Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-12-24
CHRISTMAS AT SEA.
How Jack Tar Celebrates the Day ON
ShipbOard,


THE NEW ORDER OF THINGS IN THE FoREcAsrLE-A RE-
TAXATION OF DISCIPLINE ON THE FESTIVAL Day
HOW THE wARD-ROoM LOST TURKEY-THE CON-
MoD0RE TELLS CHRISTMAS YARN.
ooh, no; we never forget to celebrate Christmas
aboard Ship" said the commodore IN answer to
question OF STAR news hunter "Whether in
port or at sea the ships company always observes
| the day. The least they do at sea Is to have an
unusually good mess The best the ship affords is
brought out on that day for both officers and
men, and there is such prevailing good hunor on
board that petty 1ealouSieS and mtsunderstand-
1ngs, which are so apt to arise during cruise OF
any length, are forgotten for the time being at any
rate. Rigid discipline is relaxed, and as much
freedom is allowed the men as is consistent with
safety. Sometimes the men get up minstrel en-
tertainment and have a jolly good time among
themselves, and some of their shows are we'll
worth witnessing. If the ship is In port the cap
tain gives liberty to as many OF the men as can
possibly be spared, only keeping one watch
aboard There are no funds available for any spe-
cial observance OF the festival but Jacky Is al
lowed an advance OF pay with which to celebrate
CHRISTMAS PAST AND CHRISTMAS PRESENT.
"A good deal more is made OF Christmas now-a-
days." continued the officer, ethan formerly, in
the navy. You know that years ago our sailors
came from other countries, and from the lower
orders, too, and Christmas was nothing to them.
Our sailors now come from home. American boys
enter the navy as apprentices, direct from their
brance OF home associations and Influences When
Christmas comes they want to observe it as they
used to at home as nearly as possible, and the Off
GERS gladly indulge them as much as they can
As said, there Is somewhat of relaxation of dis
eipline on Xmas day, and the boys are permitted
to laugh and sing louder, dance harder, and jump
higher than at other times"
THE QUESTION OF GROa.
sand drink harder?" asked the reporter. "Well,
on Xmas an officer would be strongly tempted to
look with cooked eye at little inebriety Speak
ing OF drinking, though" said the commodore "do
you know that there isn't anything like as much
otttin the navy there used to be- and every year
| 1t Is growing less. The reason? why, simply be-
cause we are elevatfng our men by broadening
their views, teaching them to look upon world
outside OF themselves. This gives them self re-
spect, and when they have that they are men in
every sense OF the word, as the majority of our
When a man is ignorant of everything but the
mechanical duties OF i, sailor, he Is naturally sell
fish and doesn't want anything more for pleasure
than TO Salty the more degraded appetites Bring
man out OF his little world OF self and raise his
IDEAS SO that he can appreciate the more elevated
sentiments or life, and and you give him self re-
Spect, and then you trust him when he is out
side the rigid discipline OF the ship. or course
there are few Old sOakS in every crew that will
come back from liberty in beastly state OF intox-
icati0n. Nothing else can be expected Of them.
