The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-12

Features OF Life Below the Water
Line OF a Man-of-War De-
scribed by +. I. Bullen.
MOST DANGEROUS PLACE
Full OF Perils in Peace and in War
One Well-Directed Shot Prob
ably Would Kill All.

LONDON. April u.-Frank T. BuIIen the
well-knOwn author Of sea stories. has con-
fributed a long article TO the Daily Mail on
the hVes OF men on warships who work
below the water line When wandering
iandsfoik, a little wiser than the majority
OF their fellows. exercise the privilege of
visiting modern man-of-war. he writes, it
Is instructive and amusing to listen TO their
comments on what is shown them.
But In very short time, as wonder sue
ceeds wonder and the astounding intricacies
OF the vast magazine of machinery endure
their uniformed scrutiny there comes
upon them a sense of utter bewilderment,
OF inability to cope'with the thrush of new
IDEAS and the well-intentioned but neces-
sarlly technical explanations rendered by
their guides fall upon dulled ears and be-
numbed sensoria. So that the usual effect
produced upon them - such a visit is
mainly limited to vision Of massive en-
tanglement and wonderful cleanliness.
coupled with pleasant recollection of the
courtesy shown them by the men with
whom they have come in contact.
NOW, between the spectacle presented by
oattleship in commission quietly reposing
In some harbor ready to receive visitors
and the same vessel at sea there is a diff
ference that is only TO be called immense
let between that ship steadily holding her
course Tor some objective under peace con-
dltlons and herself prepared for battle there
- an even greater contrast, awe-inSpiring
even 10 the initiated but in the nature of
tnihSS never revealed 10 any but naval
men and they, being doors of the most
energetic kind. are not apt TO tell the won
derful story-at any rate, in terms to be
understood of the people. Therefore it falls
task
Perhaps TIE most noticeable feature of
the internal economy of a battIeship at sea
In time OF peace is its regularity allied TO
extreme mobility
There is absolutely nothing mechanical
ABOUT the operations of the crew there
Is about the drill OF soldiers all things
are ,arse Done IN a flexible way that suggests
emergencies as may always be expected at
sea In our service a large-far too large,
some think-amount of time and labor is
spent IN making the aggregation of me-
cnanical appliances above and below look
like a jewelers. shop window, and that mis-
take IS rapidly being amended
A THING ALIVE.
For it is not a question of cleanliness
the indispensabiIity OF which goes without
saying. but a question of wasting time
which should be used to much better ac-
count. The domestic arrangements OF the
500 men who this huge vessel go on
side by side with their professional duties
in such easy and interchangeable man
ner, and to the running accompaniment of
so much good-humored banter and fun that
1T is not easy to say where ends and
= the other begins. Also, IL is not a little
amazing to members of any other service
than the navy to see how iron discipline ap-
parently goes hand in hand with large lib
erty, one melting into the other almost
imperceptibly. yet to the minds of the men
anected as clearly defined one from the
other black and white.
IL is, however, in the regions below the
waterl1ne, the engine room and stokeholds.
where the difference between naval sea and
harbor service Is most strongly defined.
From Quiescent mass of machinery al
most dazzling In its bright array, but look
ing to the uninstructed eye like some vast
Internal machine, replete with potentialities
OF destruction. yet terrible in its abnormal
quiet. IL has become alive. thing of
stupendous energy, with innumerable rami-
fications, and whole chorus of different
voices.
And all around it there is the atmosphere
of suppressed power, only just held in con-
troll by its masters. sense of its almost
overwhelming desire to escape from its
bondage and destroy everything about 1t.
Apparently In the midst of the weller of
giancing. crank-throws grooming pstons,
squirting steam and spraying oil move un,
concernedly the men attending upon these
harnessed Titans.
times slain each minute is not clear, nor
the mind feel much wonder at their
escape. being taken up with consideration ii n
terrible engine room by those labyrinthine
ladders in case of a sudden disaster TO the
burst of the imprisoned, superheated steam.
But even this feeling Is intensified upon
passing through the airlock into the stoke
holds, where under forced draught the half
naked. half-roasted stokers are feeding the
devouring yet never satisfied furnaces with
a ceaselesS stream of coal, hurled lahorious-
" from far of dim recesses of the ship
BY other toiling gnomes to meet their I'M
resting shovels
Very little in the way of danger expert
ence can be learned by these men under
war conditions: IL is doubtful if they will
hear the frightful din OF the guns in time
ly in their mindS-that whoever may es-
cape from the result of one well-directed
shell in the vitalS OF the ship. they will
not
But any mind save that of a naval man
must recoil from the spectacle of one of
these monsters going into action against
others almost equal to IL in pOtentiality of
destruction. There is something unspeak-
ably deviIsh about the conditions of mod
ern naval warfare In the open battlefield.
ever at such holocausts Worth and
Gravelotte. death comes amid shoutings and
omen pageantry of conflict that make the
Sudden exit OF souls from bodies less terri
bic TO the mind than this close, breathless
waiting for destruction or opportunity TO
destroy.
BEHIND WALLS OF STEEL.
In the first place, with the exception of
the handful of signalmen, of whom
rlimpses will occasionally be caught as
they manipulate semaphores conveying the
admirars wishes or acknowledging them,
there will be about the advancing mon
sters no sign of the men who handle them.
The actual directors of the vast ma
chimes will be shut in behind circular
walls of steel the head Of each ship being
I'm the center of communication with every
mart of her. like the great ganglions of the
body Everything ornamental or obstruc-
tive IN the awful duty about TO be done is
hidden or flung away; everything burma BILE
on foatable about the decks. especially the
boats cast into the sea. And the assem-
blare of leviathans each apparently pro-
ceeding nv her own vontlOn and only
breathing thin film OF hardly visible
smoke vet each preserving her exact rela-
3 tive position TO her fellows In the line OF
Katie speed on toward the meeting which
will be short but more CHASTITY in its swift
horrors than any battle the world has yet
seen.
Down beneath the water-iine. where en-
gineers and stokers are shut in 10 what
appears HOPELESS destruction upon the adj
vent of one she'll the Titanic labor goes
erimly forward A thousand details de-
mand attention. and many are so fortunate
rs 10 have no leisure for meditation upor
what is coming like the waiting groups
gathered about the guns In turret and
casemate above