Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-08-14

~ butter would not
melt in their mouths. They stand at atten-
ton In their mastering shirts, strong sup
pie. with fixed expressions of alertness, all
apparently nimbussed by the beatitude of
bland and perfect innocence. Here at
least" reflects the civilian ship visitor, ''be
men who dwell in amity and brotherliness
toge ther."
If the civilian ship visitor goes the length
OF putting such reflection in words in the
hearing, say Of the officer of the deck, he
is met with SO plying smile that he asks
questions. The officer accomplishes the
civilians disilusionment, and teaches him
the pure absurdty of expecting something
like 500 full-blooded, salt-sprayed. I've
burnt. tar-stained men of the sea to pass
tier days of storm and calm together, in
the cramped, jostling space beneath their
tc'gallant foc's'le, with no more friction
than that of a new Arcadia or Bellamy
&C immunity, and with never the noise or
SC urry of hot-tempered tumult. All the
things that go on, cruise in and cruise out
f!om cat-head to propeller alley, among
the enlisted men on an American warship
do not nestle In the eye of any officer of the
deck; bat any such an officer who has worn
sword-belt long enough to tarnish the Gilt
of the buckle knows of the Scraps be-
tween man-of-war's men that take place
beneath his very feet while he PAGES the
quaf tefueck, under shining stars or skies
o. lead.
A Necessary Evil.
The regulation against fighting is Der
maps tie deadest of all naval regulations.
1t Is impossible of enforcement If it were
enforced to the letter, pretty nearly all
Eahds among the men forward would be in
the brig from one years end to the
other Fighting is practically a necessary
evil among men who wear their country's
uniform Tor a livelihood. Officers of ex-
per1ence blink at it. They know the had
communicating results of bitterness between
pair of bluejackets under the forecastle.
Ihey have learned that 1t Is better the
ting Shouid be fought out and done with
imam that dozens of men should be drawn
into quarrel that testers and grows nm
less the head of 1t is broken by a decisive
oattle between the two men who have
Deen snarlfng at each other. People who
nave made ocean voyages often dwell upon
tne WEAKNESS which has overcome them at
the sight of their fellow voyagers' conn
tenances toward the end of passage. This
Is feeling which is aggravated a thous-
aEd-fold amid the uncomfortable surround
lhgs OF a war vessels forecastle, the hun
areas OF occupants of which are obliged to
pc. constantly together for from one to
three years Each man becomes thorouehlv
aware OF all his mates little charact sris-
Tics, and after while, whether these char
acterlstlcs be good or bad, they jar upon
MIN II only on account of their monotonv
mus friction is generated, and 1t is for this
reason that the crew of a man-of-war lust
returned to the United States after three
years cruise In foreign waters is generally
sCch sour-looking lot, even as concerns
the oncers aft, who become quite as sick
VI each other as do the men forward
Interesting Preliminnries, ..
hardly day passes that there is not at
least one scrap on board most men-of-war.
with the promise of heavier battle to fol-
low. "A blue Jacket seats himself on an
others ditty-box, and. on being roughly
ordered by the box's owner to yacate he
refuses and consigns the owner to a muah
less moist place than Davy Jones' locker
The men come together two mr. threa
blows are exchanged and then, as by com
mon consent each man draws away both
I Zee ing mat me Jimmy Legs d. E., the
master-at- arms) Is not far distant and
neither caring for trick in the brig"
Having thus become involved in the minor
hstic argument of the deck. the two blue
Jackets are looked to by the entire shin's
company to bring their affair to a satisfac
tory conclusion. The mere exchange of
Srowls between the two men doesn't go
Iipe Town there We man-of-war chaws,
ana settle the thing rght!'' is the general
remark hurled at them by all hands when
they meet In mere contests of cuss words.
and the sailor who is considered to be the
aggrieved man Is watched carefully to see
If he makes any preliminary moves toward
arranging a regular fight. He almost al
ways does
Nearly all the regular fights between blue
Jackets aboard ship are pulled off down be-
low in one Of the fire rooms or in an
empty bunker. The empty bunker is pre-
ferred on account of its greater isolation.
blue jackets below all hands know all
about it, often including the master-at-
arms himself, but very few of the men.
unless they are intimates of the combat,
ants. expect invitations to the fray There
is not room in a bunker for more than half
dozen friends of each man, and even
with this number the space is rather con-
tracted.
With a second each, and a referee agreed
upon by both, the men, stripped naked to
the waist, go at 1t. The fights are not of
the rough and tumble order The men
tight according to regular prize ring rules
ana their shipmates are present to see that
the rules are compiled with. AS many as
hfty rounds are sometimes fought. Ordi-
narily, one of the men goes under by the
| time the tenth round is called If the men
are unequally matched and one of them Is
getting palpably the worst of it. all hands
| in the bunker agree that the thing should
stop. and 1t does STOP If the contestants
are about of a sort, the fight is carried on
| to the end. until Knockout blow is
planted by one Of them, or both are too
weak to go on. At the conclusion of the
fight the onlookers quietly depart from the
bunker, and ascend to the deck by differ
ent engine room LADDERS, SO as not 10 at
tract the attention Of the officer Of the
deck.
"Fell Down a Ladder"
Both men generally get pretty thoroughly
| mauled and bruised up in these bunker
| fights, and, when the battle is over, they
jump into their uniforms and repair to the
| sick bay to get themselves patched up with
arnica, court plaster. etc. The surgeon
| knows at a glance what ails them, but,
| for the sake of form, he asks them what
the trouble is. They have both fallen down
a ladder. Both at the same time? No, sir,
| they fell down different ladders. That's
curious" murmurs the surgeon with a
smile and far-away look in his eyes. scr1b-
| bling an account of their injuries in his
| record, and then he orders the apothecary
| to dress their wounds. This is the end Of
| the bunker fight. Fifteen minutes after the
| two men leave the sick bay with bandages
| around their heads and strong scent Of
| IMMINENT emanating from their persons
| they are likely to be seen with their wound
ed heads together over ditty box. conf
dentially comparing letters and photo
graphs.
| When these bunker fights take place at
| sea. az once in while they d. they are
often pretty serious affairs, on account Of
the danger Of fighting in a small space in a
heavy sea. when the ship seems to betray
an inclination to turn turtle Bunker fight