The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-19

of the new vessels there are only two,
for there is little need of sailmaker
or bos'n. Then there is a. mess of
the chief petty officers and finally
there are the berth deck messes for
the crew, where there are ten or
dozen men to a table.
If the ship is a flagship the admiral
dimes alone, unless he and the captain
are of congenial tastes. The admiraPs
chief of staff also dimes with the ad-
miral if it be agreeable to him. The
chief of staff is supposed to have small
choice in the matter. The social rela-
tons of the captain to the other Off
GERS lie chiefly around the captains TIA
BILE He invites the officers to dine
with him in rotation until all have
been entertained. The Wardroom al
ways invites the captain to dine with
them on holidays such as the Fourth
of July and Christmas.
There is always room for guest at
the table in every wardroom. Any
member of the mess has a right to
ask a friend to dinner at most any
time and on stated occasions the ward
room, as whole, invites guests. These
dinners are always something of a
Formally The officers are in their
evening dress as are their guests. In
some of the larger ships there is room
for from eight to ten guests. The cost
of their entertainment is assessed on
the wardroom staff. When a person is
entertained as a guest of a certain
officer the expenses fall on the officer
who extended the invitation. The same
rules that obtain in the wardroom hold
good in the steerage among the junior
officers, and in a crude way in the
messes of the crew. The members of
the crew always feel somewhat in
touch socially with the officers when
every day they see the officer of the
deck taste their soup and eat bite of
their meat before it is served out to
them. It makes them feel that the So
cial distinction between them in the
matter of food, whatever it may be
in the matter of drink, is not so great
after all
Then there is social duty observed
by the waTdroom officers as to the mat
ter of calls. Whenever a new captain
comes aboard each officer is expected
to pay a formal call on him. When an
admiral arrives, or another ship is
added to the squadron, the duty Of
paying calls is delegated to a commit
tee. If every officer were expected to
call on every other officer the series
of calls would not only be burdensome,
but might interfere with discipline.
pointed in each wardroom, and this
committee, with its engraved card rep
resenting the officers of the entire
mess, pays the required social duties.
If a new ship has arrived, this COM
mittee pays call on all officers from
admiral down. The call is returned in
the same way as it is rendered. There
are certain mythical personages on
every ship that have a distinct stand
,rr -, foI f,,+e Of .affi-
GERS and men. One of these is Char
ley Noble" No ship floats without
Charley Noble in its crew, simply be-
cause no ship exists without a galley
stovepipe. Charley Noble is that stove
pipe. The relation Of well-cool1ed food
to the domestic life on shipboard is so
close that the condition of Charley No
BILE, who often becomes indisposed, is
a matter of great concern to everyone
on board. Charley Noble is always
discussed seriously and he also comes
dangerously near to being a serious
topic of conversation for the wardroom
mess. 1t is when a new DaymaSter's
clerk or other minor official comes on
board and is taking his first cruise
that there is unusual solicitude for
Charley Noble. The new clerk learns
that this Noble fellow is tremendously
popular, but looks in vain to find him.
On the recent cruise of the Cincinnati
down near Key West a pistol shot was
heard one day. Soon the paymaster
appeared at his Office and said to his
clerk:
did you hear that shot?"
Eyes, 1 did, said the clerk, land l
was wondering what it could have
been"
"Well, Charley Noble has shot him
self; committed suicide, said the pay
master. "Just hurry and make up his
accounts and see that everything is
charged to him, so that we may send
the papers to the auditor. It is Gus
tomary in such cases"
The clerk made grab for his book
of daily entries and began a search for
Mobiles name. He failed to find it.
Then he seized his index, and just then
the paymaster had business in another
part of the ship Twenty minutes later
the. clerk hunted up the paymaster and
solemn1y informed him that he could
not find that man Mobiles account any
where, and soon the Cincinnati was in
loud guffaw from end to end The
cook had fired a pistol in Charley Noble