The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-09-08
THE WHITE SQUADRON.
Incidents of Life On Board the
New Flagship Chicago.

Gently maze voyage Oh U0aTu OIL the nag
ship Chicago of the new navy. He will
give the result Of bis observations in three
articles to be published in Scribner's Maya
zine, the first of which will appear in the
September number. From this the follow
ing interesting extracts are taken:
The old sailing frgate and the great line
of-battle ships. with towering masts and
enormous squares of canvas, their long
rows of guns, tier upon tier, their crews of
several hundred men, have disappeared in
the mists of the past along with the heroes
of Cooper and Marryat. The smallest YES
sci of our squadron, with her six guns, her
powerful engines, and all the appliances Of
defense and offense that steam and cleo
tricity, in short, that modern science con-
tributes to the safety and efficiency of
ships company of the present time, would
destroy whole fleet of "saucy Arethusas."
With the change in the ships, change in
the life and training of the sailor has come,
a change so great that one of Nelson's old
sea-dOgs, or even Jackie of our late war,
would be dumfounded at the manifold duties
required of modern man-of-war's man.
Jack must be soldier nowadays as well as
a seaman. He must understand the intri-
cate mechanism of the revolving cannon,
the delicate sights and complicated brecch
apparatus OF the heavy guns with their n.y.
draulic mountings, the manual and care OF
his magazine rifle and his self-cocking re-
| vOver, as well as how 10 go aloft in
gale of wind and "pass the weather ear
| ring" to pull an oar in a boat or to knot
| and splice rope. In man of-war's crew OF
to-day, many Of the men must be specially
| trained for the peculiar kind of work fall
| ing to their share in the general tout-ensem-
! bic Of modern SC enti fic appliances that are
necessary to insure the efficiency of the ship
| as an instrument OF warfare and to provide
| for the comfort and welfare of those serving
on board of her For example, the York
| town, which at the time of the writing Of
| this article is probably the most thoroughly
! equipped with the newest appointments of
| any of the vessels Of our new navy now in
/ commission, comprises in Its crew OF $50
men-eyclusive of her line officers, surgeon,
| engineers and paymaster-several expert
/ cleo tricianS to run the dynamo and keep in
| order the electric appliances; machnists-
| one of whom is a boiler-maker, and the 9TH
/ prs qualified for duties connected with the
| running and repairing OF the complicated
/ engines, the distilling of the drinking
/ the heating apparatus, and the many uses
| that steam may be put to; an apothecary,
| several so-called yeonien as assistants to the
! paymaster, engineers, etc; besides a black
| snith, tailor, painter, carpenters, sail-maker
| and others.
"Bos'n's mate there. Call all hands!
| Call III the deck look0utsi Lay aloft the
| lockout to the mastheadp' TIE orders fol-
| low in rapid succession. Turn off the
! spar-deck circuit" and the great red and
/ green lights on the port and starboard sides
| of the bridge, and the light at the masthead
are extinguished by the touch OF a button III
| the "dynamo-room below. While a sailor
goes Gripping up aloft' TO the fOretopsail
| yard simultaneously with long-drawn
| shrll whistle of the boats VAIN pipe, echoed
| on the gun-deck by others, the Eoarse cry
| Of tba hca re yyaiu's calling. LA ii
| ha-a-nls. Up all hammocks J! The great
| ship is waking up, and out of the matches
| the men come tumbling one after the
| Other-Sailor men, apprenuce-ooyS, nremen,
marines, cooks ana !" all hands each with
| hammock neatly rolled, ready to be placed
in the MEETINGS in the bulwarks. Brawny,
! bare-chested, bare-fOoted fellows most OF
them. Regardless of the cold wind blowing
AID the wet decks they run nlmbly TO their
appointed stations, some clambering up ana
opening the MEETINGS, While the others pitch
tieir hammocks in and stow them away out
of sight for the day. As We lean over
the rail now and ok down. the scene is
an animated one. The deck forward is
swarning with men. aud Jackie" is
making his morning toilet and preparing
for breakfast and the days routine See
that gigantic young coXswain yonder as
he s0uses his well-soaped neck and face
into the cold water in the bucket before
him, spluttering and blowing away Ike
| grampuS then rubbing and poitSDlnS MS
| muscular, sun-burned neck and broad
white back and hairy chest with his rough,
parti-colored towel. With his little circu-
lar mirror perched on a coil of rope another
| sailor-man is carefully parting his thick,
curly locks, While a Shlpmate looks over his
| shoulder and gives final twist to his black
silk neckerchief, and n marine brushes his
coat and huns softly to himself mean
while. The steam from the galleys is rising
out of the matches, and with it-ningled, it
must be 6Qnfesssed, with smell of Oil and
grease from the englnes-an odor of hot
I coffee aud broiling bacon. and Inc DS5ate
SWANS whistle is heard again piping to
breakfast
A half-hour passes, when. suddenly and
without moments previous warning, the
sharp rattle of a drum is heard, electric
gongs clang noisily, loud and peremptory
orders mingle with the rush of hundreds OF
feet as the crew hurries to general quar-
ters." To the inexperienced eye, what
seems to be q scene of disorderly confusion
now takes place. That portion of the crew
whose stations are on the upper deck come
swarming up the matches the marine guard,
hastily crashing rifles and buckling on acc0u-
termehts, falls in: the keys 10 the magazines
and Shell-rooms are produced and stewards,
servants, cooks and yeomen rig the tackle
over the ammunition matches in readiness for
the work of hosting she'll and cartridges.
The gun-crews cast loose the great guys afsd
the deatil-dealing HotclSiss revolving can
nope ana the machlne-suns; matches are
9astily put on, ladders torn away. and the
| decks turned "tOpSy-turVy" in an instant.
Rifles are handed out from the armory,
| aCc0uterments, revOlyerS, cutlasses caught
| from their places, and in an incredibly short
| space OF time order rises from apparent
chaos, and every officer and man is at his