Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-09

enjoy life the most, for, though often crowded in narrow quarters. where they must eat, sleep and live in one room, the buoyant spirit of youth asserts itself and good humor reigns. In the old navy the junior officers quarters were called the 'steerage" and it was little more than an inclosure on the berth deck, where the crowd of junior officers slept in ham mocks 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, and their comfort is vastly increased thereby. The next mess in order of rank is that of the war rant officers, which, like the junior ofii- cers has it's quota of steward, cook and boys. These warrant officers are the gunner, carpenter. boatswain and sail 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 life tenure, unless dis missed by sentence of general court martial for some serious offenSe against military or naval law. Thus, having finished with the officers, who must buy their own food, and who accordingly fol- low their own inclinatons in that matter very much as people ashore do, let us turn to the enlisted men, the blue jackets and marines, who live on a ration issued by the government each ration being of the average value of 30 cents per diem.
 Among the enlisted men there are also grades of rank, and the petty officers. who are given more or less authority in the various departments, generally have a mess by themselves, where they live plainly, but neatly and we'll The other enlisted men are divided up into mesSeS of ten or fifteen men each, and each mess has a cook, taken from their own num- ber, who prepares the food with the ships cook and his assistant The ships cook is an important parsonage among the enlisted men, and upon him rests the responsibility of preparing the bean soup and other dishes that are the same for all, while the mess cooks prepare the especial dishes for each mess. The ships provisions of beans, flour, salt and corned meat and canned goods occupy space in large store rooms especially de- signed for the purpose, and the stock is quite extensive when laid in for a long cruise. The days provisions are served out in the morning, and the contracted space around the galley is crowded until dinner time, when signal is piped by the boatSwain, the tables come down from the deck beams above, where they are stored when not in use; the knives, forks and spoons and agate ware dishes are set out from the chest in which each mess keeps it's belongings and in ten minutes the meal call sounds and the BOO or 400 seamen and marines and en- gineer force are eating their dinner, which, if in port, may consist of fresh meat, roasted or stewed; boiled potatoes, canned corn, fresh bread coffee, with, perhaps, a desert of duff" as bread pud- ding is called, or even plum duff" the same pudding with raisins in it. If at sea for a long time salt meat or corned meat is used, and perhaps hard tack instead of bread, and baked beans and bean soup often appear in the menu. In the olden time grog was served out at the mast each day at noon, but the influence of temperance societies stopped this. and now the "jackey' is lucky If he is al- lowed a bottle of beer before dinner and supper.
 I have said that grog was stopped for the men and their beer only allowed. but the personal privileges of officers allow them to have wine and beer for use in their mess or for visitors, but no distilled