The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-21

when they were rank laudsmenI was at
tached to the San Francisco when she
took the Boston Naval Militia on
weeks cruise in 1S93-the first they ever
made. We transferred the greater part
of our regular crew to the receiving ship
in order to make room for the new
| Corners leaving only the petty officers
and small company of able seamen
besides the engineers force on board.
We'll, ia was Noah's ark of cruise
we had, although the emeteurs did their
very best. Many of the members were
wealthy young men of leisure and there
were many professional men of high
standing. They came on board however
prepared to rough IT. with a vengeance
ana TO live exactly the life of "a sailor
NOW sailor in the navy lives pretty
much as man on shore in the same
walk of life He eats from clean table
ware, sleeps under a plentiful supply OF
oedolng' and even has little Injuries as
other men. But these tars remembered
the sailors of fifty years ago and each tar
came aboard with but one small tin dish
TN cup, and a formidable clasp knife
All their food was dumped into the tin
Plate ana the ameteur salt helped himself
with mis- ringers, while the regular memo
wars men at nearby tables dined in state
WI hhlVes' forks, cups, saucers, and
IN iact, all the comforts of home.
Inc newcomers had the regulation can
vas hammocks, but, thinking that the
regulation sailor man scorned the nse 90
mattress or covering, brought none. and
almost froze during the cool gustv niebts
at sea
Ihey stood watches manfuIly, as near
Iy like seamen possible, but some of
tne breaks made in miscalling names
ETC. almost doubled US up, but we did
not dare smile openly. For instance a
lookout a the masthead in there for snv-
ing out lights passing craft, and reporting
MS observations by singing out to the of
hcer Of the deck on the bridge below. The
usual cry is light ho;" or Sail hor
as the case may be. The reply is a query
from the officers: Where away?' To this
the lookout replies Three points off the
starboard bow A point for ard of the
port BEAM Dead ahead. etc.
How They Stood Watch.
My first watch on the bridge was from
p. m, to midnight and the lookout sent
aloft to the masthead was a well-known
Boston dentist AS soon as he got aloft
he startled me by singing out Justify. Two
ships no, and three light hos. sir"
Where away? I shouted back as soon as
could master myself
g One light is nearly behind US, sir he
yelled. The other two are in close proxi-
NIFTY over toward what | should think was
in the direction of Boston. One, suspect,
is the rising moon VIII tell you about
the ship no later
But the funniest incident occurred at
the very outset of the cruise. Among the
old salts left on board was a griZzled old
sailmaker's mate nance Aleck Foley, who
had inherent detestation of anything
amateurish. When the student tars tum-
bled aboard, looking mighty clean and
slick and innocent in their new uniforms
and eager for their first cruise on a real
/ man-o'war, Old Aleck was disguised on
/ general principles and crawled, goferlike
down into his little sailroom below on
| the berth deck.
when the forward berth deck had be-
come jammed with strugg ing shou ing
lawye $, dentists, physicians and profess
sors rugged out in sailor mems clio hes,
Mike OToole, the bosun's mate, after
taking good care that no officers were
about, blew his whistle and roared out:
'A-a-a-ll h-a-a-and lay f-o-r-r-a-rd and
pass yer whisky bottles into the sail-mak-
ers mate for safe keepin'. Men, step lively
there
! I'm obedience to this authoritative sum
mons, there was immediate and exc ted in
quiry set on foot by scores of the new
arrivals as to where the sailmakers mates
room was, ana rush was maue Tor Il,
"OId AIeck" Liked II.
! Old Aleck,' being busy al the time
whipping a set of hammock c'ews down
in his little cubbyhole, had not heard the
summons and when a man appeared at
the little hatch above his head and hand
4 ed down leather-covered flask to him,
! Re was surprised but gra tilted. He accep-
/ ted it with awkward thanks. He was
more surprised when another hand was
! extended Gown to him bearing a flask la
! bIed Old Bourbon, 80 This was quickly
! followed by pints, half-pints quarts,
/ silver-topped TASKS, leather-covered
/ TASKS and tin TASKS of rum.
! gin, brandy, bourbon, rye and
i cordias of various brands and
ages, all of which were accepted in the
spirit in which they were terd red and n
/ questions asked. The deluge of intox can
swept Gown through that hatch for an
/ hour. and before it ended Old Aleck' was
[ caught in the tide and overwhelmed and
carried off his feet by it.
1.-The mistake was not di over by the
innocent ones until the next day and was
not discov cred by old Aeck' for forty
eight hours, for when he was found by
the master at arms he was peacefully
sleeping on pile of old hammock bags,
literally covered with liquor He was sim
ply leclured, as the fault was not alto
Eether his own. but for several years he
maintained that the members of the Bos-
ton Naval Reserves were "a fairly decent
1 lot of fellows which was as near as he
ever came 70 compliment"