The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-13
SAILORS WHO RE-ENLIsT.
Odd Ideas of the Jackies About
Time and Life on Ship.
From the Washington Star.


From the Washington Star.
On the day after his enlistment for a
period of three years the American
man-o'-wars-man begins to figure on
the amount of time that Is to inter-
vene before his discharge. He has two
years and butt" to do, the butt"
being the remaining eleven months and
twenty-nine days of the first year. On
the day following his completion of the
first year of his enlistment he has only
year and a butt to get through. No
matter IL the butt is only n single day
under a year In length, the blue jacket
contemplates the term with the bland
est complaisance; 1t is not, at any rate,
whole year, even though 1t be 364
days, and this fashion Of throttling
each year of his service makes him
happy; 1t seems to bring his discharge,
and the more or less tempestuous Joys
he carefully maps out long before his
discharge. within closer range. When
he has put in eighteen months of an
enlistment, he breaks out the home
ward bound pennant; he Is going down
the hill, and when he has finally
achieved two years and has only the
butt to accomplish Joy fills his cup.
Once a sailor, always a sailor" is
not strictly true of men-o'-war's men
OF the American navy. Only about
one-half of the men who complete one
enlistment ship for another three-year
cruise. But about nine -tenths of the
men who put in two cruises settle down
to lifelong continuance in the SER
vice. Six years of navy life seem thor
oughly to inoculate them with what
the Germans call wanderlust When a
blue jacket passes a few of his sum-
mers in the latitude of the North Cape
and a couple of his winters down
among the Bermudas or In the salu-
brious South Pacific, he is likely to ac-
quire dislike for the climate of the
United States, and this dislike has
more weight than anything else in
forming his decision to remain in the
navy. Moreover, after a few years in
the navy the blue jacket seems to be-
come possessed of the odd idea that he
is really doing nothing aboard ship to
earn HIS pay, that the perpetual scurry
In which he is kept from all hands in
the morning until pipe down at night
is really not work, and with his quaint
notion he also acquires an exceedingly
exaggerated idea of the terrific amount
or grinding labor a man has to per-
form In order to gain a livelihood
ashore. Put to a blue jacket who has
put in couple of naval cruises the
direct question. Are you going to shin
over when your time is out?" and in
nine cases of ten he will look YOU in
the eye with an expression of stupe-
faction and enquire:
What do YOU think I'm going to do
-work?"
overtime men being shipped back to
tnls country on man-of-war are not
compelled to do any of the ship's
work. they simply stand the military
calls, eat their meals and smoke their
pines, watching the while with lazy
happiness the daily round of labor of
the less fortunate bluejackets attach
ed as members of the crew of the shin
on which they themselves are practic-
ally passengers. The overtime men oc-
casionally emit arrogantly humorous
dlScnons to these temporary shin
mates. the ships company of the boat
that is hauling them home. "Gwan
now, an shine up that bright work,
ye long time swab'" they will shout
to a deck hand when the officer of the
deck is aft and out of hearing, and
Git down to your bunker, We grimv
fatfoot and rake your COAL" is the
kind of thing the man of the black
gang below hears from the passengers
whenever he tries to smoke q peaceful
pipe on the to'gallant fa'c'stle.
One Of the ii:lmemorial customs of
tire navy jacks is to secrete in the ditty
bag of the discharged shipmate who is
about to go ashore a can of corned
heef. few potatoes. and, perhaps, one
or two other articles of sea food This
is done in order to remind the dis
charged man. when he opens his bag
ashore. that IN the opinion of his ship
mates he will be unable to earn enough
to eat on land, If he takes it into his
head not to ship over and that they
have, therefore, taken small measure
to shield hin, from starvation with a
little navy grub when he has spent
his pay day." Discharged men try all
sorts of schemes to keep this stuff
from being placed in their bags, but,
nevertheless, they nearly always find
it there when they get ashore.