Smyrna times., 1898-01-12


pie Things Start the Ouarrels, and Then
They Must BE SettIed-Bruised Com
batants "FeII Down a Ladder"
The regulation against fighting is per-
haps the deadest of all naval regula-
tions 1t is impossible Of enforcement.
If it were enforced to the letter, pretty
nearly all hands among the men for
ward would be in the brig from one
years end to the other. Fighting is
practically a necessary evil among men
who wear their country's uniform for
a livelihood Officers of experience
blink at it. They know the bad, con-
Eliminating results of bitterness between
pair of bluejackets under the forecas-
tie. 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 a quarrel that testers and
grows unless the head of it is broken
by a decisive battle between the two men
who have been snarling at each other
People who have made ocean voyages
often dwell upon the WEAKNESS which
has overcome them at the sight of their
fellow vOyagers' countenances toward
the end of passage. This is feeling
which is aggravated a thousandfold
amid the uncomfortable sur roundings of
a war vessels forecastle, the hundreds
OF occupants of which are obliged to be
constantly together for from one to
three years. Each man becomes thor
Oughly aware of all his mates little
characteristics and after awhile. wheth-
er these characteristics are good or bad,
they jar upon him, if only on account
Of their mOnOtOny. Thus friction is gen
Grated, and it is for this reason that the
crew Of a man-Of-war Just returned to
the United States after a three years
cruise i'll foreign waters is generally
such a sour looking lot, even as concerns
the officers aft, who become quite as
sick Of each other as do the men for
ward
Hardly day passes that there is not
at least one scrap on board most men,
of-war, with the promise of a heavier
battle to follow A bluejacket seats
himself ON another's ditty box, and on
being roughly ordered by the box's
owner to vacate, he refuses and CON
signs 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
feeling that the Jimmy legs ii. e.,
ms CT or cA &c ,oN Co.
and neither caring for trick in the
brig" Having thus become involved
in the minor fistic argument of the
deck the two bluejackets are looked to
by the entire ships company to bring
their affair to a satisfactory conclusion.
The mere exchange of growls between
the two men doesn't 60 "Pipe down
there, ye men-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
moves toward arranging regular fight.
He almost always does.
Nearly all the regular fights between
bluejackets aboard ship are pulled off
down below in one of the firerooms or
IN an empty bunker. The empty bunker
is preferred on account of its greater
isolation. When a fight is to come off
between two bluejackets below, all
hands know all about it, often includ-
ing the master at arms himself, but
very few of the men, unless they are
intimates of the combatants, expect in
vitations to the fray. There isnot room
IN bunker for more than half a dozen
friends Of each man, and even with this
number the space is rather contracted.
With a 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 shipmates
are present to see that the rules are
complied with AS many as so rounds
are sometimes fought. Ordinarily 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 it does stop. If
the contestants are about of q sort, the
fight is carried ON to the end, until a
knockout blow is planted by one of
them or both are too weak to go on.
At the conclusion of the fight the on
lockers quietly depart from the bunker
and ascend to the deck by different en-
gine room ladders, so as not to attract
the attention of the officer of the deck.
Both men generally get pretty thor
oughly mauled and bruised up i'll these
bunker 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 Gu
riousP' murmurs the surgeon, with a
smile and a faraway look in his eyes,
scribbling an account Of their injuries
in his record, and then he orders the
npOthecary to dress their wounds -
Washington Star.