The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-04-06
PAY DAY ON a MAN-OF-WAR.
Jacks Little Account With the Navy De-
partment, and How 1t is settled,

seeing is pay day on board a United
States man-of-war after long cruise.
There is monthly pay day even al
sea, but 1T often happens that the men
leave their wages with the paymaster,
since there is no way of spending
money at sea, and Jack believes that
money was made to spend rather than
to jingle in the pocket
Ours is the most democratic navy in
the world when it comes to most prac-
teal matters, but it is constituted npon
an aristocratical theory An officer
may draw two months pay in advance
on going to sea, and great many in
mates of the wardroom set sail in debt
to the government while weak-min ded
paymasters are sometimes bullied or
wheedled into further advances. Jack,
however, enjoys no such perilous privi-
eye as loan from the navy depart
ment On the contrary, the paymaster
takes care that the government shall
always be in debt at least a months
wages to every sailor aboard ship, and
on many ships, indeed, Jack never, save
at his discharge, gets more than a mod
crate percentage of his pay.
1t must always be remem bered in
dealing with United States ships that
the navy is to great degree the slave
of precedent There are liberal ships
and hard ships in the matter of pay.
Far back in the ships history some cap
tain has set the precedent of dribbling
out Jacks money a few dollars at
time, and that precedent holds until
she has an energetic commander who
prefers different course A liberal
precedent is set in the same way, and
the paymaster on a liberal ship
goes on paying out to Jack everything
but months wages until a hard
headed captain of the other sort sets a
new precedent
When ship gets home from long
voyage the paymaster is usually in debt
some thousands of dollars to Jack. The
wages of sailors and petty officers vary
from SIG to $50 month, and some
skilled mechanics employed on modern
steam-driven ships earn as much as $40
month. Besides that every body gets
a ration, which amounts to so cents a
day, and comes to Jack in the form of a
pound of salt horse, a pound of hard
tack, two ounces of coffee, so much
canned stuff of one kind or another,
and variety of other things When
the sailors form little messes in the
forecastle they can commute certain
number of their rations for other things,
and there is a special provision that the
paymaster shall deny to Jack from the
stores no reasonable luxury allowed to
the wardroom mess. Jacks ration is
really great deal bigger than the man
OF average appetite needs and it en-
ables him to purchase little Injuries
without trenching on his pay, and of
course it thus tends to increase his
credit with the paymaster
One other important and interesting
provision of the navy, not long in oper-
alton, also tends to enrich the sailor.
This is the naval savings bank, so to
speak, now two or three years under
way. Jack may take what he can out
of his cravings deposit it with the pay
master, and obtain on all such deposits
per cent. interest. The government
provides for the depositor an account
book, but this Jack usually deposits
along with mis- savings, and the pay
masters clerk is accountant for both
bank and depositor. When Jack is
transferred from one ship to another
his new paymaster receives a memo
randum from the old one of the amount
to Jacks credit, and interest goes ON as
before, but it does not compound The
n sob ie .;
and considerable percentage of the
men make deposits.
Between the money that the paw
master withholds and that which Jack
voluntarily leaves in his hands or de-
posits in the savings bank, some sailors
at the end of a long cruise may draw
many hundreds of dollars, and perhaps
most men draw three or four m onths
pay. The paying is done at the pay
office, usually between decks, and often
near the foot of the companionway,
where the light falls in from the sky.
There, on pay day, assemble the pay
master with his books, the pay clerk
the paymaster's yeoman, and that pic
turesque person, the Jack of the Dust.
At least two of these are required for
the arduous duty OF paying off, and
sometimes all four lend hand. Every
mans name is down on the roll with a
number opposite, and the paymaster
knows just how much is coming to
each. If a mans term of enlistment is
out he may draw all If he will, he
may at once sign for another cruise,
and if he does the paymaster immedi-
ately credits him with three months
pay. If Jack will he may take a fur
Tough of three months, and on return
ing to the service at the end of that
time he will find three months paw to
his credit
Those who remember pay day twenty,
thirty, or forty years ago note re-
markabe change in the blue line wait
ing at the pay Office. The percentage
of native born Americans is larger than
it was twenty years ago; the percent
age of grizzled veterans is much smaller.
The stalwart wholesome looking fell
lows that line up in front of the paw
office average perhaps under thirty
years of age Here and there is an old
fellow who carries in the rearward of
his memory pictures of Farragut with
his wind-blown garments urging for
ward the flagship at Mobile Bay, of the