Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-02
LIQUOR oNN MAN>oF<WAR

The yellow journals reports as to that
| ''mutiny" on board the battle ship Texas
were. of course, the most und1luted moon
shine. A mutiny on board an American
nan-of-war at this day and date would be
| virtually impossible; 1t would take up too
much room to explain just why, but 1t
seems fairly safe to assert that genuine
| old-fashioned mutfny on board United
| States ships-of-war Is about as dead as the
Cardiff giant.
The trouble on the Texas was due to the
| fact that some of the bluejackets got
| drunk, and consequently. ugly. When they
| got drunk and ugly they tried to Jump
| the Jimmy Legs. Le. the master alarms
| This was not mutiny. If it were. there
would be lot of mutinies to report every
year on American warships throughout the
world. The Jimmy Legs of a man-of-war Is
there to be Jumped" He is constantly on
| his guard against drunken members of the
crew, just as a policeman down in Blood
| fields Is on the perpetual lookout for attacks
from the rear. When the average blue
jacket becomes drunk he Is liable to re-
| member things, and to imagine things.
also, and he feels that the master alarms.
whose job 1t Is to keep down disturbances
on board ship, Is his enemy. If he finds
other drunken bluejackets suffering under
the same imaginary grievance, he goes in
with them. and they all make dive for
the legs at the first favorable opportunity.
1t is a court-martial onenSe, but q naval
sailor with rum in him doesn't bother much
about aftermaths. The master-at-arms al
ways comes out of these ScrtmmageS on
top and the men who attack him inevitably
do time either In double irons on ship
board or in naval prison. This. however,
is not mutiny. Mutiny is a game in which
at least half ships company take hand.
and 1t is a horrible. savage business. There
has been nothing of that sort in the Ameri-
can navy for many decades.
The drunk of the Texas men who got
into trouble began at Galveston. When
the Texas hoisted her mudhook and pulled
out of Galveston harbOr the men who had
been carousing ashore awoke to their i'm
perative need of more liquor. wherewith to
keep themselves sozzled and happy. and the
lack of 1t a sad atf1iction. However,
the god BacchuS took care of his own. Inc
order was given to shellac the berth deck
The shellac used on men-of-war Is mixed
by the ships painter. 1t Is composed large
ly of alcohol. Each bluejacket who does a
share of the work is given a pot of the
shellac. The bluejacket has a crafty way
of stirring his shellac around with stick
until the alcohol drifts to the top OF the
pot. 1t is muddy and horrible, of course.
but 1t is alcohol all the same, and 1t af-
fordS the jolt and produces the drunk. Ihe
sailor man mixes it with coffee to make 1t
palatable-if the word palatable may be
distorted to fit the matter in hand. 1t Is
said in the navy that when you see an old
hatfoot combing out his mustache with
marin Spike you may hHo" tIidl nc Ids
been making nefarious use of his shellac
The men of the Texas didn't shellac the
berth deck of their ship to any large ex-
tent. but they had plenty of joyaunce with
the shellac dished out to them. Then they
did the things that landed them in irons,
and later in the Boston naval prison.
For the effect of this shellac decoction
is surely something fierce 1t turns even a
mild into demon 1t transforms a
rollicking good-natured chap into a fight
ing fiend. The custom of daubing the berth
decks of American warships with shellac
has got many splendid seaman with
fine record into sad trouble.
How to keep hard liquor away from the
men forward on men-of-war: here is a
problem that commanding officers totally
abandoned as impossible of solution many,
many years ago. The thing can't be done.
The sailors will get liquor when they want
it, They have been known to get drunk by
the score on board warships in midsea,
without the officers ever being able to as
certain how they became drunk. If the
ships painter, in such cases. has been cor
rupted by the men into losing" for while
the key to the alcohol chest. the corrupted
ships painter is, of course, the last man
to give the thing away. No ships painter
ever did give the thing away, in truth. II
one of the members of 1.-The black gang
namely, the engineers force) has purveyed
the men the liquor from the hoard he has
slowed away in a bilge boiler not in
use. the biuejacket who is responsible for
the drunken crew in midocean Is surely not
going to proclaim his responsibility, and.
court-martial or no court-martial, the men
who partake of his boarded liquor Will
never give him away.
The all-hands midsea drunk doesn't often
happen on American warships nowadays
but 1t was common enough occurrence
decade or back. One of the engineers
crew of United States man-of-war was
once caught red-handed in the act of max
ing pretty fair article of corn liquor. He
had fixed up regular still for the purpose
and his brand Of goods had been in circu-
lation for many months before the officers
of the ship found out the source OF the con-
ouS-performance jays of many of the
men forward. There also a fireman in
the navy who was caught in the act of
making very fair counterfeit silver dollars,
but that is another story.
When warship is in port In any part of
the world the officers particularly feel their
Incompetence to keep the drinking men for
ward from getting hold of liquor on ship
board. The men returning over the gang
way from shore liberty of course
searched for liquor as they come aboard.
but ii is very new salorman indeed who
does not know how to beat the perfunctory
searching game he gets al the hands of the
corporal of marines or the master-at-arTns
at the gangway. The sailor who antici-
pates a big head the next morning, and
who has provided himself against that
awful contingency by bringing along with
him from shore several hairs of the dog
that bit him in the shape of eye openers
against that sad morning hour, has many
little schemes wherewith to beat the search
He ties the bottle beneath his wide trousers
on the inside of his leg-and the searchers
hands are only passed along the outside:
or he carries the pint in Chinese snake or
eelskin. coiled beneath the wide collar of
his shirt: he permits the fiat bottle to
rest against the small of his back, beneath
his shirt: he has a rubber bag-similar
in shape to the ordinary hot-water bag
about half filed with eye openers. nesting
against his stomach or he has a hollow
bamboo. tidily filled, running the length of
his body, and OF course concealed from
view: or he takes chance on the searcher
not removing his cap, and places the bot
tie therein. When the searcher does re-
move his hat the exposure Is of course
complete and humliatng.
But how do the men who are not permit
ted to go ashore, account of previous
misconduct, become ''glOrously'' intoxicat
ed, they often do? Well. they are lin
the hands Of their friends who are per-
mitted to go ashore. But if the men re-
stricted to the ship had to depend upon
this source of supply the drough, would be
something pathetic for them They do not.
however, have to depend upon this source
of supply.
Certain members of a warship's crew are
making duty trips ashore all day-the cox
un Of the steam cutter, for example Far
be 1t from the present writer to tattle but
there surely was cOXun of the steam