Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-17
THE SILENT BO'SUN'S MATE

Eve had an old bo'sun's mate on the
Marion few years ago whose taciturnity
was known among all the old-timers in the
SERVICE" said a naval officer now on de-
partmental duty. He was a fine sailorman.
and he had been in the American naval
service for more than thirty years. In the
course of that whole period 1t was stated
by his oldest shipmates that he had proba-
bly, not spoken more than 1000 superfuous
words. His aversion to speech he applied
to all hands. He hated takers, and sea
lawyers only excited grunts of disgust from
bis shaggy throat He had a massive con-
tempt for modern ships of war. He didn't
express his preference for the old wind
TANNERS like the Marion In words, but ey-
cry time we happened upon one of the new
steel cruisers he would regard the modern
vessel suSpiciously out of the tail OF
his eye and jerk his thumb toward
her in speechless contempt He hated
talking SO much that when he was
assigned to the gangway to give out
the ships cells-pass the word. that
is-he begged off on the ground that
he was "a workin' man-o'-warman and not
a man-o'-war chaw.
Nobody knew anything about his ante
cedents where came from or anything
of that sort. The most that was known OF
him was that he had wife somewhere In
the state of California, to whom ne sent
each month one-half of his pay through the
paymaster. There was no record OF ms
ever having seen his wife during period
of about fifteen years. He always snlpped
right over directly one enlistment was serV-
ed, never took any shore leave, ana never,
to any ones knowledge, went on Visit 10
his wife.
"One day while we were tied up at Mare
Island the old bosuns mate stood at the
gangway watching the coming aboard OF a
big batch of recruits from the RECEIVING
ship independence. They were all newly
shipped landsmen, and pretty raw looking
at that. The old man did considerable
granting as he watched them clumslly come
over the side with their bags ana nam
mocks He was one of the kind of old tars
who can't realize that sailormen nave 10
start sailoriZing at some time or ahothel
and he had been in the service SO long that
he had probably quite forgotten .hat ne
had ever been a raw 'un himself, unfamiliar
with the difference between the catheao anu
the mizzen staH. - avn.
aboard seemed to catch the old man eye,
and he sized him up narrowly. he heps
his eye on this particular landsman LOT
some time, but he said nothing. Ihe op-
| iect of his scrutiny was -boned. clum-
sy-looking lad of twenty or SO. Inc wno t
! bunch OF them were given liberty on tne
morning after they came aboard Ihey
returned to the ship in fairly gooo shape
| on the same evening, except that about a
dozen of them were pretty groggy. One
of the groggy ones was the young cnap
who had caught the eye of the old DO sun
mate. The young fellow had apparently
been having a pretty wild time during his
liberty. and he had about ali he could do 10
get up the gangway ladder. The DIG DO
suns mate watched the crowd come ABOARD
and when this particular landsman STUN
bled UP the ladder and drunkenly made as
| if to salute the officer of the deck and go
forward the old man jumped to the mast
| like a flash and had the young fellow by
| the scruff of the neck. He led his captive
| up to the officer of the deck, made the
| scrape employed by the old-timers, cleared
| his throat and said:
" Instead O. putin this 'un in tn brig,
| sir, I'd like to have you hand him over to
me.
This sounded pretty odd to the officer of
| the deck He didn't know what the old
man meant
What do yau want with him." inquired
| the officer of the deck.
| The old man knuckled his forehead for a
minute, wiped his mouth with the back of
his hand and said:
1 want t heave an idea or two into his
| carcass about the evils O this here shore
| drinkin'.'
But what have you got to do with his
! drunkenness% asked the deck officer.
why, tn swab's my son., said the old
| man.
| The officer of the deck couldn't help
| but break into laugh, the spectacle was
| so ridiculous. The youth, whose collar was
| still gripped by the old mans horny paw,
| had the funniest conceivable expression of
| surprise on his drunken face. 1t afterward
came out that, while he knew in a general
way that his father was in the American
| navy. he had no idea what ship he was
serving on, and it is no wonder that this
peculiar way of meeting with his dad rather
surprised him.
| :" Go forward, the both of YOU" said the
| officer of the deck, smiling, and the old
man hauled his brawny. raW-boned son up
| forward under the to'gallant TO csle, where
| he deliberately laid him over his knee and
| spanked him good and hard with the blunt
| end of marlinspike, while all the rest of
the crew stood about giving the drunken
| lad the laugh. The boy stayed aboard that
| ship and developed into good sailorman
| under the old mans tutelage, but he never
| returned from liberty again in a drunken
condition While l was attached to the
| Marion"