Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-05-11
BRONCOS OF THE SEA
An Idea of What Life is
Aboard a Torpedo Boat.
NO SLEEP TO BE HAD
YOU PLAY TAG WITH EVERY
THING YOU EAT.
The Cook Never Tries to Prepare Any
thing but Coffee and Has Trou-
BILE With That.
NO SLEEP TO BE HAD

Put a thirty-knot destroyer into rough
sea-" says Sir William White, land the
limit of speed she can make is what she
can bear-what the people on her can bear"
Travelling at thirty-knot speed is going
at the rate of a little over thirty-four miles
an hour.
The average age of the commanders of
the battle ships in the United States navy
is about fifty seven years In selecting Of
hcers to command torpedo boats it is en-
deavored to get men of about thirty or
under. Torpedo boats are the bucking
broncos of the sea, and it takes a young
man to ride them successfully.
A man at the wheel of torpedo boat going
at full speed has no time to calculate dis
tances-he must feel them instinctively The
boat must become as much a part of him.
self as his body is and the thought in his
brain must be translated to movement of
the rudder as instantaneously and as au-
tomatcally as his arm would raise to ward
off blow aimed at his head. An instant's
hesitation and his boat crashes into an
other craft, plunges upon the shore, or is
capsized by heavy sea- as was the IS. 26
at the mouth of the Elbe
Not only young officers. but young men
for the crew are needed on board torpedo
boat-men in " HON age and experience has
not tanned the dash and daring which the
boat itself typifes, and whose young bodies
can adapt themselves to quickly varying
conditions
Our f1otilla of torpedo boat destroyers
when on it's way to the Philippines, reach
ing there the middle of last month after
four months at sea, made the trip from the
Canares to Gibraltar at an average speed
of only eight knots an hour This low
speed was maintained for two reasons-to
husband the coal supply and to make the
going as easy as possible, so that the men
might stand a chance of getting some sleep
during the long run.
Ten-Miuute Maps,
A man on a torpedo boat has to catch his
sleep ION the fly" and he becomes exceed
ingly expert, being young and adaptable, at
making up the required amount of slumbsr
in little mosaics of an hour now, half an
hour then and ten minutes later on. He
becomes accustomed to drop into a doze
whenever a favorable minute arrives and
he is not on duty and to stay in that con-
dition until a sudden lurch Of the boat
shakes it out OF him Never at sea does he
expect to be able to turn in for full night
sleep.
This difficulty of sleeping on torpedo
boat at sea is one of the principal reasons
why the fleet of destroyers sent to Manila
had an timer Try arranged for 1t which pro-
vided for ninety days spent IN port ara
only seventy at sea. This ninety days OF
rest against seventy of active seagoing IS
calculated to be about the limit of endur-
ance of a picked crew on torpedo boat.
destroyer it must be remembered, is only
torpedo DOdt Oh a larger SToWli, anu
so much larger as to make any material
difference in the amount of discomfort and
strain put upon the crew, especially where
the theater of action is the open ocean.
All Suffer Alike.
On a torpedo boat officers and men suffer
alike The sea is no respecter of persons,
and losses the lieutenant and the appren-
tice boy about and keeps them awake with
absolute impartiality. The officers and men
of the torpedo boat fiotilla employed on the
Cuban coast during the Spanish war suffer-
ed greatly from inability to sleep in the
long spells when the nervous little craft
were kept scouting about amid the block
aiding squadron, or running on their fire.
quent errands from the fleet to Key West.
The crews used to arrive at Key West halt
dead for want of sleep, and as soon as the
boat was alongside the dock all hands made
for their hunks
A man who has had much service on a
torpedo boat said to the writer:
1T Is not only sleep with which you have
to play catch as catch can on board a tor
pedo boat, but you have to play tag with
your food as well. If there was anything
like a sea on, we never used to think OF
sitting down to table, but took such food
as we could get in one hand and ate 1t
while we held on with the other.
"A great part of the time cooking was
next to impossible and cold canned stuff,
or what was left over of the stuff which
had been cooked in port, had to suffice
US, and we grabbed that as we could and
when we could.
1.-THE cook always, or almost always used
to make coffee for US, though how he man
aged it was a mystery, for, though he used
to lash the coffee pot to the top of the
stove and tie down the lid, the pitching and
the rolling of the boat in a heavy seaway
would spill large portion of the contents
of the pot out through the spout
"Then cookey would put cork in the
mouth of the spout, and when the boiling
coffee generated steam enough the lid
would blow off, or the cork would fly out.
Altogether, 1t was only by the exercise OF
indefaugable energy and skill Of the sort
which ought to have been recognized in
general orders that finally enough Gomez
would be manufactured to give each man
cupful.
1--WE used to get an outfit Of crockery
about every time we came into port during
the Spanish war, and smash 1t up the first
day out, probably If not the first day,
then a little later.
Sore Muscles.
"When man first goes to sea in a torpedo
boat" said a man of experience in that
sort of thing, This muscles, joints and even
his bones at first become sore and strained
from the perpetual short, nasty, vicious
witches, jerks, rolls, pitches and jumps of
the craft 1t is entirely different from
the motion of a larger vessel.
But the body becomes accustomed to the
motion, adjusting itself automatically, so
that 1t Is not strained, in wonderfully
short time. A sort of physical intelligence
is brought into play by the body, which
works independently of the mind. All that
the man has to remember is to hang on
he must not forget that. His body does
the rest automatically in adjusting itself to
its new conditions, far as the motion of
the boat is concerned, so that there is little
wrenching and straining of the muscles
IF a man does not remember to hold on
to something when on the deck of torpedo
boat in a seaway he is likely to be sent
spinning overheard to watery grave as
was poor Breckenridge from a torpedo boat
running across 1.-THE Florida straits"
What was the most exciting moment you
ever had on board a torpedo boat?" was
asked of a sailor who had spent much time
In this sort of craft.
Il think the most exciting trip 1 ever
made was at the beginning of the Spanish
war. We were lying in Key West in a
torpedo boat having official speed of
twenty-eight and one-half knots The feet
was at Dry Tortugas, one hundred miles
away.
OF to the War.
Zone night we received dispatch from
Washington with instructions to take It
to the fleet as fast as steam would carry