The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-12
MEN WHO JUMP SHIPS
DEsERTIONs FROM THE NAVY LESS
COMMON THAN FORMERLY.
Not Much Effort Made to Get Deserters
Back-NOt Thought Worth the
TroubIe-The Punishment.


New York Evening Post.
Desertions from the United States navy
are becoming more and m9re uncommon
every year. 1t is likely that the statistics of
assertions from the naval service for the
present year will be proportionately smaller
than they have ever been at any time since
the foundation of this government. No-ac-
count soldiers and sailors of the American
land and sea forces Jump the outfit or
$50 over the side in time of peace in about
the same ratio as uniform. ed men the world
over; but even the no-accounts stick to
their guns when the flag they serve under
is menaced. The man whose conscience
would not greatly disturb him if he volun-
tarily shuffled off his uniform and quit
when white-winged peace lowered over the
nation does a heap of thinking before he
takes French leave from either of our serv
ices in the face of impending war, 1t is de-
cidedly not an American characteristic TO
desert in the face of a foreign enemy
Desertions from the United States navy
are commonest among recruits. Under ordi-
nary circumstances when the country is
mixed up in no international complications,
it is an exceedingly difficult matter to get
a crew for a new American vessel of war,
or even for one that is being newly COM
missoned. There can be only a scattering of
old-timers, who have been on the guard
os," or receiving ships, waiting for assign
ments, in such a crew; so the greater por-
ton of the ships company must necessarily
be composed of recruits. These recruits are,
in many cases, young fellows who have
listed without any realization of the dis
comforts and hardships to which man-o'-
wars men are subjected, and who quickly
become dissatisfied when the realization
comes home to them. Their first experience
at coaling ship, which is the hardest kind
of work for all hands, often puts an end to
their ambition for a life on the ocean wave.
Although this IS not lifely TO be the case
with the United States war ships just
commissioned or about to be recommis-
stoned there have been swarms of deserters
from every new ship that Is coaled for the
first time by these crews, mostly made up
of recruits 1t is an experience which the
commanders of all new war ships have to
figure on. Two or three crews nave often TO
be sent to a new vessel before she is suth-
cietly manned to go to sea, so great is the
number Of assertions.
SMALL REWARD.
For the past ten years the Navy Depart
ment has made hardly any effort TO appre-
bend deserters. The principle in the navy
is that men who Jump ship" are not fit for
the service and, therefore, not worth hunt
ing for. 1t is a principle that in some cases
is in error. but these cases are exceptional
A reward of $40 is paid by the commanding
officer of a war ship for the capture of
deserter, but this reward is seldom claimed
in home ports. In ports on foreign stations,
however it is different In every port in the
world even in China and Japan the special
officers ashore know of the reward paid by
American commanders for deserters, and
they are indefatigable in their efforts to lay
hold of escaping bluejacketS and marines.
AS in the army man may be absent from
his post for ten days before he is officially
declared deserter, so 1t is in the navy.
The sailor and the sea-Soldier must have
ten days leeWay before the capital d. is
written after their names on the ships
muster rolls. 1t very often happens how
ever when man-of-war is short-handed
in a foreign port. by reason of transfers
and discharges that the commanding Off
Ger will offer the reward of $40 for the re-
turn of men aboard who are merely over
staying shore leave The commanding Of
ficer hardly ever fails in such cases to get
them. In deserving on a foreign station the
man-o'-war'S man is thoroughly aware of
the danger of remaining in the port of the
harbor in which his ship lies, and he starts
out with the determination of Immediately
striking out up country, for his only safety
from capture lies in the interior. Almost
invariably, however, he accumulates a load
Of sake or mescal or some other barbarous
compound of the country he happens to be
in, and he does not get far before he is
taken. To a gendarme at Genoa, for in
stance, $40 in American gold is Il consider
able sum, as it is also to the poorly paid
chaps who police a majority of foreign
ports. For simply carrying a drunken sail
or-man or sea-soldier off to the gangway
easily earned-that is, ii the victim is
drunk enough to be helpless. Otherwise. IL
occasionally happens that the ports whole
cons tabulary has to be brought into action
to get a determined fighting man aboard.
VOLUNTARY SURRENDER.
A very large majority of the men who
are now serving time for desertion at the
army garrison prisons and at the naval
prisons at Boston and Mare island. Cal.
voluntarily surrendered themselves. Desert
ers get hungry, as do other persons. and
they also get cold. When they are suffer-
ing from combination of the two ills, and
are friendless and unable to get work, they
are exceedingly apt to draw comparisons
in their minds between their present woeful
condition and the comparative comfort and
cheer even Of military and naval prisons
and thus they gradually work themselves
Up to the point of surrendering. They are
not taken by the hand and greeted enthu-
siastically when they do this. Deserters
from the navy generally give themselves
UP on the sguardos." They are regarded