Evening star., 1898-05-07
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GETTING LIQUOR ABOARD

mere " perhaps. Ess drank ksnness
among the enlsteds med of the United
States navy than among the men forward
of any OF the worlds big sea fit-outs." said
naval officer Of expegiencs. to Star
writer. Drunkenness passed with the old
navy. In the days # thtff, h, old Tusearora or
the Tennessee, as the sailors put it. 1t was
common enough thing t. seq about three
quarters of ships company returning
had to be hoisted over the side in bosun's
chairs. to save the trouble of carrying them
up the gangway. But that sort of thing is
Eo longer endured. r Men who go ashore
after having remained aboard ship for a
considerable period are expected by the Of
hcer OF the deck to return just trifie ex-
hilarated, but they never return quite inca
Fable Men who exhibit the slightest indi-
cations of being addicted to drink are
turned down hatly by the examining sur
gcoEs Wien they present themselves for en-
listment nowadays. The surgeons tell me
that they can tell from mans eyes
whether he has aver suffered severely from
excessive drinking, no matter how long the
man may have abstained from drink before
seeking enlistment. II men addicted to
crink do happen to gat by the examining
surgeon, and reveal their weakness by go
ing on tears every time they go ashore, the
rsavy gets rid of them by simply bleaching
thenl-that is. by putting them on tn.
beach with their bags and hammocks wher-
ever thelr snip may happen to be in home
port. "A man Cannot be 'beachef for any
cause IN a foreign country.
Ihere are, of course any number of mea
IN the navy. and rattling fine sailormen,
100 VINO have natural predilection for
orlhk ana these Een the officers keep an
eye on Ior their own good Sailors are
pouhd 10 try to smuSgle liquor aboard
ship. If they drink considerable on their
Shore liberties. they know that when they
return aboard they are in for big heads
when they awaken in their hammocks the
next morning, and In trying to safely bring
bit of liquor off to the ship they have
III mind the taking of a hair of the dog to
sorC OF ease them up when they turn TO
at all hands the next morning. Some
times they get the liquor safely aboard,
but generally they do not Every enlisted
man on United States man-of-war, ex-
cept the chief master-at-arms and the
top sergeant of marines. is searched at the
gangway, upon his return from shore lib
erty, by the ganSway corporal of the ml-
r1ne guard, under the inspection of the Of
flcer OF the deck, for the purpose of ascer-
tanning If he has any liquor concealed about
MS clothes. The men have picked up some
ingenious schemes for smuggling liquor
In such a way that the corporal of the
guard Is fooled. For example, the men on
the China station buy long eel-skins from
the coolies, fill the skins with about a quart
OF Hquor and wind them around their
necks beneath the collars of their shirts.
1T took the officers the China station
a long while to get On 10 this scheme. Then
the men who felt that they surely needed
drink the next morning after returning
from liberty discovered the plan of filing
a rubber bag with liquor while ashore and
of slowing the bag next to their waist
bands. The liquor smugglers who observ-
ed that the searching rporal only passed
his lands uo and down on the outside of
their clothes. then resorted to the plan of
tying bottles of liquor with string on the
inner side of their legs, beneath their
trousers, but any searching corporal knows
all about this one nowadays. The cox'un
of the steam cutter, who makes dozens Of
trips ashore day when the cutter is
running boat, has to be carefully watch
ed, for he Is liable to be tamDered with
by the men who want liquor pretty badly
and his opportunities for getting liquor
aboard are many. Every once in a while,
searched by the officer of the deck, and
the latter often finds liquor neatly slowed
among the cutter cpal, In the cutter bilges
or even in the better tanks When this
bic. He gets big rake-off from the men
for his liquor smuggling. which accounts
for the chances he will take. The ships
painter has to be Watched. too. He is
ships alcohol which IS chiefly used for the
making Of shcllac to pa'fit the lower decks.
Some of the sailors like dose of alcohol
mixed with coffee for 'tbhing and SOLDERING
up purposes, and, as the ships painter Is
occasionally corruptfble,,' and carries the
keys of the alcohol tanks. there Is quite
little drinking of Tits mixture on some of
the ships where d-tfruers predominate.
The. old fiatfeet have, indeed. been known
to drink the sheilac after 1t has been pre-
pared for the sake of the alcohol in it. and
there is an expression in the navy among
the enlisted men, If you see jackie comb
ing his mustache with marlin spike you
know what he's been at that is very sig
nificant. But, for all this, as I say, there
is an exceedingly small percentage of
drinking men in our navy in compa rison
with similar figures for other big navies
The occasional drinkers in our service
when they return from the beach bit un-
der the weather, are merely put in the brig
overnight, and permitted to go to work
without punishment, the next morning."