The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-22
ON BOARD SHIP.
THE HOUSEKEEPING ARRANGE
NIENTS ON A MAN-OF-NAR.

Something About the McSses-The
Table Expenses Are Paid by the
Omccrs-Entertainin Visitors.
From the Washington star.
To you of the land who have plenty of
room for all the various departments of
your housekeeping affairs. it may be inter
esting to know how the several hundred
people crowded beneath the decks of a
big man-o-war manage TO exist comfort
ably in the contracted space allowed. Cen
orally well forward on the gun deck there
is the gallery. on which all the cooking
for the officers and men is done This galley
is a large range fastened down TO the deck
with iron straps. and from early morning
till shutdown 1t is surrounded by the cooks.
preparing and cooking the food for the
various 'messes," or different tables
aboard the ship. If it be a flagship, that is.
one bearing an admiral in command of
fleet or station, the first mess in import
ance Is that of the admiral who has all
to himself a steward. a cook and boy.
He may eat alone in his cabin or have the
captain and members of his STAFF with him;
aratc cabin, with the same complement of
servants. Next we go down into the ward
ROOM where the fifteen or twenty watch
officers, engineer officers, paymasters, doc
tors, chaplain and marine officer are all
together in a big mess, with a steward,
cook and five or six servants or ward room
boys as they are called aboard ship.
In this mess one Of the officers is select
ed caterer and has general supervision of
! everything pertaining to 1.-THE general di-
| rection of the steward and boys and Of the
menu and the grumblings Of the discon-
tented members are directed against this
official i""7f H" reg
! Contrary to the general idea of the civil
/ ian who visits the ship. the officers arc not
\ furnished everything by the government.
but must pay for all THEM food from their
| morthly pay, and the caterer becomes the
| treasurer of these payments from all the
| officers. OF course the stewards, cooks
| and boys are regularly enlisted in the
service and all hold minor fighting sta
tions, at which they regularly drill, but
| every mouthfuI of food is bought by the
| officers themselves
Until quite recently the officers of the
| messes were required to buy their own
| kitchen utensils and dishes, glassware and
| tableware, but these are now furnlshed
by the government leaving the officers the
| napery to buy.
The steward is entrusted with the duty
of buying the daily provisions for the mess
and seeing that the cook prepares them
properly and that the boys serve them
well.
| His value depends upon his knowledge of
marketing cooking and the discipline he
| has among the boys. and last, but far from
! least, upon his honesty, for in a large mess
| he may handle hundreds of dollars in
month.
The duties of the boys, besides serving
49, 1c LEI u, iTr
all the state rooms in order, as well as the
| mess rooms.
The stewards are generally old and tried
| men, who have served through the inter-
mediate stages of boy and cook, while the
| boys are of every grade of efficiency and
| every nationality
Ships on the China station generally
| have Chinese or japanese boys, as they
| are quick to learn, generally honest and
quite amendable TO strict discipline Those
| on the home station have JapS when they
| can be procured, and otherwise, white or
| colored servants, the former being of an
| insub-ordinate tendency in such lowly posi-
tions while the chief fault of the negroes
| is laziness.
good boy aboard ship is valuable
rarity, which the officer separated from
| the nlending hands of home thoroughly ap-
| preciates. Such boy can do anything from
sewing on buttons and mending shirts to
| conveying messages.
! These boys often take quite an air Of pro-
prietorship over the officers they serve,
| and their advice is often ludicrous, even
/ If perhaps good.
The Japs, with their quick brains and
/ active hands, are especially interesting,
| and have seen one Jap boy in a Junior Of
/ fcers' mess called upon by three or four
naval cadets for different services and still
| always ready with the required article
! from a collar button for one to the making
ready of a whole full dress uniform for
! another.
Next I'm Importance after the wardrOom
mess officers mess is the Junior off1cers
mess, made up of the Junior line and staff
! commissioned officers and the naval com
| nissioned officers and the naval cadets,
and. perhaps. of all the officers aboard ship.
| The members of this mess enjoy life the
most; for though often crowded into mar
| row quarters, where they must eat, sleep
| and live in one room, the buoyant spirits
of youth asserts itself and good humor
| reigns.
In the old navy the Junior officers quar-
| ters was called the "steerage," and II
was little more than an Enclosure on the
berth deck where the crowd or junior ON
| GERS slept in hammocks at night, and ate
and lounged by day; but In the new ships
of the modern navy there are rooms with
double berths for the junior officers, ana
their comfort is vastly increased thereby
The next mess in order Of rank is that
of the warrant officers, which like the
Junior officers has it's quota of steward
cook and boys. These warrant officers are
the gunner, carpenter. boatswain and GALL
maker. who, while they do not carry a
commission. hold important positions on
shipboard and are warranted by the
president to their several positions on
which they have a life tenure. unless dis
missed by sentence of general court-mar-
tial for some serious offense against mill
tary or naval law
Thus, having finished with the officers
| who must buy their own food, and who
| accordingly follow their own inclination