The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-05
FIGHTING AMONG sEAMEx IN NAVY.
Gambling Among Men, o'-War's Men
and How It FTourishes.
From DC Washington star.

/ maps the deadest of all naval regulations.
It is impossible OF enforcement II it were
! enforced to the letter. pretty nearly all
| hands among the men forward would be in
the brig from one years end 10 the 9TH
err. Fighting is practically a necessary evil
among men who wear their country's uni
form for a livelihood. Officers of expert
ence blink at it. They know the bad, con-
Eliminating results of bitterness between a
pair of bluejackets under the forecastle
| They have learned that it is better the
| thing should be fought out and done with
| than that dozens of men should be drawn
| into quarrel that testers and grows I'M
| less the head of il is broken by a decisive
| battle between the two men who have been
| Snarling a each other. People who have
| made ocean voyages often dwell upon the
| WEAKNESS which has overcome them at the
| sight of their fellow-voyages' count enances
| toward the end of a passage. This is a
| feeling which is aggravated a thousand
| fold amid the uncomfortable surroundings
| of war vessels forecastle, the hundreds
| of occupants of which are obliged to be
| constantly together for from one to three
| years. Each man becomes thoroughly
| aware of all his mates little Characters
| tics, and after awhile whether these
! characteristics be good or bad, they jar
| upon him, If only on account of their
monotony. Thus friction is generated, and
| it is for this reason that the crew Of
man-of-war pust returned to the United
| States after a three-years' cruise n for
! eign waters is generally such a sOur-look-
ing lot. even as concerns the officers aft,
| who become quite as sick of each other as
! do the men forward.
| Hardly a day passes that there is not at
| least one scrap on board most men-of-war
| with the promise ofsa heavier battle to fol-
| low. a blue jacket seats himself on an
| others ditty box. and, on being roughly
| ordered by the box owner to vacate, he
| refuses and consigns the owner to a much
| less moist place than DaVy Jones locker.
| The men come together, two or three blows
| are exchanged, and then, as by common
| consent, each man draws away, both feel
| ing that the Jimmy Legs Chat is the
master-at-arms) is not far distant, and
| neither caring for trick in the brig"
| Having thus become involved in the minor
| fistic argument of the deck. the two blue
| jackets are looked to by the entire ships
| company to bring their affair to a salts
! factory conclusion. The mere exchange of
| growls between the two men doesn't go.
| Pipe down there, We man-of-war chaws,
| and settle the thing right!' 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 move toward
! arranging q regular fight. He almost al
| ways does.
Nearly all the regular fights between
| blue jackets aboard ship are pulled off
| down below in one of the fire rooms or
| in an empty bunker The empty bunker
| is preferred on account of it's greater iso-
| lation. When a fight is to come off be-
| tween the two 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 intimate
| friends of the combatants. expect invi-
| tations to the fray. There is not room
in a bunker for more than half a dozen
! friends of each man, and even with this
number the space is rather contracted.
| With q second each and a referee agreed
upon by both the men, stripped naked to
| the waist, go at it. The fights are not of
| the rough and tumble order. The men
| fight according to regular prize ring rules,
| and their shpmates are present to see
| that the rules are complied with AS many
| as fifty rounds are sometimes fought. Or
| dinarily, 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 il 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 qui-
| 6IlN depart lIOiu tuG Duuk6I, anu dScG0Q
| to the deck by different engine-room lad
! ders so as not to attract the attention
| of the officer of the deck.
Both men generally get pretty thorough
| ly mauled and bruised up in these bunk
| err 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 asfar-away look
| in his eyes, scribbling 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 Fiji
teen minutes after the two men leave the
| sick bay with bandages around their
| heads and a strong scent of liniment en-
anating from their persons, they are like
| ly to be seen with their wounded heads
| comparing letters and photographs.
When these bunker fights take place at
| sea, as once in while they do, 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 be-
| tray an inclination to turn turtle Bunker
| fighters often get broken legs and arms
| to say nothing of fractured skulls, on such
| occasions, and then the commanding Off
Ger is obliged to take cognizance of the
| fight and punish the men when they get
| well.
Man-ofwar's men are permitted to play
| cards openly, for amusement whenever
the smoking lamp is lit, which is during
meal hours and after the bo'sun's mate
has piped knock off work. If the blue
| jackets who want to play poker after
monthly money has been served out are
new men, for whom the compilation of
| regulations is a doomsday book, they are
| likely to withdraw to one of the empty
| coal bunkers, to one of the fire or engine
| rooms, or to some OBSCURE corner Of the
| berth deck, to hazard their earnings. But
| If they are old-timers, sensible and level
| headed, they will do no such thing, for
| the master-at-arms, whose business it is
| to ferret out the gamblers and hale them
| Ito the mast" very often takes it into his
| head to make a descent upon these Sc
| GUIDED hooks, where the players, over
| confident of their safety, become careless
| of the blinking of the coin on the board be-
| fore them.
The long headed ones on the contrary