houston_. _Locksun_.................._Gulfport_. _Neckar_..................._Antigone_. _Nicaria_.................._Pensacola_. _Odenwald_................._Newport News_. _President_................_Kuttery_. _President Grant_..........name retained. _President Lincoln_........name retained (sunk). _Prinzess Irene_..........._Pocahontas_. _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_...._DeKalb_. _Rhein_...................._Susquehanna_. _Rudolph Blumberg_........._Beaufort_ _Saxonia_.................._Savannah_. _Staatsskretar_............_Samoa_. _Vaterland_................_Leviathan_. _Vogensen_................._Quincy_. [Footnote 1: Is not this rather a reflection upon a perfectly good American city?] CHAPTER XI Camouflage--American System of Low Visibility and the British Dazzle System--Americans Worked Out Principles of Color in Light and Color in Pigment--British Sought Merely to Confuse the Eye--British System Applied to Some of Our Transports