Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-23
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..The officers and sailors of the navy are
frequent sufferers from seasickness, even
after they have got their sea legs on, Cd
served a naval surgeon to Star reporter.
Indeed, l think / can safely say that,
young and old, one-third of the entire navy
officers as well men are seasick during
storms as well as at other times. In theory
naval officers and sailors are entirely free
from such so-caled weakness. but in TACT.
they have stomachs and are sufferers at
times the same as the rest Of humanity.
The sailor, In this respect, has many ad-
yantages over the naval officers. and Is
less sensitive to seasickness, for the rea-
son that he seldom has what is called shore
duty to perform, and he is on the ship all
of the time. barring the days off now and
then of liberty. With officer 1t Is en-
tirely different, for he seldom has to spend
as much time on ship he does on shore.
The three years sea duty is generally fol-
lowed by three years shore duty, during
which time his sea legs and stomach en-
tirely disappear ard have to be built up
again. 1t is rure that an officer on return
to sea duty does not have to go through
all the painful and distressing experiences
of his first seasickness, and l am not sure
but each recurrence of this experience Is
worse than the original. 1 know a dozen
officers of from fifteen to twenty-five years
experience in the navy. and l know of at
least fifty others who admit that they are
liable to SeaSickneSS now as they were
when they were middies fresh from the
Naval Academy. Why, even Admiral Dewey
with his twenty-five and a half years eX-
perience at sea-he completes his forty
fifth year Of service in the navy Saturday
next. September 23-is still subject to at
lacks of seasickness, and he makes no
effort to conceal it. and could not conceal 1t
if he desired, for when he is sick he is sick
all over
while over in New York a couple of
weeks ago. one of our ships visited by
prominent naval attache of foreign
legation an officer of over twenty-five
years service in the navy of his country.
He remained to dinner and had only par
taken OF the first two courses when he had
to excuse himself He was as thoroughly
scasick as any man you ever heard of in
ycur life. The ship was tied up to the dock
too. but the wind and waves gave it mo-
ton that upsets dinner calculations as for
chilly would big Storm He had
not been a ship before for nearly two
years-at least had not eaten on ship. With
many the constant recurring swells cause
more trouble than the tossing in choppy
sea during a storm. 1t is the alterna ting
of sea and shore duty that makes seasick-
ness so prevalent among officers. AS a
rule. Officers do not deny that they are
squeamish and on the hunt for their sea
Stonaciis at certain times, and 1t would be
useless for them to deny it, for seasick-
ness is not one of the ills that flesh and
stomachs are heir to that can be conven-
a
with the young fellows from the Naval
Academy for the first couple of weeks.
surgeon has more to do during
these two weeks than he has for
the six months that follow. Everybody
is calling for him. and all want him at the
same moment, and all of them are in
hurry, or at least they think they are. Sea
legs and sea stomachs never come to some
men. 1t matters not whether they are naval
officers or not, and their sea duty is one
constant siege of misery. They are sick
ened by Gains, sickened by swells and sick
ened by storms, and there is nothing for
them To do but grin and bear it,
K X
Though the President was as liberal as
he could be under the present civil serv-
Ice laws observed an appointment clerk
of ne of the departments to a Star re-
porter, '-he did not go as far as many i'm
agine on the question of preference for sol
9diers or sailors in the matter of appoint
ments TO positions under the various de-
partments- The impression exists in many
minds that civil service or other examina-
tons We're entirely abroeated by the Pres
r ident's amended civil service rules of May
~ last when ex-soldiers or ex-sailors were
applicants for positions. and that all they
had to do was to simply ask for places
and that appointments would be made
without any questions being asked or any
posts have gone as far as this in asking
places for comrades, and more than a
. dozen of the young men who were soldiers
/, or sailors last year in the Spanish war
have come to the department with sim
fiar demand Indeed, they seemed to think
that all that was necessary for them was
to show their discharges to obtain posi-
tons. A discharge per Sc gives no man
any advantage, except that it was granted
for disability.s The fact that a man was
discharged only for the reason that there
was no longer any need for his services as
soldier or sailor gives him no preference
from a civil service standpoint pure and
simple, and l think il is only right that
they should know it. BY legislation that
may come discharge may be regarded as
claim for preference. but that legislation
Is not on the books yet
"On this point | have obtained from the
civil service commission the following aU-
thoritatiVe statement. that there can be
no misunderstanding in connection with it,
II also give information that many, espe-
ciaIly the ex-soldiers and sailors of the
spanish war, are seeking:
IL Is mistaken idea that all honora bly,
discharged soldiers sailors are entitled
TO preference in certiiication or appoint-
ment. Section 1IJ4 of the Revised Statutes