The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1893-12-09
POOR JACKS DULL LIFE.

- sSSsAO O1ACA NJ sDlOllAE AlI Ils
MoNoToNoUs ROUTINE OF a
IS AiLoR'S DAY AT SEA. E.
His Work Isn't SO Very Hard Unless BE- s
Blowing, But He Has to Rise Early
andEChange Watch at All Sorts of In
conyenient Hours.
"Way-ay-ay-ay there, you sleepers!
Eight, bells! Rise and shine!" With
some such yell as this is Jack
aroused from slumber when his
watch has to go on deck. The hour
is 4so,clock in the morning, and he
Immediately tumbles out of his bunk,
and within fifteen minutes from the
time he was called he is on deck
keeping his watch, hoping for 5
o'clock to come when he will take
his heekpot to the gallery and get a
cup Of warm coffee.
Ordinarily there is never any work
done hn ship board before $3.50, ex-
cepting, of course, such as is neces-
sary fpr trimming sail, says the New
York World. At $3.50 the order is
given to "wash down" The men
take brooms and buckets along, two
men go 10 the pump, and then be-
gins the first work of the day, plenty
of water being used, and those with
broon1s scrubbing the deck as they
20 from the poop to the fo'c's'le
head. The scrubbing is done with a
thorOughness that would shame the
best housewives.
BY Z o'clock the deck has been
washed down, after which various
ropes shat have been put out of the
way during the operation are coiled
down clear for any emergency, for
one OF the most important things on
ship board is that every rope should
be in such shape that when it is
let go it should run without getting
any kinks in it, which in some cases
might have rather disastrous ccnse-
quences.
Meanwhile at seven bells (7:3O)
the watch below had been called to
get breakfast. Jacks breakfast,
even in the best of ships, is far from
elaborate. It generally consists of
coffee without milk, ..hard tack"
and scraps of meat left over from the
previous days dinner.
Jack is now off duty till noon.
After he has had his breakfast he
generally has some little odds and
ends of things to do for himself, and
they keep him busy until about 10
O'Clock, when he turns in and sleeps
till 1880, his dinner hour: At IL
o,cloelassheassis onasd deck again till "a
O'Clock: The four hours time from
4 p. m. to 8 p. m. is divided into two
watches known as "dog watches, !"
though the dog watch is always
.reckoned as the watch from to s.
When all the.men are together they
go in for their skylarking, music and
dancing, and have a good time gen
,erally. This is the time when Jack
is seen at his best. when his spirits
are at the highest, when he is con-
genial and has not a word to say
against anybody, not even the cook,
who may have spoiled the dinner
that day.
The object of this division is to
make an even number of watches to
the twenty-four hours, so that there
will be daily change; for example,
the watch that goes below one dav at
moon will the next day come on deck
at that hour. At $50 he has supper
and at 6 he is on duty once more. At
8 he goes below to sleep till mid :
might. when he has again to be on
duty till i O clock.
This is a fair specimen of the mo-
motony of the sailors life at sea. Ex-
cept for the changing of the weather
occasionally and for a slight differ
:ence in the work that has to be done.
one day is exactly like another, with
the same faces around, the same out
book on the broad ocean, the same
food-in all things with a sameness
niieat lis monotonous in the extreme.
Jack is nothing if not a grum bier,
"a reputation he has had in all ages.
Chronic complaining about every
thing and erybody seems to be his
one great amusement or course
there is always some ground for this.
Take, for instance, the question of
food. The rations of sailor are
abou; as follows: One pound of hard
biscuit. one and one-half pounds O f
salt beef, one and one quarter
pounds salt pork. one quarter ounce
of co ee. one-eighth ounce of tea,
and three quarts of water daily; one
half pound -four made into bread,
one-half pint peas made into soup,
three times a, week; one-half pint of
rice, and twelve ounces of sugar
weekly. In many ships the odd
quarter pound of pork and half
pound OF beef are kept back, and in
stead Jack gets one, pound of butter
weekly. At dinner each day the
meat is served and the meat used for
other meals is what is left over from
dinner. 4 s
1t is thought that the old-time
sailor is a thing OF the past; that
steamboats,, which do not require
men with II knowledge of seaman
ship in all its ramitications, are max