The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-04-08
phx Day ON A MAn.oe.wAR.
Jacks Little Account with the Navy De-
partnent, and How lt ~ settled,

Jacks Little Account with the Navy De-
partneut, and How lt Is settled,
One of the sights worth n landsman's
seeing is pay day on board IA United
States man-of-war after long cruise.
There is monthly pay day even at
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 IL comes to most prac-
tical matters, but it Is constituted upon
an aristocratical theory. An officer
may draw two months pay in advance
on going to sea, and a great many in
mates of the wardroom set sail in debt
to the government while weak-mind ded
paymasters are sometimes bullied or
wheedled into further advances Jack,
however, enjoys no such perilous privi-
ege 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 n mod
crate percentage of his pay.
1t must always be remembered 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
foif, hoe tho
out Jacks money few dollars at n
| 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 liberal shin
| goes on paying out to Jack everything
but months wages until hard
headed captain of the other sort sets a
new precedent
When ship gets home from n 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 s35 a month, and some
skilled mechanics employed on modern
| steam-driven ships earn as much as $40
month. Besides that, everybody gets
a ration, which amounts to so cents q
day, and comes to Jack in the form of a
pound of salt horse, n pound of hard
tack, two ounces of coffee, 80 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 a 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 luxuries
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 talse what he can out
OF his cravings, deposit it with the pay
master, and obtain on all such deposits
4 per cent interest. The government
provides for the depositor an account
book, but this Jack usually deposits
along with his 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
savings bank scheme is working well,
and a considerable percentage of the
men make deposits.
Between the money that the pay
master withholds and that which Jack
voluntarily leaves in his hands or de-
posits in the savings bank some sailors
at the end of long cruise may draw
many hundreds of dollars, and perhaps
most men draw three or four months
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 q mans term of enlistment is
out he may draw all If no 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 fur
Tough of three months, and on return
ing to the service at the end of that
time he will find three months pay to
his credit
Those who remember pay day twenty,
thirty, or forty years ago, note a re-
markable change in the blue limo 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-lool1ing fell
lows that line up in front of the pay
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
puff from Ripley's guns that marked
the opening of the civil war, and of
sven earlier scenes The faces are
of Norsemen, Swedes, Danes, Dutch,
(nnPmnnE GnnA6lnnQ l..