The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-06-08

bringing aboard their vessels the wine-
befuddled lads whom they pick up
ashore in Spanish ports and enchant
with merry tales Of the glorious life led
by tars is, of course, only known to
themselves and to the manipulators of
Spanish ships budgets, but that the
petty officers are paid, and pretty well
paid, for this manner of work, which is
nothing short of shanghaing, is certain.
The writer has frequently heard drunk
en- petty officers of the Spanish Navy
brag of the number of landsmen they
have bagged for their ships and the
money they have made out of the bust
ness. Spanish petty officers, even with
in the past five years, have been am
buscaded ashore and killed by ship
mates that they have thus shanghaied.
A case of this sort occurred in Pernam-
buco, Brazil, in 1893 A lad who had
been filed with liquor in Barcelona by
the chief gunner's mate of Spanish
man. of-war and had awakened to find
himself at sea on Spanish war-ship
bound for South America, went ashore
in Pernambuco, and on the main street
of that town struck the gunner's mate
uOuu WIN a hhllCs liz WAC
tailed, sent back to Spain under guard,
and executed.
Spanish sailors forward are ill-treated
habitually by their officers. This is
not a prejudiced or an exaggerated
statement. 1t is literally true. The
officers of the Spanish Navy are for
the most part younger sons of good
families who have gained their billets
not by ability nor through competition,
but through the intercession of their
people at the court. The incapacity of
many of them is laughable; their cruel
ty is notorious. From the very day
that Spaniard is enlisted in the ships
company of one of his country's war
vessels-enlisted voluntarily or invol-
untarily-he is made to feel that he is
no better than beast. For the slight
est infraction of regulations he is pun
ished in fashion that makes his fell
low bluejackets in navies like our own
or that of Great Britain flush with an
ger. The central and consuming idea
of the Spanish naval officer is that all
hands forward are his servants. There
is absolutely nothing of this in the
American Navy. Once in while
when an American ship is at sea for a
considerable period in tropical waters
and all hands, fore and aft, are wear
ing white uniforms, an officer will pay
mess attendant for scrubbing one of
his uniforms and hanging it out on the
scrub-and-wash line. The officer who
requests man to do anything like this
stands by to have the men refuse. 1t
is the mans privilege to refuse out
right to perform such task for money
or otherwise, but if he accepts the job
he is well paid for it. In the Spanish
Navy every man forward, from the
chief petty officers down to the unrated
landsmen, stand by for trick as Wallets
for all the officers aft. They are not
asked to wash the officers linen; they
are not requested to blacken the Of
ficers' shoes or pipeclay their belts
they are commanded to do these things
and tasks more mental, more repugnant
to men of self-respect; and the slight
est indication of hesitancy on the part
of bluejacket is visited by heavy pun.
ishment.
The stanchion punishment is employ
ed for the most trivial offences in the
Spanish navy. The bluejacket who
breaks his liberty by few hours knows
that he is in for the stanchion lash
when he returns aboard. The Spanish
sailors who deserted their ships by the
score in New York at the time of the
centenary celebration in 1889, were
most of them liberty breakers who, af-
ter having got Whit of freedom, could
not muster up the nerve to return to
their ships to get the stanchion lash.
The man who is twenty minutes late in
returning from his leave of absence
from Spanish man.owar gets as
many cat '.nine-tail blows on his bare
back, while his wrists are securely
dashed to stanchion, as the officer of
the deck cares to have inflicted upon
him. 1t all depends upon the state of
the liver of the officer of the deck.
Now, in the old navies of the world,
when the cat-o'-nine-tails was n recog-
nized institution-and as for the Amer
lean and British navies, that was more
than thirty-fve years ago--the man
formally sentenced by court-martial
to be whipped had at least the consola-
zion of knowing that he was to be
whipped by superior in rank. An
old-time bo'sun's mate was ordinarily
delegated to perform the whipping and
petty officers were not whipped at all.
Not 80 in the Spanish navy. From the
chief petty officers-who in our navy
are men of dignity, experience, and
character, as they must be to gain and
hold the confidence and respect of the
rest of the enlisted men-down to the
newly shanghaied landsmen, all hands
forward are whipped, and sorely whip
ped. Nor is the task of whipping them
delegated to superiors in rank. 1t is an
actual fact that the apprentice boys in
the Spanish navy are the recognized
ships whippers. The spectacle of an
understood lad laying the lash on the
naked back of chief petty officer,
from whom the lad is supposed to de-
rive his sea knowledge, is characteris
tically Spanish and Abyssinian.-New
York Sun.