9th of January
Willemsoord Naval college, Den Helder.
The office of Director, Luitenant-admiraal Willem Naudin ten Cate:
"Hm, it seems like the Universiteit Leiden managed to supply us with two translators, who have undergone a crash-course in naval terminology the last week, they will be ready when the officers arrive"
Sbn. Pinke:
"-Excellent Sir, but I almost feel sorry for those young men; I have seen the schedule the Officers responsible for the course have made for the first three weeks, first the introductory course held in French in the morning, followed by a gruelling lessons in Nederland's until kl 20."
"-Well it will be necessary that they acquire at least a decent understanding of the navy command language if they are to gain anything from the rest of the courses, especially the few ones that will join you at sea for the end of the courses."
"-Indeed, and I must admit, it is the few easterners that worry me language-wise, the southerners should not be a problem to hammer into the routine, while Nederland's is not _that_ similar to the German most of them speak, we have plenty of experience working with the Confederates, so there we have routines for Nederland's training. And God knows we got routines for the Gaelic, there were times during the war were I would swear half my crew were named "McDonald".
"-And the other half Mohammed?"
"-Now that you mention it; Yes"
"-So, did you get briefed on the numbers and assignments?"
"-No Sir, only the numbers: nine Irish officers, five Rumania and fourteen Bavarian, this in addition to the 19 of our own, of whom four are clansmen and three indos"
"-Good, then it seems we have at least gotten the same information, well logistics and communications IS one of our specialities, and that is what they are here to learn."
"-Indeed, I take it you have the details on who will undergo which qualified course?"
"-No, I decided to delay assigning our foreign student till after the introduction, but the torpedo school and the mine warfare school is likely to be packed, and I think we will only have out own in the qualified gunnery school; it is not like any of them got any battleships to apply that kind of training to. But most of them will be assigned ashore with the General staff courses, in many ways the most challenging work."
"Like we all know, paper is in the end almost more important for the function of the fleet then the steel in the hulls.."
Den Helder Monday 13th of January:
The Irish, Bavarian and Rumanian naval officers of this years foreign navies' officer assistance program are formally welcomed to Willemsoord.
Den Haag, Monday 13th of January
After a weekend of desperate wrangling over the 1913 budget the Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal, finally voted to accept it this morning.
New for this year is the substantial investments directed overseas. The fists steps for KM De Schelde to open up a branch in Dublin was made; an arrangement the SDAP agreed with to get support from the pan-Gaelic western islands delegates for electoral reform (among other thing allowing women to vote in the November elections). The second FDI-programe was subject to a greater consensus, as it involves subsidising Netherlands shipping with Rumania, credit guarantees for investors in Rumanian infrastructure and industries as well as other measures to strengthen the Rumanian economy and minimise the effect of the Austrian blockade. In fact, considering the scale of the aid package, it is likely it will exceed the losses Rumania suffers several times over. Part of the aid package also involves training Rumanian naval officers in the latest technological, tactical and operational sciences.
14th of January
The year-long study on the labour shortages in the Low Countries has now returned after its first round of consideration among affected government agencies and business. After some modification it has now been accepted as law.
The general outlines:
The law open up and call for the organised immigration of 100 000 workers to the Low Countries over a four year-period.
The main recruitment will be Malaysia and Java.
The government will great a special bureau to match labour migrant with employer needs before any labourer migrate. Union representative will also be integrated into the organisation, to guarantee stability. The bureau is to start its work on Monday the 5th January, 1914.
It is expected that the first migrants will arrive by November 1914
Should have posted this long ago, but never got round to write it down.
1913 naval activity in kingdom of the Netherlands:
January, Mars, May and July: In each of these moths the navy conducted large-scale exercises in the North Sea and around the western isles. These exercises are often called "20-rounders" as that is the average number of full-charge volleys fired by the artilleryships. Usually at lest part of the exercise are undertaken against the navy's manned target ship TR1 (an ex-battleship), giving FC crews good training in engaging a target that tries to not get hit. Exercises are conducted in all kinds of weather, including rain and fog. The anti collision devices fitted to some of the ships have proved usefull in allowing bolder manoeuvres in low visibility and still avoid too many collisions.
Similar exercises are held about every other month, but from the middle of 1913, the readiness level was reduced to "active" for the two battleships, for the first time since they entered service.
Considering the sheer amount of sea time that much of the high seas divisions do, their coordination is getting quite impressive.
However criticism have been raised among some jager commanders that while the sheer amount of gunnery training they receive makes them most excellent gunfighters with rapid and accurate fire, it is felt that to some degree this is achieved at the cost of torpedo training. The later is also usually defensive in nature, reflecting Dutch doctrine in function of the destroyer.
*Not Public*