The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-06-20
THE THIRSTY MAN-OF-WAR'S
MAN.

Perhaps the ingenuity of sailors was
never more conspicuous in the old days
than in their determination to get
liquor The cocoanuts filed with rum
is an old story, so is the canvas poked
down the scupper-where the waste Ii
quor from the grog-tub is poured away
and afterwards hauled up by bit
of string previously attached to it. On
one occasion a midshipman received
orders on Saturday night to take the
launch ashore for load of fresh water
on Monday The boat was cleared out
and well scrubbed. On landing they
had to take canvas hose with large
mouth to it from the launch to a spring
which trickled from some rocks we'll
above the boat. The mouth was triced
up-the water finding it's way through
the hose into the boat in bulk. There
were only three men-the cockSWain,
one man to keep dead leaves, etc., from
falling, into the hose on shore, and one
man to hold the hose in the boat. Yet
one of the two men who never left the
boat was Enthusiastically the worse for
liquor when the launch was towed
alongside the ship. The midshipman
was duly questioned and his leave was
duly stopped. Never could he find out
how that man got drunk until he was
told long after.
Knowing on Saturday that they were
going watering the following, Monday,
one blue Jacket went ashore and bought
some liquor tied up IN pigs intestines,
and hid it near the spring. The man
who was told to look after the
hose ashore being duly informed,
signalled to his topmate in the boat,
and then popped one of the long intes-
tines into the mouth of the hose. The
rush of water carried the liquor safely
through the hose, and the sailor in the
boat grasped it as it emerged, and
slowed it inside his serge jumper, of
course having an occasional pull at it
when the MILDLY was not looking. The
spirits, after having been struggled
through the fresh water, were drunk
neat. 1 remember the case of a ships
corporal Chat is, one of the ships po
lice), who had a brother, a barber in
London, who paid him a visit. The bar
Der was so fascinated with life afioat
that he sold off his business, passed the
necessary examination, and became a
ships corporal himself. During, the
fitting out of a ship there was a good
deal of drunkenness, and it was diff
ficult to find out how spirits were SNUG
gled on board. But the newly made
corporal noticed that there was an
unusual consumption of butter in the
ship. The bum-boat woman sold more
butter than anything else. Moreover,
all the butter was prettily made up in
pyramidal shape of a pattern not gen
orally seen. His suspicious being
aroused, one fine day the corporal
jumped into the bum boat, poked his
pencil into one of the butter shapes,
and then, pressing his hands on either
side, up sprang an artesian we'll of gin
from the butter.
This desire to obtain spirits naturally
resulted in the old days in a good deal
of f1ogging, and sometimes ended in a
tragedy. l remember a Christmas at
Bermuda, when the ship was lying in
the basin, we missed one of our weak
characters for two days, and it was
suggested to me that as he had last
been seen with others buying spirits,
which he said he meant to get on board
by hook or by crook, he might have
come to some harm. Supposing that he
meant to try and swim off from the
shore and make for either the cable,
so as to come up it, or the paddle wheel,
I sent for the diver, and pointing to a
particular spot, / made him go down.
In a few minutes he was up again,
and after we had taken off his diving
helmet he said, "He is there, sir, where
you pointed, lying on his back" We
soon got his body up, and then found
that he had thrust couple of bottles
in the waistband of his trousers, one