That Sinking Feeling

Never has a secretary of the Navy, certainly in peacetime, enjoyed such shipbuilding success as the incumbent, John F. Lehman Jr., a commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Lehman, who was born four months after the Battle of Midway, has even resurrected the great old battleships of World War II in spite of their dubious prospects for survival in modern warfare.

But a single shot across Lehman’s bow, fired by a former dogface infantryman, has sunk Lehman’s latest idea: building a vintage U.S. Navy sailing ship to train midshipmen in the ways of spars, fo’c’s’les and mains’ls as a symbol of the nation’s maritime heritage and to promote the Navy’s image in tall-ship processions. And maybe because Lehman just wants to have one of everything. The landlubbing infantryman? That was Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger. Without specific comment, Weinberger scuttled the idea faster than you can say Horatio Hornblower.

Pity. While it is puzzling why such a ship could have cost as much as $20 million, one could envision young Cmdr. Lehman at the helm, feeling “the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking.”

Doubtless there were cheers for Weinberger from New London, Conn., where the stately Coast Guard training cutter Eagle is berthed between training cruises and representing the nation well at tall-ship gatherings. And if the siren call of the tall rigging gets irresistible, Lehman can always call the Eagle’s commander and get permission to take a spin or two. She is Elizabeth Hanford Dole, secretary of transportation.