The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-14
RUBBING THE ROMANCE OFF.
Naval Changes That Are Taking All
the Poetry Out of Life Afoat.
From the Boston Herald.


From the Boston Herald.
The advent of steam and steel. engines
and electricity, to the navy has robbed
the life of man-of-war's man Of much of
the romance which clings to it for cent
urIes, and scarcely month now passes
without the Introduction of some new
custom or the modification or abolition Of
some OLD one, Tor the purpose of adapting
the routine OF warship to altered condi-
tiOnS.
The latest change is one of the most
radical of all, and calculated to give a
rude blow to the conservative old salts
who have maintained that the service has
oeen going steadily to the dogs since the
removal of sails, smooth bores and board
ing pixies. 1t is no less a reform than the
abolition of the time-honored custom of
DIVIDING the ships company into two
equal watches, the starboard and the
port, one of which had always. in the
past, to be on deck at sea, pursuant to the
watch and watch system which gave
the jack tar four hours Of rest alternating
with four of watch.
In the old days of sails it was quite
necessary to have half the crew standing
by at all times in readiness to lay aft the
braces, to reef topsdils, to shorten or
make sail. But we have changed all that,
and the navy department now proposes
| another system The huge machinery,
with It's pOnderous boilers and powerful
engines, is now the motive force, and the
deck force has little to do when under
way beyond the hosting out of ashes,
keeping lookout and preserving cleanli-
ness Were 1t not Tor the manning of
guns the deck force required on a modern
warship would hardly exceed one-tenth
of the number formerly maintained. The
ancient sleep-preventing practice of keep
ing 100 or more men on deck at all times
is accordingly an anaChrOniSm
So it is now proposed to divide the crew
into four instead of two parts and but
one of these quarter watches, perhaps
but half quarter watch, will be kept on
deck under ordinary conditions at sea.
These four equal divisions will be based
upon the disposition of the battery with
reference to sections of the ship the lat
ter occupies. The system of giving every
man a number will also be changed
Heretofore the number. correspOnded to
the part of the ship" wherein man
was stationed, the numbers from
lOl to 200 inclusive, for instance,
being assigned TO the fOretoDmen,
200 to 300 to the maintOpmen, etc. old
numbers being in the starboard watch
and even ones in the port But forecastle
and foretop, maintOp, mizzentop, and af-
parts of the Ship from which they take
their name. Accordingly, each man will
be designated by four numerals, each hav-
ing some significance. Thus, suppose n
mans number should be l,229
The first mineral, Il, " would signify his
class or corps, '.2'' his gun division, and
''29o his individual number in the class
and division to which he belonged
This change. together with that above
tG # q r,c
is indeed radical, and many veteran of
the old navy, as he reads of it, will doubt
less consider it revolutionary and remov-
ing him and his own naval experience still
farther back in past epoch The beau
tiful old song ''Larboard Watch, Alloy"
received its first blow when the word
port was substituted for 'larboard,' -
in view of the confusion likely to
arise from the latter words similarity to
''starbOard." The second blow has now
come in the abolition of the watches"
altogether.
Another marked change in the new cap
salute. The old naval salute, easy but
unmilitary, was a simple raising of the
cap, almost identical with that commonly
used between civilians in exchanging
greetings. Instead of this, the saluting
officer or man now stands rigidly at "at-
tention,' brings his hand smartly and
with precision to the visor of the cap,
and holds it there punctiliously, with
military accuracy and steadiness, until
the salute is returned The old style was,
to say the least, slouchy. The new
fashion is smart, dressy, ceremoni0us and
military.
Thus the changes succeed each other.
already the representative of the ''old
navy'' feels cons trained on the steel hulls
of the new, surrounded with the unfamil-
lar weapons and instruments, gearing
and mechanism generally. He will soon
feel considerably out Of place.