Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-12-27
CHRISTMAS AT SEA.
HOW JACK CELEBRATES THE
DAY ON SHIPBOARD.

"Oh, no; we never forget to cele-
brate Christmas aboard Ship" said
the Commodore in answer to a Ques-
ton of Washington Star news hunter.
esWhether in port or at sea the ships COM
pany 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 humor on board that petty jealousies
and Misunderstanding 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 consist
ent with safety. Sometimes the men get
I'D q minstrel entertainment ana have a
lolly good time among themselves. and
some of their shows are well worth wit
Messing. 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 special observance of
the festival. but Jacky is allowed an ad-
vance of pay with which to celebrate.
CHRISTMAS PAST AND CHRISTMAS
PRESENT.
ga good deal more is made of Christmas
nowadays" continued the officer, than
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 homes, and bring with them the
lasting remembrance of home associations
and influences. When Christmas comes
they want to observe 1t as they used to at
home as nearly as possible, and the off,
GERS gladly indulge them as much as thew
can. AS said, there is somewhat of re-
Taxation of discipline 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 GRoG.
'sAnd drink harder%' asked the repor-
ter. "Well, on Xmas. an officer would
be strongly tempted to look with cooked
eye at little inebriety. Speaking of
drinking, though" said the Commodore.
"do you know that there isn't anything
like as much OF it in the navy as there
used to be, and every year it is growing
less. The reason? why, simply because
we are elevating our men by broadening
their views, teaching them to look upon a
world Inside of themselves. This gives
them self-respect, and when they have
word, as the majority of our sailors are.
when a man is ignorant OF everything
but the mechanical duties of sailor, he
is naturally selfish and doesn't want any
thing more for pleasure than to satisfy
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 of life, and
you give him self-respect, and then you
hi yla.,t,I
discipline of the ship. OF course there
are a few old soaks in every crew that
will come back from liberty in beastly
state of intoXlcatiOn. Nothing else can
be expected OF them. But you are equally
as sure of finding in every crew q set of
bright young fellows who respect them
selves and are respected by their superior
officers, who would trust them anywhere.
When they have liberty they go off and en-
joy themselves in decent way at the
theatre perhaps, and return to the ship at
the appointed time, ready to resume their
duties. These are the men that at Xmas
time the officers like to see enjoy them
selves"
SAVING UP FOR CHRISTMAS.
"When a vessel is expected to be at sea
on Xmas day." said the Commodore, "the
officers generally make point of reserv-
ing some of their land supplies, in order
that they may have an extra feast on that
day. The two messes, the wardroom
mess, to which the watch officers belong,
and the Storage mess, which is composed
principally Of the youngsters, attempt to
surpass each other on such occasions.
i don't know why it is, but the Storage
generally comes out ahead at such times,
when advantages are equal. L remember
when the Portsmouth came round the
Horn from San Francisco during the
winter OF '77'7S. Each mess kept a
turkey for Christmas dinner, when all the
land supplies were gone and only sea
grub was left, these birds lived on
and grew fat, for they were well
fed. They were exactly alike, and no one
knew which one was whose. They were
kept together in coop on deck, where
they were watched and fed. A day or
two before Xmas the coop door became
unfastened, and before it was secured,
one of the birds escaped and flew of over
the sea. A lieutenant and midshipman
were conversing near by, and as the
turkey took wing the latter exclaimed as
quick as flash: There goes the ward
room turkey That was all the evidence
needed to identify the remaining bird,
and to enforce the claim that the steer.
age 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 din
ner aboard ship that was more akin to
starvation than Xmas cheer" continued
the Commodore.
What did you haveW asked the re-
porter.
''Mussels," WAS the reply, (which were
our steady diet for many day. We were
going TO have roast goose to help out
with the mussels on that particular day,
but the goose went wrong aud we were
badly left"
'"Tell me about it," urged the reporter.
sit was shortly after the war;" began
the officer, leaning back in his chair,
"that L was assigned to one of our side
wheelers that was sent on 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 proved TO be a regular
buifeter. My goodness! how she did roll
and pitch and wallow. Long before we
reached Valparaiso the bolts In her
wheels had all worked loose, and as she
rolled over on one side the wheel on the
other side, clearing the waves, would
rattle its paddles along tue rail. A pretty
tlcklish coalition she was in, but we got
through all right, only our trip was many
months longer than 1t should have been.
"We sailed from New York and reached
Montevideo all right, although IL was a
very slow passage. There we made the
hoe frr . la