Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-04-26
JACK TAR AT WORK.
Just What a Sailor Has to Do Each Day
Ship Board.

on snip board.
The mate of squaro-rigGed mer-
chairman thus described the life of an
able-bodied seaman on q long voyage
to a New York Times reporter. a
sailor may be said to begin his days
work with the morning watch" at four
o'clock, when he must turn out of his
narrow bunk in the "fo'castle" and tum-
BILE up on deck prepared to scrub and
wash down decks, which arc always
more or less badly stained with salt
water and iron rust Plenty of water
for cleaning purposes is always near at
hand, and with the aid of buckets and
ordinary brooms, brushes or ''squegees''
Jack usually succeeds in making things
tolerably clean.
Bur if the ship is coming into port and
the captain wishes the decks to look
particularly white, Jack must go down
on his hands and knees and scour tho
decks with all tho vigor of a charwoman
with certain articles called holy
stones" Now, holystones are not treas
ured fragments of some classical shrine,
but communicating pieces of sandstone
about tho size of a brick, and it
is not too much to say that poetry
abandons the nautical mind when
the holystoning process becomes neces-
sary. The operation is always long and
laborious, and the only respite Jack has
from this odious task is in polishing tar
niShed brasswork or being ordered aloft
to attend to some troublesome sail or
bit of running gear. Consequently, by
eight o'clock, when he is relieved by the
forenoon" watch he has had sufficient
exercise to get up an appetite for break
fast such as is rarely equaied or sur
passed by any thing human.
This meal, year in and out, consists of
liberal supply of hot, black, bever-
age called coffee, which is stewed to
distraction, and sweetened, if at all,
with molasses. Then, there is ships
bread, porridge, or ''burgoo," and a
species of hash called "lobscourse,"
which nobody but hungry sailor was
ever known to successfully digest
Jack, however, Is providentially no cpl
cure, but gastronomic genius who dis
patches every thing to satisfy an organic
craving with goatiike facility and relish.
lie then fills his pipe, spins yarns, or
returns to his unan brUsial bunk for a
nap, while his shipmates, tho forenoon
watch" are busy making things snug on
deck and aloft. Indeed, it would be
difficult to say what the forenoon
watch" will not find to do, for much de-
ponds upon the state of the weather.
Butyards must be constantly trimmed,
according to tho direction OF the wind.
sails furled and running-gear looked
after, and, in addition to a scaman's
regular duties of setting and shortening
sail, there Is always plenty OF sail
mending, rope-splicing, spar-scraping,
oiling, vanishing and painting to do, to
say nothing of tho dirty work of tarring
the standing rigging and ropes occa-
sionally. Then every man must take
his turn or trick" at the wheel, which
IL always monotonous and extremely
dangerous duty in bad weather..
We'll, at 1880 tho mon who composed
the morning watch" arc called to u
dinner or hot pea soup, boiled pork and
baneful piece of meat that no arGu-
ment will ever convince Jack is any
thing but army mulo or horse which has
died n natural death. "Salt horse" is,
therefore, the name bestowed by him on
this tough-picklcd substance, and he
thinks himself lucky whom it is followed
by plumduif or "stickjaw pudding"
This sumptuous ropast is thon washed
and after filling and smoking the inev-
liable pipe once moro Jack feels invig-
Grated and happy. and goes on deck as
ono of tho afternoon watch" which re-
lieves the forenoon watch" at twelve.
The "aftcrnooh watch" we will sup
pose, for brcvity's sake, is employed on
deck with duties of the samo nature as
engaged tho forenoon watch" and at
four o'clock this watch isagain changed.
80 you sec that, generally speaking, tho
mon havo four hours on duty and four
hours of. But if this took place with
undertaking regularity, it is evident
that one SGT Of men would always be on
duty during the best part Of the night
al arrangement that would be manifest
ly unfair. In order, therefore, that ono
watch should not have the long nights
duty there arc what VIC sailors call tho