The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-09-06

ing a sort of military gymnastics. in
tended to make the sailor carry him
self in a proper position and not
SLOUGH.
Once a month the ships surgeon
gives the crew a lecture on how to
keep healthy.
The cruise to the West Indies is the
favorite one with the Eastern bows.
Gliding from the cold of the Northern
winter the ship sails into the eternal
summer of the Caribbean Sea, where
the trade winds blow steady and the
waves sparkle over coral reefs and
wash the shores of islands, which look
like the painted scenes in a theater
more than like real land
Bright skies. shining seas, palms.
mountains, lofty crags, cities with
bright-colored roofs, winds heavy with
tropical odors, "far-off isles of Eden
lying in dark purple spheres of sea"
are unrolled before the apprentice in
one continuous panorama.
When they go ashore a thousand
new sights-"new fruit, new smells.
new air." and strange and curious peo-
pie greet them. In every port the boys
get shore liberty, and are allowed a
certain amount of spending money.
Many are the curious things they buy
as presents for their parents and
friends at home, and the letters of an
apprentice boy during his first cruise
to the West Indies are mighty inter-
esting reading
There is a chaplain on each train
ing ship, and when the ship happens to
be at sea on a Sunday religious serv-
ices are held on board. When she is in
port the boys are landed and marched
to church. Both of the training school
and While on a cruise, if the vessel is
in port, Catholic boys are allowed to
attend their own church.
Barbados is generally the first island
at which the training ship stops. and
here the boys go ashore for their in
PRODUCTION to tropical life. Then Port
OF Spain is visited and then st. Lucia
where the British have their great
coaling station, then come Martinique
where the volcano Mount Peele wined
out city not long ago! st. kits
clean, cool, healthy and picturesque
santa Cruz, garden island of sugar
cane and orange groves; st. Thomas.
with its mountains and wonderful
haroor' Its ruined pirate castles and
groves OF guava-the place where thew
make bay rum.
Then it is away over the dancing
NoNCS VI OoIl Juan. Porto
Rico the capital of our new West In
dian possession, and from there
straight south across the Caribbean
TO La Guayra on the coast of Vene-
zuela and to the little, quaint Dutch
island of Curacao.
turning north again the training
ship steers for Kingston, jamaica
passing into the harbor by Port ROYAL
the greater part of which place sud
denly sank beneath the seas one dav
when II was pirates stronghold.
Guantanamo Bay on the Cuban
coast Will also probably be visited and
the city Of Havana
When the clustering palms of Kew
west are seen rising above the water
and the ship slides over those clear
waters, where you can look far down
Tor many a fathom and see the coral
moor OF the ocean and FISH swimming
about, the boy knows that he is in The
United states once more, though ev.
erything about him is still tropical
ana the end OF his cruise is not yet,
The boys who sail out from San
Francisco may voyage 10 the curious
Mexican ports, where everything Is az
tropical and strange as Il Is IN the
West Indies, Or over the long. rolling
s"ells Of the Pacific. ana view he