Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-05-16
Life in the Forecastle.

"YOu want to know how we fellows
live in the fo'cas'le, do you?" said an
old weather beaten Jack tar in answer
to a query of a Tribune reporter.
.'Well, we have a COMPOUNDED hard
time Of it taking it by and large. Take
a man, for example, that ships for a
deep-water voyage. He gets, say
eighteen or twenty dollars a month.
The ~fo'cas'le is generally crowded to
death and amt fit for a dog to live in at
its best. Its chock-a-block full of rats
and cockroaches, with a smell of bilge-
water, when we are in the warm lati-
tudes, that would turn the stomach of
anything but a shell-back. When we
first leave port the grub is pretty fair.
The salt horse OF salt beef you shore
going folks call it, is comparatively
fresh; the weevils and worms haven't
had a chance at the hard tack, and the
water tastes something like water.
Once in awhile we have soft tommy
or soft bread. Its after we've been to
sea for a month or six weeks that W.
catch it. Why, I've seen meat that
bad, that the doctor as we call the
cook aboard-ship, had to take it out of
the 'harness-cask.' in which it is kept
on deck, with tongs. We got to like it
that way after awhile. Its fun to see
some of those coasting sailors get hold
of a piece of hard tack that's doubled
the Horn two or three times. I've seen
'em take a piece and break it on the
edge of a sea-chest with a marline spike
or a Delaying pin and carefully pick
out the weevils. Lord bless you we
don't take such trouble after we've
fairly taken to growing b%arnacles on
u backs. We just soften it a bit in
coffee and take it in, weevils and all. 1
don't know how that is, but they amt
half SO bad when you get used to 'em.
You know, when we are in port, the
water-tanks are cleaned out and white
washed. After the water has stood in
them for three or four weeks and we
get into hot weather it has the taste of
a mixture of whitewash and iron-rust,
and to say its flat is to put it mildly.
You can guess what nice drinking it
makes.
"Shore-going folks would think that
that kind Of grub would go pretty hard,
but we get so used to it that we won't
have anything else. The nearest / ever
came to being in a mutiny was aboard a
tea-clipper from New York to Shanghai.
The salt-junk gave out and the 'old
man fed before-the-mast hands on
timed meats. The boys liked it first
rate for a day or two, and then they
began to growl and sent a man aft.
The odd man said the men forward
were living on cabin grub and wanted
tc know what allied 'em. We'll, you
see, sir, said the man, there amt no
chaw IN the meat you send forward.
When the boys found out that that was
all they could get, they made the best
of it. Why, there's more chaw in that
salt meat than there is in u piece of India
rubber. I've chawed on a piece for a
whole watch, and it was rs good when I
went below as when i went on deck.
Thursday is generally duff day aboard
ship. Duff is tirst-class when you get
used to it. 1t is made of flour, and
water, and salt. If the doctor is in a
good humor, he puts in some raisins.
Then it is boiled generally in the cop
pers along with the meat, and is served
to the men with a tot of 'nigger-heel'
molasses.
THE grub amt served as we'll as it is
III Aioo-SluoS lcSGduEdllG dSuOES. IL S
generally brought into the ~fo'cas'le by
one of the boys in kids A kid is a
, little wooden tub. The meat is in big
hunks, and the men chop it off with
their sheath-knives. There amt any
ceremony. Every man makes a dive
for the kid and the strongest and
quickest man gets the best piece of
meat: The boy generally gets what's
left if he amt smart enough to hook a
piece before he gets to the ~fo'cas'le,
which he most generally is. I've seen
young fellows that come to sea for fun.
They had better study the old saying,
The boy that goes to sea for fun had
better 60 to Davy Jones for pastime,
for l tell you it's true every time."-
NeW York Tribune.
"A Bismarck woman says she can
put her baby to sleep in tive minutes by
singing "Sweet Violets." The knowing
little probably feigns sleep to gel
her ta stop the music.-BismQrck ri.