Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-18


- steamship. Even the
man who land is
moderately even-tempered is apt to
exhibit a defective disposition within
the period of a six-day VOYAGE The
man who is bore ashore develops into a
hydraulic drill on the deck of a liner The
lady who is peevish in her own home will
invariably cause the most unspeakable
anguish in the breasts of her fellow vow
ayers In a steamers cabin. I know of no
trial or situation in this life that is better
calculated to test the mainsprings and fly
wheels and running gear of human charac-
ter than a voyage on an ocean-going yes-
SELL
Apparently the bland Mr. Depew had
suffered at the hands of some of his fellow
passengers on his cruise from Southamp-
ton to New York. Nevertheless, few sea-
soned deep-water travellers will withhold
tnelr Endorsement of his generalZations on
the subject of sea voyagers But a certain
Grass or gentlemen in the pay and reealia
OF Uncle Sam find themselves perpetualIy
undergoing an ordeal infinitely more trying
IMAM that pictured by New York's chief
aH-around citizen. The civilian yoyager is
only compelled to submit to the ANALYSIS
IN the steamship crucible for the short
PERIOD OF from six to eight days-the mere
length OF catapultic Atlantic passage.
whereas an officer of the navy is in the
1ull and intimate view of his ward room
.nessIlates Tor period. generally. of from
lMo TO three years He is sunny dispo-
sltloned gentleman of the quarter deck in
deed who PAGES through this ordeal with
OUT yielding to the pessimistic habit of
inind. and without exciting ward room crit
icism.
Living in Close Quarters.
1t Is not all cakes and ale, and hiIarity
and mandolin music. this cruising life of
an officer in the nj Cd
who are cooped up together in the ward
room OF a man-of-war for three years be-
come pretty familiar with each others
characteristics. and great as the shirt IF
cdHlafauerle among naval officers of the
same ship generally is, and well as they
ofuinarliy pun together each of them has
ms hours when he would sacrifice n great
deal Tor the sight of other countenances
and the association of other men. Every
man with a boarding house experiences
Knows the feeiing of WEAKNESS and gloom
Which mas at times overcome him in sit
ing at table, day in and day out surround.
ed py the same faces. and forced to listen
10 the Same voices descanting upon the
oaiiie ti,eHleS' Inc ward room and mess
room of~a man-of-war nothing more
nor less than the living quarters and din
ing room OF Il steel-clad, sea-going board
ing house The main difference is that the
nail room tenant in land boarding house
may at any hour of the day or night make
ms escape, mingle in the maddine crowd
leap into the vortex of the streets and
engage generally in the pursuit of forget
lulhess' WINE the naval officer. be he en-
sign or admiral. has often for long cruising
periods the sight of no other physiognO-
mics than those of his fellow officers: their
features are not infrequently so scared
INTO his brain as to cloud his dreams OF
course. there are the "men forWard''-often
five or six hundred of them-but they AM
donations with watch marks and rating
badges. don't count.
known Through the Service.
Nearly all of the officers of the United
States navy who have been in the service
lor more than ten years are known to each
otEer, either as classmates at ANNAPOLIS or
as attaches to the same ship or station
at ole time or another, and each officer
carries in his mid an exact mental pho
tcSraph of IL of his brother officers with
whom he has been shipmate From, tbese
cerebral kodaks the deductions are draw,
by the seafaring military man on the anal.
LEGATIONS OF his comrades as shipmates
! he congratulations thus made are hand
ed over and scattered throughout the entire
service. so that the question whether such
and such an officer is a good an Indifferent
or bad shipmate is answered sooner or
later one way or the other by hearsay if
not through actual personal association.
to the increase in knowledge of all of the
officers in the navy.
The officer in the navy who, by reason
ate Indulgence in the trivialities and mean
nesscS of narrow or uncongeniaI nature
ccntrIVeS to achieve the reputation of be-
ing an indifferent shpmate, and gets him
sell thus stencled upon the mental tablets
of his fellow officers does not find it possi-
bic to pursue an existence entirely roseate.
Even If, through some extraordinary rev.
oluticn in his nature and character he
should suddenly dawn one day in the mess
room as an Indifferent shipmate transform
Ell into a good shipmate he would probably
find it difficult. if not well-nigh impossible
to live down the odium of years of pet
tishness or uncongeniaity. the incidents
resulting from which have been carefully
noted and slowed away in the memories
of his associates from the outset of his
naval career.
The naval officers definition of the term
"a good shipmate' is various, critical and
much embracing. There are scores of Of
ticers In the service to whom their mates
accord all possible credit due to consci-
entious men and excellent servitors of the
flag, whose names have nevertheless been
inscribed in the Indifferent shipmate class.
The general conclusion seems to be that
the man who has in him the making OF
what is known as "a good fellow" ashore
is invariably good shipmate, only he
must be more consistently a good shipmate
than any good fellow ashore ever has to
be, for the strain of intimacy on a man-of-
war Is greater, -steadier and more pro-
tracted.
In the Steernge.
The younger officers-ensigns for exam
ple-are not regarded with very critical
eye as to their man-of-war clubableness by
their superiors in rank. The young fellows
live practically apart among themselves.
messing in what is known as the junior
officers mess-the "steerage" man-of-war
term-and, anyhow, the older hands, the
deck and engineer and staff officers who
comprise the ward room mess regard the
juniors paternally as uniformed boys, to
subject whom to criticism as TO their ship
mateness would be premature and unjust.
Nevertheless. even during this probationary
period in the naval life of the junior Off
Ger, II would serve him i'll in the future
so far as concerned his reputation as
shipmate, if he did not at all times conduct
himself with manliness and tact-for from
the tails of their eyes his superiors size
him up from all hands in the morning I'M
til pipe down at night.
1t is the full-hedged ward-room officer
who is subjected to the vivisection of his
associates on the shipmate question. The
ward room, or living and sleeping quarters
of even the largest of modern war vessels
does not provide a very bountiful amount
of elbow room for each officer. On flag
ships and battle ships there are often as
t~l g.