The Irish standard., 1898-05-21
HIGH MASS ON THE BALTIMORE
Attended by All the Officers In
Full Dress Uniform.
In THE HARB0R OF HONOLULU
Twenty-Five Monks Assisted in
the Celebration.

The man-o'-wars man means no dis
| respect when he refers to his ships
chaplain as the 'sky pilot Rather, it
is term of approval. The blue jacket,
| at heart, is perhaps the least sacrile-
gious of uniformed men. Profane he
may be; the bluejncket's profanity is
us much habit as his attendance at the
mess table, and it is innocuous and
meaningless. But nine out of 10 Ameri-
can man. wars men have Il contcmp-
tuous word, and not infrequcntiy hard
fist, for the "mnn-o-war chaw'' igen-
orally the ships fooD, who invites Sup
preston and black eye by speaking
snccringly of religion, says writer in
the Washington Star.
No man can go to sea for any great
length of time. no matter how coarse his
| fiber. without experiencing an infusion
of what, for lack Of better term, might
| be phrased the religion of the sea-
which is first vague wonderment over
the beauty Of its quietude and the power
| of It's wrath, and then settled con-
viction, just as strong, because it is
rarely expressed, that there is direction
and meaning in the seas depths rs we'll
| as on Its surface. Beyond this the
mnn-o'- wars man undergoes SOME con-
vincing experiences which he never
| talks about under any circumstances;
for tho bueiacket despiscs the thing
called Chadbandsm, and in the matter
of silence on affairs that lead down TO
| the roots of him lie has nothing to learn
from the clam. He simply punches the
newly shipped lubber who makes too
(; conspicuous a parade of II cheap brand
of atheism. and let's 1t go at that You'll
! never find an old man-o wars man an
atheist
One of the first regulations of tho
United States navy recommends in effect
| that Officers and men shall, whenever
possible he participants in worship of
! Almighty God" aboard their ships While
| this regulation Is not mandatory, being
simply inserted in the form of Il recon-
| mcndation, officers and men are much
more sincere i'll their respect for and
| observance of this clause, which Is read
| out on the quarter deck by The cXecu-
| tive officer at every monthly muster, to-
| gcthcr with a short abstract of the navy
| regulations, that IL attendance on rei-
| giOus services aboard ship were compul-
sorry. as it Is in several OF the worlds
| navics. While there are chuplans in
| the United States navy who are favor
| ties among the men, just rs there are
| commanders OF ships for whom the men
would fight better than for others, all Of
the "sky pilots" gain and hold the re-
spcct and confidence of the enlisted
men. Chaplain Chidwck. of the Maine,
was not second even to the gallant cool
| headed Capt. Sigsbcc in the affection in
| which he WAS held by the crow Of tho
| doomed battle ship.
| Memorial services have been held in
| churches Of all denominations through
out tho United States in honor of the
men who passed with the Maine, and
there have been many requiem masses
in the Roman Catholic churches for tho
rcpose of the souls of the men who went
down in the battle ship. But high mass
| ashore and high mass alloat are two dif-
fcrent matters. The writer happened
to be present at the only high mass ever
! celebrated on an American man-of- war.
There arc two Roman Catholic chap.ains
In the United States navy, and each
OF them recites the low mass Of
his creed aboard his vessel every Sun
dny morning as well as on the holy
days of obligation. These masses arc
In general pretty well attended by the
enlisted men of all manners of religious
belief, and the officers not inrrcquently
attend the masses in body. But it
was on the United States cruiser Balti.
more, when that fine vessel was anchor
ed in the harbor Of Honolulu in January
1896, that the first high mass in the his
tory Of the American navy was chanted.
Tho Baltimore was on her way from
China to the United States, with her
"homeward bound" pennant streaming
200 feet in her wake, steamed into a
terrible typhoon few days after leaving
the coast of Japan, and hove to ana
wallowing in the thick of it for eight
days came near laundering. When she
rounded Pearl Harbor point, Oh the
island Of Oahu, and crawled to her
anchorage In the harbor of Honolulu, ;
she was a pretty rusty looking craft
with her cutters stove in, her davits
twisted and torn off, her chain rails
carried away. and her fighting tops
lowered to the deck to prevent excessive
rolling. Officers and men were glad to
get into the port, for their danger had
been most imminent. Two scamen had