, 1884-05-31
IN THE %FORECASTLE.
A Deep-water Sailors Description
OF tho Food He Had
salt Horse,- soft Tommy" -Dun"
and Hard Tack---How the Boys
Crowded mt Eating
cabin Grub


"You want to know how we fellows live In
the fo'cas'le, do your said an old weather
beaton Jack tar in answer to a query Of a
Tribune reporter. "Well, we have a con-
founded hard time OF it taking it by and
large. Take a man, for example, that ships
for a deep-water voyage. He gets, say
SIS or $50 a month. The fo'cas1e Is Rener-
ally crowded to death and amt fit for a dog to
i've in at its best Its chock-a-block full
of rats and cockroaches, with a smell OF
bilge-water, when we are in warm latitudes,
that would turn the stomach of anything but
n shell-back. When we first leave port the
grub is pretty fair. The salt horse or salt
beef you shore-going folks call it, is compare
lively 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. It's
after we've been to sea for a month or six
weeks that we 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.
"lt's fun to see some OF those coasting sail
ors get hold Of a piece OF hard tack that's
doubled the Horn two or three times. I've
seen 'em take n 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
barnacles on our backs. We just soften 1t q
bit in coffee and take it in, weevils and all.
L don't know how that is, but they amt half
80 bad when you get used to 'em. You
know, when we are in port, the water-tanks
are cleaned out and whitewashcd. Aftcr the
water has stood in them for three or four
weeks, and we get into hot weather, it has
lha f0afa - N nf-N,- - -
iron-rust, and to say it's fat Is 10 put 1t
mildly. You can guess what nice drinking
it makes.
"Shore-going folks would think that that
sort OF grub would go pretty hard, but we
get so use to it that we won't AVE anything
else. The nearest i 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 hrst-rate
for a day or two, but then they began to
growl and sent a man aft The old man said
the men forward were living on cabin grub,'
and wanted to know what allied 'em. We'll,
you see, sir said the man. there amt no
chaw in tho 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 beef than
there is in a piece OF India rubber. I've
chawed on n piece for a whole watch,
and it was as good when l went be.
low as it was when 1 went on
deck. Thursday is generally duff day
aboard ship. Duff is first class when you
get used to it. 1t is made of -four, and
water, and salt. II the doctor is in a good
humor, he puts in some raisins. Then it is
boiled generally in the coppers along with
the meat, and it is served to the mon with a
tot Of 'nigger-heel' molasses.
"The grub amt served as well as 1t is in a
frst-class eating-saloon ashore. 1t is gener-
ally 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
1t of with their sheath-kniyes. 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 is left IL he amt
smart enough to hook n piece before he gets
to the fo'casle, which he 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
go to Davy Jones for pastime,' for l tell you
it's true every time"