Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-05-02

ters. FROM the CONCLUSION OF that work until
7:30 there Is practically nothing to do, but
at the time specified the men stand
by their hamrlocks to get the beds down.
At 7:30 the hamrnocks come down and within
the hour following the lower decks are cleared
up. At o'clock :he commanding officer
makes his rounds and sees that all lights in the
store rooms are out and that there Is not any
where danger OF fire. The chances are against
CONGREGATIONS in vessels like these just now
here for the reason that electricity Is used In
every part Of the ship. Most Of the men turn
in about o'clock, but they can stay up till 10
If they want to. When 10 o'clock comes. how
ever. then everybody is piped down of the
upper deck except those who have to stay there
for duts.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE.
The matter of getting shore-leave is one Of
considerable importance to the bluejacket In
order that every one may be justly dealt with
ships crew is divided into three classes for leave
purposes. On foreign stations the crews are
divided into two watches. In England into
five. Most men are started out as members Of
the first class; they certainly are il they have
good records as boys. These first class men
have leave every alternate night. Sometimes
they get off as early as o'clock in the after
noon, and when their ships are lying in ports
where the men can be accommodated with Sleep
ing quarters they may stay ashore until
O'Clock the following morning. Where there
Is no accommodation they must be on board by
II of that same night. The second-class men
can only get leave once a week, and that they
do not get it oftener is due to some fault of
their own. In the third-class, which is a most
undesirable thing to be q member of, nobody
secures leave privileges oftener than once a
month. But a man has to be pretty bad to get
into the third division.
oFFENsEs AND PUNIsHMENrs.
OF course there are lots of offenses in such a
great community as is to be found on board
the Blake. Where there are five or six hundred
men gathered together there must necessarily
be more or less of mischief, and as mischief
cannot continue without damage to the service
it has to be stopped by punishment. Leave
breaking Is the commonest as well the worst
offense and Is the one most severely repressed.
For every break of six hours under first
class man will be put in the second class and be
nned one days pay; for every six hours addi-
tional or fraction Of six hours he is mulcted in
an additional days pay, and for every separate
hour he Is docked one turn Of leave, SO that
a six hours break would keep him aboard twelve
days. III the offender was in the second
class when he committed the offense he might
possibly be dropped to the third class and
nothing more disagreeable than that could hap
pen to any sailor. 1t is only once in a great
while that there is any disorderly conduct on
board, and wher it does happen the third class
man IS pretty sure to be the culprit. Occa-
sionally one of these gets into the cells and
stays there. it may be, for seven or fourteen
days. Twice each day and for an hour each
time he Is taken out of his place of confinement
and exercised on deck under guard, and should
he have misbehaved himself very seriously he
may be placed on low diet In fact, it quite
frequently happens that a man who goes in for
seven days will spend the first three and the
last three on abbreviated rations. In addition
to suffering this reduction of his food supplies
each prisoner is compelled to pick daily two
pounds of oakum. II the prisoner happens to
" had oh hav
sibly get court-martial, but such happening
Is extremely rare. The captain Is empowered
to imprison at large, it is called, and then
when port Is reached-a British port-on the
captains sentence the man can be Jailed for as
much as ninety days. But when his term is out
he must come back to the ship again. No mat
ter what he does, unless he commits murder it
will be impossible for him to get away from
the service.
MARRIED MEN AFTER SHORE DUTY.
After eight years served on shipboard men
may, if they so desire, volunteer for duty with
the coast guard, but they must be very well reom-
mended and have to wait for vacancies. They
start out with the pay Of Sc week and can
make rather nice thing out of their shore job.
Married men are the ones who generally take
the service, and when their terms expire they,
like those who continue to serve on shipboard
are properly and fairly pensioned. They
really render very valuable service for in their
hands is the prevention of all smuggling and
to their efforts is due the large saving of human
life along the stormy coast Of the British
Islands.
INSUFFICIENT PAY.
At the end of the twelve-year period great
proportion Of the men leave the navy. and they
do this because their pay is really insufficient
and because there are many lines of profitable
endeavor open to them. The merchant service
offers no advantages. SO that doesn't capture
any Of them. But they do go into all sorts of
private employ, and. a rule, make trust
worthy employees. 1t is short-sighted policy
that almost forces good man to leave the
service at the time when he is really most use
full. The general impression seems to be that
the seaman ought to get at least As or so cents
day without the allowances so that his
entire per diem earnings would amount to from
60 to 65 cents. Unless there is some such in
crease the service will continue to lose many of
the very best of its men. The London fire
brigade Is always ready to secure an ex-sailor
and they prize the an-of-wars-men very
highly. He is offered Inducements that very
few men of his station would be apt to throw
aside, and as consequence the London fire
brigade is composed largely of those who have
served her majesty, the queen, some of the
many magnificent ships of war of which
England is SO extremely proud.
PROMOTION.
Promotions for men before the mast are
reasonably rapid. A man has to be recon-
mended for a petty officer, but unless he is
good seaman and a thoroughly steady character
he will fail in his efforts to secure the recon-
raendation. After man has been first-class
petty officer he gets what is known as progress
i've pay, and that means cents additional per
day. And when he becomes chief petty officer
he only gets cents per day extra and has to fit
himself with entirely clothing outfit.
for the promotion takes him out of blouses and
puts him into jackets. The admiralty allows
him but S25 with which to purchase this
outfit, but that amount is not more
than one-fourth of what is really required
As rule petty officers do not care for the
rating of chief petty officer, because the new
clothing is expensive and because there is no
increase of pensions, but those who want to be
warrant officers have to accept the promotion,
for the reason that there isn't any way to be- |
come a warrant officer without first becoming
a chief petty officer. These chiefs the chief
gunnery instructor, chief torpedo instructor,
admiral's coxswain Con fagships), chief writers,
CHIEF carpenters mate, chief stokers, ships |
steward and master-at-arms.
CLOTHING.
In the matter of clothing the regulations
seem to be trifie stringent on the seamen.
When boy joins he is allowed go for cloth |
ing. and receives from an outfitting contractor
Dne-half of the kit which is deemed necessary.
After being on the training ship some time he