The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-08-05
r---.. ~. ------ s.-----y-. ---- --.----~-
"A STORY OF WATSON.
AN OCCASION WHEN THE OLD SEA
Il DOC WANTED 70 SWEAR.

v WV VVNb60 ~ oWEAns
Not Being . Profane Man, However. n
4 Gave tho Job Which Roused His WRIT
I to Teller, the Bos'n's Mats. and The
Let Events Take Their Course.
). John Crittenden Watson does not be
= long to the list Of "cussing officers,
yet as a man.o'-war skipper he neve
| had man Of his ships company aft 70
4 swearing. He was sngularly indulgen
j Of the hard swearers forward.
Hard language helps a man alon,
, occasionally" he has been known t.
. say to one of his deck officers upon over
hearing stream Of maledictions from
the lips Of some old fat foot working al
a stubborn job forward, land it is bet.
ter for the men to work Off their wrath
over fouled anchor chains in cuss words
than to take it out Of each Others
hide"
! Aboard one Of the ships under Wat
son 3 command there was an old bos'n's
mate named Fuller, who had the call
throughout the whole navy as the cham
pion profane man of the governments
line Of packets Fuller never raised bis
voice when he swore. He would simply
stand back and quietly regard the imam.
innate object Of his wrath--a bent be.
laying pin perhaps or slack ridge rope
and then he would open up in an or.
binary conversational tone. But the Ut
teranoes he gave vent to were sulphur
Qua It always took Fuller good five
minutes to work of what he considered
the necessary number Of remarks on
such occasions. and 1t always seemed,
when he was through, that be had quite
exhausted the whole vocabulary Of pro. |
family. But this was mistake. The
very next time anything went wrong
with bit Of Fuller's gear he would
start IN on new line that would con.
tain absolutely not a single repetition
OF any Of his previous performances. It
was always source Of wonder to Full
ler's shipmates even the old timers,
where be picked up the new ones, ali
Of which were Of startling originality
and force.
These shipmates related only one in
stance in which he found himself at a
loss for words. He was with landing
party from his ship marching on tho
outskirts Of Chemulpo, Korea. He stub
bed his toe on loose bowlder in the
road and fell on his face in the dust,
He picked himself up and looked at the
road. He opened his mouth to say some
thing, but he had no words He was ,
dumb with wrath. Two or three times ,
he attempted to begin, but it was no 3
60. He was stuck for once so be pulled /
out pistol and deliberately fired it into q
the air five times. He had to express his I
feelings in some way. t
When Fuller was serving aboard t
Watson's ship, he was in good shape, =
and his frequent quiet outbursts kept :,
the forward part Of the ship keyed up d
with wonder as to what was coming n
next. One morning at big gun drill
Captain Watson himself was superin. v
tending the exercise. One of the wooden
cartridges became jammed in the breech 81
OF the 6 inch rife to which he was de. Il
voting most of his attention, He O
wouldn't permit any Of the gunner's u
mates around him to attempt to loosen -,
the cartridge but essayed the job him +
self He tugged at the jammed cartridge d,
and broke his finger nails over it, and a
still 1t wouldn't come out. It was a II
pretty hot morning ON deck, and the in
perspiration began to roll off his face in th
streams, but he persisted In trying to
loosen the stuck cartridge. He looked
as If be would like to say a heap were :.
be swearing man, but he wasn't q =. "a
swearing man. When be had been ta
for five minutes over the jam w
ned cartridge with no success, he look LIE
ID pretty helpless and miserable. He Ta
ave one final tug, but the stuck car A.
ridge remained in the guns breech. stl
The skipper gathered himself together, tic
aopped his forehead and looked at tho w
un. JUG
"Confound it ALL" he broke out, an
where's Fuller? Send me Fuller, some
ody." G
Fuller was on hand directly. He dir
7asnt a gunners mate, and he had sue
othing to do with the guns, but Wat in
IN wanted Fuller to tackle the jammed Der
artridge all the same. Mo-
Fuller, said Watson, "try and get I'M
,at dummy out of that gun" por
Fuller looked at the stuck cartridge, w.. ~
I'D Watson retreated to the starboard eoo
de of the quarter deck. Fuller made mo,
70 or three claws at the wooden car.
idge, but it wouldn't come ont A TIL
lnner's mate could have got 1t out in r
jiffy, but Fuller wasn't in that line an
the service. He tugged away, but it cler
as no go. Watson stood regarding the pra'
'rizon on the starboard side of tho VII, W.,
arter deck. Fuller spat on his hands n mm
d made one more try. The dummy prai
dn't move tenth Of an inch. Then cour
lller mopped his forehead with his peae
ckerchief, clapped his cap On the back to b
his head and opened up. 1t was great
'rk, this performance of Fuller's, and
mistake. He eclipsed all of his for 30
II efforts He stood with his hands on west
sides, looking at the gun breech and I'ae s1
ling things at it that no Morgan or hrrv
id or Teach or other heaven defyinR birds
ate could ever have equaled. The brak
u stood around, just looking at Full and
in open mouthed amazement. They or le
Ildn't make out where he got them suffe
They were all in English, but the como
lbinations were weird. The perora-
! was frightful, although delivered NV
The mildest tone imaginable. and
=, 40. u,!e, nnisneu' ne mopped MS respe
'head with his neckerchief again and after,
ked over to his commanding officer, which
, was looking over the starboard son
, apparently thinking deeply. Fuller phia,
tied.
It's stuck proper, SIR" said Fuller.
can't get 1t adrift." Wa
Well" said Watson, II didn't par.h
TX you could, Fuller, but l needed s aisna.
Thanks You did very we'll Go Ma ior
Yard. New York Sun. nointe
How to Look Good
Ia