Evening star., 1897-09-25
When Sailors in the Navy Do Their
Laundry Work.
TIE CLOTHES GET HARD TREATMENT
Then Comes the Problem of Get
ting Them on the Line.
BUT THE RESULTS ARE GOOD

"iit'eh EAeiusNe1 ior Inc ENeuius Staf-
The first thing that caught the atten-
tion of the scores of Washington women
who visited the China a-bound gunboat
Helena when that tight little cruiser was
recently tied up at the navy yard, was
the vessels man-cf-war wash gaily fiut-
tering from ridge ropes and signal lines
from fore to mizzen. beseeching arid
zephyrs and inviting the sort of sunshine
that bleaches.
No woman Of housewifely Instincts and
accomplishments ever goes over the side
OF man-of-war, and especially an Ameri-
can an-of-war, without expressing her
utter stupefaction at the triumph over dirt
that is everywhere forced upon her criti-
cal attention. She cannot understand the
dszzling cleanliness of the cooks galley
with its neatly arranged rows of brilliantly
polished utensils, and she generally looks
just a bit disappointed when she cunningly
glances behind water-tight compartment
door and does not find the little pile OF
hidden dirt that she expects to discover.
An inspection of a man-of-war has a ten
dency to give the housewife or the house
girl rather better opinion of the tidness
Oh men in general than she had previously
conceived.
But the washing problem puzzles the
woman man-of-war visitor more than any
thing else she happens upon. The wash
looks so neat and spick and span and well
handled that she finds it hard to believe
that the bluejackets haven't all sorts of
modern appliances at hand to simplify and
render easy the work of washing their
clothes
Early in the Morning.
In order to discover her error, she would
be compelled to visit a warship at the un-
earthly hour Of half-past o'clock I'm the
morning of a "scrub-and-wash-clotn
QaN, OF which in these lati ind
are three every week on an American man.
of-war Down in the tropical waters every
week day Is wash day warships for
IN the not latitudes :he men wear their
white uniforms-"w Whites the bluejackets
call tnem-all the time, and even on the
scrupulouSly clean decks of a rlan-of-War
a white uniform does not preserve its fresh
clean appearance for more than a day with
the men lollng around in shady places 10
avoid the heat. The American bluejacket
has amy number OF these suits of whites
and he washes each suit as he takes ii off
All hands among the enlisted men on a
man-of- war in port. except the few who
have stood an anchor watch, are turned
out at > O'Clock in the morning and within
two minutes after they have lashed their
hammocks and put them away in the net
tlnSs the humping of the deck pumps be
low Is heard. and the spar deck inalne-
diately looks as If the ship had been
washed by great sea. Then the washing
down of the decks begins. After the main
so flooded as to be only navisable by men
in their bare feet, the boa atswain's maze
on wash morning, gets the nod from the
officer Of the deck. and bawls out ''ScrI5
and wash clotheSi' Then the men with
duds to cleanse knock off work teinporaril
and go below TO break the garments out
of their ditty bags. They are OH deck
again inside Of a minute, and then for half
an hour CT ensues u scene of primitive
clothes-mauling and clothes-scouring the
like of which is only to be seen ashore on
wash day along some Of the creeks Of pro-
vinclal France.
Soap and Elbow Grease.
The man-of-war sailors washing job is
accomplished with the aid of bucketful
of water, salt or fresh, according as the
bluejacket is in luck a bit of salt water
soap and a plentiful amount of elbow,
grease. If the ship is anchored near
enough to land to get its water from the
shore, and the tanks are full, each of the
bluetacket is privileged to hi. up The
scuttlebutt for pail of fresh water; there
is usually 4 marine stationed at the scuttle-
butt to that no man takes more than
one pailful. If, however, the ship is de-
pending upon her condensers for fresh
water, the tar gets none of 1T for clothes
washing purposes; he sings his pail ever
the side, and haulS up a bucketful of brine.
Zach man draws every month from the
paymaster's stores as many pound cakes
Of salt water soap as will see him through,
according TO MS calculations. This salt
water soap is an admirable article hardly
ever to be seen ashore. 1t makes as fine
a lather as shaving soap with the briniest
of salt water. With his pailful of wacer
and his hunk of soap, the bluejackel
pumps himself down an upturned
bucket for a seat, and, after sousing the
clothes he intends washing in the flooded
seuppers, is ready to begin operations.
He grabs garment with ferocity tnat
makes it seem as. if he intended to tear it
into ribbons, and proceeds to give 1t lath-
ering with his bit of salt water soap that
would make it appear that he purposed
shaving it when he got through. Thus he
SOAPS his garments one by one, spending
quite little time on each and laying them
all aside in a soapy heap as he finishes the
lathering. When he has them all lathered
he kicks from under him the bucket that
he has been sitting upon, and gets down to
the real work of the job. This is done on
all fours, and it is laborious clammy wet
work on the flooded deck. The bare deck
is the bluejacket's washboard. He takes
his soaped garments from tine pile one by
one and rubs them back and forth with all
the muscle he possesses on the bare boards
of the deck. Every half minute or SO he