Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-03-09
D 900lG Was The Ghost
by a U. s. Naval Omcer.

Naval sailors are very prone to wax
superstitious over queer happenings
on board the ships whereon they serve,
and cruiser now out on the Pacific
station, to which / was attached few
years ago, might easily have got re
putation as ''bewitched ship on a
certain uncanny occasion had not the
mystery been so prosaically cleared
up. The ship was ordered from Mare
island to San Diego, to take part in
the winter flower fiesta at San Diego,
CAL, and, incidentally, to go through
it's semi-annual great gun practice and
deep-water drills as n side issue of the
excursion. When we got into the har-
Dor of San Diego the people ashore
made whole lot of us, and the men
forward were almost taken OF their
feet with the hospitality they found
con the beach. - In truth, everything
came so easy for them in San Diego
that the ships company was a good
deal demoralized, and, liberal as the
skipper was in the matter of overlook
ing absenteeism on the part of the
blue jackets, the master alarms was
kept pretty busy all the time putting
off to the beach to bring in long-over-
due sailors who got so mixed up in the
whirl of the carnival that they
couldn't navigate back to the ship.
After we had been in the harbor of
San Diego for a week it became neces-
sary for all hands to report aboard, for
the captain decided to have first rate
exhibition of the drill, ''all hands
abandon ship" So the chief mase
alarms went ashore for big round
up of the derelicts, and he succeeded
in gathering in all of the liberty break
ers except one man, an oiler, named
O'Toole. O'Toole had been five DAYS
over his leave, and when the Jimmy
Legs returned to the ship with the
boat load he had hauled in and re-
any where, the oilers chances for n
general court-martial when he did re-
turn were considered of the best
Steam was got up in a couple of the
boilers and the ship pulled ont into
the open harbor for the 'all hand
abandon ship" exercise, big flock of
tugs and yachts, carrying people from
San Diego who wanted to take in the
drill, following after us.
Now, when the flcer of the deck
passes the word and the bo's'n's mate
gives prolonged blast on his pipe
and brawls that Ion gdrawn- out, rather
moving call, 'Ali ha-a-nds abandon
| ship" there is surely whole lot of
movement N an American man of war,
for it is the most exacting drill on the
program, not even excepting the drill,
"clear ship for action" Every man
in ships company has got number,
and in the abandon ship drill his num-
ber calls upon him to do certain things,
and the hurryipg and scurrying for
five minutes after the call goes is
crew handles the boats, load them up
with provisions and all useful appli-
ances for prolonged season in the
open sea, and every man in the ''back
gang" down below in the engineers s
department has also good deal Of
business on hand. If the ship is under
steam the fires are banked, the valves
are set, the engines all locked fast.
water-tight compartments closed, and
everything below arranged so that in
case the ship really doesn't go down
she shall be found in decent, ship
shape order in case she rides through
and is picked up later on with haw
ser. Thus every man has got to be on
the Jump to do his little act, other
wise, when the skipper, who is the
last man to leave the ship, makes his
tour of inspection of the ship he is
about to abandon to see that every
thing is right and taut, the oluejacket
who has neglected his little part is
likely to get into trouble and a heap
of it.
Well, when the ship had steamed a
couple of miles from the anchorage