But you are equally as sure OF finding in every
crew set Of bright young fellows VINO respect
themselves and are respected by their superior Of
ncefS, who would trust them anywhere. When
they have liberty they go off and enjoy themselves
In decent way at the theater perhaps, ana re-
turn to the ship at the appointed time ready to re-
sumo their duties These are the men that at
Xmas time the officers like to see enjoy them
selves"
SAVING Up FOR CHRISTMAS
When vessel is expected to be at sea on Xmas
day., said the commodore, 'the officers generally
make point OF reserving some of their land sup
plies, in order that they may have an extra feast
On tnat DAY. me Two meSSeS, the WardroOm
mess, to which the watch officers belong. and the
steerage mess which IS composed principally of
the youngsters, attempt to surpass each other on
such occasions don't know why it is but the steer
age generally comes out ahead at such times when
advantageous are equal. / remember when the
Portsmouth came round the Horn from San Fran
cisco during the winter OF TITS. Each mess kept
a turkey for Christmas dinner, when all the land
supplies were gone and only sea grub was left,
wen FED; They were exactly alike, and no one
knew which one was whose. They were kept to-
gether In co p on deck, where they were watched
ana ied. day or two before Xmas the CO,
door became unfastened, and before it was Sc
cured, one Of the birds escaped and flew off over
the sea- lieutenant and midshipman were
Ihe latter exclaimed as quick as flash, ''There
goes the Wardroom turkey" That was ali the evi-
TO enforce the claim that the steerage turkey was
still safe. The youngsters had him for their
Xmas dinner too and glOried in their success
THE COMMODORE's CHRISTMAS STORY
81 remember one particular Xmas dinner
! aboard ship that was more akin to starvation
than Xmas cheer" continued the commodore
"What did you have?" asked the reporter
"Mussels," was the reply, (which were our
have roast goose to help out with the mussels on
| tnat particular day, but the goose went wrong
| and we were badly left."
'Tell me about it." urged the reporter
at was shortly after the war" began the officer
leaning back in his chair, ''that was assigned to
one OF our side wheelers that was sent ON a cruise
| around the Horn as an experiment. to see how the
class to (Which she belonged could buffet with the
waves and storms Indigenous TO that locality. She
\ htffY axa Nfr-<
how she did roll and pitch and wallow. Long be-
fore we reached Valparaiso the bolts in her wheels
mad all worked loose. and she rolled over on one
/ side the wheel on the other side Clearing the
waves, would rattle its paddles along the rail- A
pretty tlckish condition she was in, but we got
through all right, only our trip was many months
longer than it should have been"
| "We sailed from New York and reached Monte
vldeo al right, although 1t was very slow pas
| sage. There we made the best provision possible
for the 1900 mile stretch to Valparaiso The vessel
had very limited coal capacity but with 100 tons
| out. We encountered storm after STORM, and were
com eomPelled TO take the inner passage through the
Straits OF Magellan. The weather was bad enough
| that way, goodness knows"
| COAL AND PROVISIONS GONE
awe had just passed through the straits" he
| went on, "when the chief engineer made the un-
| expected and diSheartening report that hardly
coal enough for "a hours steaIning remained We
had not recovered from that shock and braced
| ourselves for siege, when the caterer brought
lhe distressing intelligence that the provisions
We're about all gone A good stock or provisions
| mad been laid In, but the water washing through
tne nOid mad ruined great portion Of them. No
COAL no provisions, and regular tub without any
sails 10 speak or. What sails had were of lit
Tie or no account, for there was continuous gale
] In the wrong direction. We had just enough coal
10 run TO an island about 20 miles of the coast
which was near us. There we set TO work to cut
WOOD. The whole ships company was drafted into
service. We brought the wood from shore in our
boats, which would occasionally sink but we
raised them again and made pretty good headway
We had supply enough TO last us while and
then steamed across to the mainland, where we
TOOK shelter In little bay, which we christened
CHRISTMAS BAY,
| for 1t wanted but few days OF that holiday and
| we knew we wouldn't get away for many DAYS.
The first thing we wanted was provisions, and
the next, wood. Game was very scarce. but the
rise and fall OF the tide in the bay was between
twenty and thirty feet. When 1t receded il left
| the rocks literally covered with mISSeiS. At the
first low tide after our arrival every man went to
work on those rocks with Will. Hoes, picks
Shoveis ything we could get hold OF, served to
| drag the clinging mussels from the rocks. When
We had pile collected on board sufficient to go
around, every fellow came up with pan or kettle
with them alone. Now, muSSelS aren't such bad
| eating Ut first, but they don't wear well unless
you have some variety. Our time was pretty well
divided between gathering mussels and gathering
| wood We needed the former to help us with the
latter. We were particularly DESTROYS OF securing
| q variety OF food for Xmas dinner On the
4 day before Xmas / thOuOht 7 saw some OaeSa