The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-10-05
'D|SCONTENT N OUR navy
Jack Tars Reasons For 50 Many
DeSertionS From WarShipS.
EXCESSIVE PUNISHMENTS.
Declare They Get Poor Food, Misft
Uniforms and Not Enough Shore
leaVe-Demands EXacted in Past
Two Years Have Been Unusually
Severe on the Jackies.

Statistics show that desertions from
battleships in the last few years have
| been occurring at a surprising rate. In
almost every port warships touch blue
| jackets are unlawfully quitting the
service. Within the last two years the
crews of at least two American war
| ships have been reported in a mutin-
Gus state. Bluejackets who do not de-
sert or mutiny grumble openly when
ever they get chance on land to air
their grievances. Dissatisfied sailors
appear to be in the rule instead Of the
| exception. says the New York Tribune.
TO quote one bluejacket: I'm the
American navy there are good ships
and bad ships. The former are known
In the navy as homes and the latter
as madhouses' The terms / think,
explain themselves. | myself, | am
glad to say, am serving on a home
where the officers are kind, the grub
good, and we get more shore leave
than on the other ships"
Grub is undoubtedly the particu-
lar subject about which the sailors are
| most bitter The revolving pictures
they paint as to the grade of food served
aboard would at first blush seem to be
drawn freely from the Imagination, but
! a score of sailors Of different ships,
separately interviewed told the same
story and among these was a cooks
assistant of a first class battleship.
Next to the question of grub there
would seem to be no grievance which
IS causing more general discomfort
throughout the navy than the matter
Of uniforms. The men interviewed
were bitter over the present system OF
distributing uniforms to the enlisted
men. Ghey complain that they are
compelled to wear uniforms that do not
fit them, under the present system; and
here the paymaster is the officer who is
blamed
They are compelled, they allege, to
pay for tailoring alterations out Of
their own small wages from $12 to 500
month";. and, to rub it in" they are
oftentimes punished by their captains
for untidiness. and no excuses are lis
tened to.
The uniforms, too, are made Of poor
material. We wear the suits as we'll as
we can. Then comes the captain along
and orders an inspection. That uni
form doesn't fit you, says he. Have it
altered, or I'll punish you severely
That means spending half your months
pay, perhaps, to have the uniform
practically made over again. Then,
shrink, because of the poor quality of
the stuff of which they are made. That
means buying a new uniform, and it
costs us 81 a suit
THE sailors complain that while the
navy blue book declares that for GER
tain offenses men shall be punished
either by confinement in a brig in
double irons, by denial of shore leave
or by fining. captains often sentence Of
tenders to all three of these punish
ments.
There isn't a navy in the world
where the sailors are punished for
small Offenses the way they are in the
amt rican navy. | have mixed with
sailors of all nations, and | know what
lean sailor is more intelligent than the
sa;'Ors of other nations. We can see
tie injustice of the thing more readily
than foreign sailors can, and yet we
are punished more severely of all.
When you punish an American sailor
unjustly or with too great severity,
you make surly brute of him instead
of man"
That sailors do not get enough shore
leave is another assertion strongly ad-
yanced by Jack and given as a cause
for SO many desertions. The sailors
teclare that the men are deprived of
the right to go ashore w,;'out any ap-
pa ent cause or reason. Oae sailor de-
clared that during cruise of five
months, in which his ship lad touched
Tyt twice, not man aboard had been
allowed to go ashore Tor more than
two Gays in all that time
That "grog" is denied while afoat is
another grievance against the service
cited by Jack He comllains bitterly
that N other nayies the men are al
lowed a bottle of beer each day, and
that as consequence they do not get
so drunk when they go ashore. He de-
clares that many temperate sailors
would be more satisfied with the serv-
ice if they could have a little liquor
each day, as used to be the case in the
navy before ''grog" was abolished.
A severe arraignment of their junior
officers is made by the sailors of many
ships. According to the statement of
these bluejackets, snobbery is ram
pant among these officers, and there is
more class hatred aboard a battleship
than ashore. The men describe the
junior officers as being in many cases
bullying, overbearing and naughty and
evincing i'll concealed hatred for the
enlisted men, and declare that In no
navy in the world is there such lack Of
symps thy between officers and men as
in many warships of the United States
navy,
Shirt Pointed Out Dead Body.
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