Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1876-08-26
Trials of a M~idshipman.
To the Editors Of the Independent:

Hereafter L shall use the persO-
pronoun IL" instead of "he' in
these letters, as they are merely
descriptions of my experience in
entering and while at the Naval
Academy.
/ was not allowed to remain on
the Constitution" long, for be-
fore the ar val of our much long
editor uniforms, /, together with
The other members ofthe new class,
was ordered on board the u. S. S.
"Dale" for a short cruise in Ches-
apeake Bay, and here / got my
first ideas of a sea life. We were
gone about a week from Annapo-
lis the first time, but we made a
number of such cruises and learn
ed a great deal. The first piece of
Information that / remember to
have picked up was that every
rope in that ship had a name, and
/ was expected to learn all of them.
The first one that 1 happened TO
ask the name of was the main
"lift,u and / think that that was a
kind of a lift to me in learning the
names of the others.
Another early piece of informa-
ton that / remember to have
learned, was that tar Would stick
to clothes, and that it looked espe-
cially well on light clothes. / had
on a pair oflight summer breeches
and they were nearly covered with
tar when we arrived in Annapo-
lis after onr first weeks cruise in
the Bay. In fact, the whole squad
of us presented a decidedly pictur-
| esque appearance. There were
just twenty-three of us in the June
portion of the class, (tWenty-six
afterwards entered in September,
and four were turned back, COM
posed the original class of "'72,'
consisting of fifty-three members.
The tWenty-three that entered
in June represented thirteen diff
ferent States, and to see themiat
infantry drill on that first cruise of
the "Dale' when all the beauti es
of their various styles of dress
showed to advantage, the hand
| some,stylish clothes of some mem
bers and the rough, uncouthly cut
of others being equally besmeared
with tar, AID the frantic endeav-
| ors that were made to induce the
cut-aWay coats to button all the
way up and down, each being
compelled to stand up in line with
NJ dsket pressed over the shoulder
and dress to the right must have
been a very ridiculous sight, and
one that we ourselves used to
laugh over a great deal.
We drilled and exercised almost
constantly. At first, our drills in
seamanship were confined to
"monLey yards" on the mizzen
mast, placed only a few feet from
the deck, so that if we should hap
pen to fall we would not hurt our
selves, and we were also nearer the
officer conducting the drill, who
| could see that we were conducting
| the work properly. Later on,
J after we had learned to ham
| die these yards and sails, we
| were detailed to work the light
| yards on each of the masts--that
is, the top-gallant and royal yards
! OF the fore, main and mizzen-
masts.
1 was detailed for the main top
gallant yards-the yards on the
main mast beginning at the low
est ale the main-yard, main top
sail yard, main top-gallant
yard, and royal yard; so 1 was
| stationed on the next to the high
| est yard on the highest mast, as of
| course the "main" mast is the lar
| gest in every way. l was one of
| the highest men on the yard, and
it always fell to my duty to ''furl
the yard arm'-that is, / was al
ways the one to 60 out to the end of
the yard to furl that portion of the
sail and when the ship was rolling
| very violently, as she often did
| during heavy weather, il was not
| an enviable position. To look
| down and see that at one moment
you would fall fifty feet from the
! ships side on the starboard side,
and the next fifty feet from her
side on the port side, is not pleas
ant to contemplate, and to see me
in a sack coat and light-celored
breeches leaning over that yard
and trying to pick up the sail
when the wind was blowing it
straight out from me, would have
perhaps amused some people, but
/ could not see anything in it that
was amusing at that time. Later
on 1 learned to do it easily and
well, and enjoyed it most of the
time.
Falling Water Items.