The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-10-02
SEASICKNESS OF NAVAL OF-
 TIGERS

'The officers and sailors of the navy are frequently sufferers from seasick-
 ness, even after they have got their sea legs on,' observed naval surgeon to
 a Star reporter. Indeed, I think l can
 safely say that, young and old, one
 third of the entire navy officers as well
 as men are seasick during storms as
 well as at other times. In theory naval
 officers and sailors are entirely free
 from such so-called weakness, but, in
 fact, they have stomachs and are suf-
 ferers at times the same as the rest of
 humanity. The sailor, in this respect,
 has many advantages over the naval
 officers, and is less sensitive to seaslck-
 ness, for the reason that he seldom has
 what is called shore duty @ perform,
 and he is on the ship all of the time,
 barring the days off now and then of
 liberty With an officer it is entirely
 different, for he seldom has to spend as
 much time on ship as he does on shore.
 The three-years' sea duty, during which
 time his sea legs and stomach entirely
 disappear and have to be built up again.
 It is rare that an officer on return to
 sea duty does not have to go through
 all the painful and distressing experi- ences of his first seasckness, and l am not sure but each recurrence of this experience is worse than the original I know a dozen officers of from fifteen to twenty-five years experience in the navy. and I know of at least fifty oth- CTS who admit that they are as 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 one-half years
 experience at sea-he completes his for ty-five years of service in the navy Sat urday next, September 23-is still sub iect to attacks of seasickness, and he | makes no effort to conceal it, and could
 not conceal it if he desired for when he is sick he is sick all over.
 While over in New York couple of weeks ago, one of our ships was visited | by a prominent naval attache of for | eign legation, an officer of over twenty | five years service in the navy of his l country. He remained to dinner and
 had only partaken of the first two
 courses when he had to excuse himself. | He was as thoroughly seasick as any
 man you ever heard of in your life.
 The ship was tied up to the dock, too, l but the wind and waves gave it mo- l tion that upsets dinner calculations as | forcibly as would big storm. He had l not been on ship before for nearly | two years-at least had not eaten on a ship. With many, the constant recur- | ring swells cause more trouble than the tossing in a choppy sea during a storm.
 It is the alternating of sea and shore
 duty that makes seasickness so preVa- | lent among officers. As a rule, officers l do not deny that they are squeamish
 and on the hunt for their sea stOmachs l at certain times, and it would be useless for them to deny t, for seaSichues5 is
 not one of the ills that flesh and stom-
 ly hid. It is terrible during a cruise
 with the young fellows from the naval ! academy for the first couple of weeks | A surgeon has more to do during these l two weeks than he has for the six | months that follow. Everybody is call
 ing for him, and all want him at the same moment, and all of them are in a hurry. or at least they think they are
 Sea legs and sea stomachs never come to some men, it matters not whether
 they are naval officers or not and their sea duty is one constant siege of mise ry. They are sickened by calms. sick | ened by swells and sickened by storms
 and there is nothing for them to do but grin and bear it."-Washington Star.