The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-10-05
SAILORS LOST ART.
NO LONGER DO THE MAN-O'-WAR'S
MEN eMe7olDER TIDES.
And They Don't Make Their Clothes Any
More-When Wooden ships Went Out,
Some Queer Old Customs of the Service
Disappeared With Them.

Fancy work In the navy is lost art. II
: went out with the building of the new
fleet. over on the receiving ship Vermont
at the Brooklyn navy yard, on the glori.
Gus old Constitution at Portsmouth, y.
H., pnd scattered on board ships which APP
pear in The Naval Eagistor rs receiving
ships or as "unserviceable" you can lind
gnallcd and knotted old sailors who, with
LUCE bowed spectacleS and hands of curl.
Gus shape, knit tides, turn cut fancy en-
broidered mats and viii spin you inter
mlnable yarns of the tiln1 hoy made a ia
blecloth for the captains table so many
fathoms long and So many fathoms wide
He insists on making his own clothes also.
as all good sailors used to do. lie has a
poor idea of Il sailor who cannot do a piece
of embroidery as neatly as my lady in her
chamber.
He mourns over the degeneracy of the
service, and will tell you, "In my day, sir,
the cat-o'-nine tails lay alongside the Bible
on the capstan every Sunday morning,
and the crew were piped TO prayers as reg
ularly as 10 grog." He has little use for
the modern sailor, and believes in the old
fashioned, swearing, fighting, drinking.
| knock down and drag out kind, who was
handy with his knife, his fists, his grog
and tobacco and his needle-a curious
| com animation, and yet one (which carried
the flag of the United States victorious
over every sea.
OF all the accomplishments of the old
time sailor that of doing fancy work was the
last TO be given up and to disappear forever
1t went out with the boarding pike drill
which was chung To i'm the navy of the
United States long after the navy of every
other civilized nation had abandoned IL as
obsolete. 1t was ten years ago that the
art OF embroidery and knitting, the max
ing of fancy mats and the art of tailoring.
carried to its apotheoss, began TO be
dropped in the navy of the United States.
New ships, with a different sort of routine
work, new regulations as to clothing and
shorter cruises were the causes of it.
The old sailor was "sui generis;n so is
the new, but he is of different type A
navy sailor is, has been and ALWAYS nust
be of race apart. The sailor is born of
the exigencies of the sea service, and as
those exigencies change so does he. Yet
In all the ages the true sailor must be n
different sort of creature from a landsman.
The change from one sort of q sailor to
another sort was sudden in the United
States navy because the building of the
new navy was thing conceived and car
RED out in so short time. In the old
navy sailor used constantly to handle the
complicated mazes of the rigging of the
wooden ships. His eye was trained in
looking at network of ropes to see Just
what junction each one had in the whole
scheme, and the threads stretched over a
frame Tor making piece of fancy work
were never more complicated than the |
"a M on full -
of-war. 1t was part of his trade to knot
and splice Gas 1t is to some extent now.
but nothing to what it used to bel, and in |
his leisure moments it became easy for |
him to make the most delicate and beauti- |
ful pieces of fancy work. Yet to a-lands- (
man it was the most homogeneous thing
The writer remembers once seeing an |
old sailor, hardened and scanned and beard
ed, the survivor of many a well fought
battle OF the civil war, for nearly half a
century tossed about by every sea that |
rolls and his face furrowed by the "hard
glad weather. of every cline, come into |
the stateroom of an officer on a man-of
warand say, in voice That rumbled some
where underneath the ships keel, "Here's
q par o tides l made We, sir, " at the same |
time putting down two beautiful pieces of
fancy work that would have delighted the
heart OF the instructors of needlework in
, young ladies' boarding school. 1t did
not seem possible that that old "Tarpaulin
Jack" had made these things, but he had.
What real sailor used most to glorify
himself in was his embroidery. Sailors
lsed to make their own clothes and EN- bel
ish them with the most elaborate and
beautiful needlework. Around the wide |
collar, at the openings Of the little pockets
n the breast, in the corners of the collars
md on the upper part of the perfectly fit
ing trousers there was embroidery, fine,
beautiful, ingenious in design and requir-
ng much time, patience and skill to pro-
luce. Then the sailor made his cap, and |
n the center of it's top he embroidered |
gain with great beauty and profuseness.
N the old days ship would be at sea for
months at time upon OCCASIONS and | {
very cruise was long one When the
outline of the ships work was over, the
ailor had plenty of time for fancy work,
or spinning yarns and for singing songs
II 'Iruxton S Victory" and "The Guer-
Zero n Frigate Bold" Now it is few | .
lays from port to rort, and 1t is coal ship
mi clean up af,er jt, And scour bright |
work all the time, When it is NOS drill with
he guns, or torpedoes ur WITH come other :
ewfangled notion about the great floating /
machine shop.
The modern sailor does not make his
wn clothes They ara supplied to him
rom the navy yard or by the tailor aboard
hip. There can be no more fancy en-
'roidering on his shirt, his trousers or his
ap, The regulations forbid IL. a II must be 1
inform in fact as well as In name AID.
rentice boys are sill taught to sew at the
raining school, but that is all that is left :
o remind us of the sailors lost art which
nee ilourished and blossomed on men-of-
var. AS they can no longer wear fancy
Embroidery, they have stopped doing it.
Is their clothes are made for them. they ,
ave lost the art of making them them l
elves. AS they no longer have long hours
leisure for the fabrication of tablecloths,
dies and fancy mats, they no longer ex-
rcise their ingenuity and skill in those
'ays. The coxswain of the captains gig
lay make pretty mat out of junk for
he captain To step on as he gets into the
oat, but that is about all. An old officer
Il a. =