Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-12

| except tnat mere was u general LOCK OIL
slovenliness about them. Each man
: had all of his gear on according to
regulations, but somehow or another
J all hands looked seedy, awkward, I'M
trained and unmilitary-thisd despite the
fact that the men belonged to what
was rightly considered one of the crack
crews of the whole American navy.
The disliked officer got the men
ashore and started to drill them. They
fell down in a body at the simplest or
ders. Half of them came to a present
arms when the other half came to an
order arms. The officer berated them
and tried again. The men did worse
than before. The officer began to
march them. Apparently not ten men
In that landing party knew the differ
ence between tours right and left
oblique. The movements We're n howl
ing farce and the foreign naval officers
ashore stood by laughing boisterOusly.
The unpopular deck officer flew into a
rage and began to drill the men one by
one. Every man went through the in
dividual drill, manual and movements,
like a major, and when the officer had
drilled about half of them in this way
i
a body. Again they We're like a pack
Of recruits The inextricable tumble
into which the men plunged themselves
warranted the glee of the foreign OFF,
GERS. The disliked officer decided to
punish the men, and he marched them
/ five miles into the country over a bad
road. The men struggled along like Il
flock of pursued sheep. with no order
| whatever and all as solemn as owls
about 1t. The officer marched the men
back to the landing after the ten miles
had been covered and got them aboard
the ship. Then he reported to the COM
manding officer that it was the stupid
T, est pack of bluejackets he had ever
commanded.
Stupid" the commanding officer
said. You must be dreaming. Those
men you had ashore today make one
of the crack battalions of the whole
American navy. l shall take them
ashore myself tomorrow and find out
what's the matter You shall accom-
pany me with the landing party"
The "old man." an extremely popular
commander among the bluejackets, did
take the landing party ashore on the
following day. Every man appeared
on deck Spick and span, alert. all
a-quiver with mettle. The commanding
officer got them ashore and put them
through their manual. The bluejacketS
were as one man with their pieces.
The skipper then put them through the
movements, and the clean. practiced
fashion with which the bIuejackets per-
formed the evolutions caused the for
eign officers who had laughed the day
before the greatest amazement. When
the party returned to the ship the dis
liked officer put in his application for
transfer.
When a chief engineer on n man-o'-
war of today acquires the dislike of
his men-the "black gang''-they are
capable of making heavy trouble for
him. Aside from the commanding Off
Ger, it might almost be said that of all
the officers attached to a modern war
vessel it is most necessary for the chief
engineer to possess not only the good
will, but the actual devotion, of the |
men under him. The chief engineer Is |
held strictly accountable for the pres |
ervation in good condition of the ships |
boilers and machinery. a loose screw |
may very easily disable an engine, and |
it Is the simplest thing in life to loosen |
screw without anybody being the |
wiser One cut rivet is enough to make |
a boiler useless, and crown plates may |
he let down easily enough. A crime of |
this sort has never been actually fas-
tened upon an enlisted man in the en-
gineer's department of an American
ship of war, but it is a matter Of COM
mon knowledge in the navy that those
chief engineers who are unpopular
with the men under them have far the
most trouble with the machinery and
boilers in. their charge, and some of
these disliked chiefs have to expend Il
great deal of ink and paper in explain
ing to the department just why there
are SO many breakdowns in the gear
over which they have control. 1t Is
quite possible for so low rated a man
as even an aggrieved coal passer to
get his chief engineer tangled up with
o. court of inquiry.
Moreover it often happens that an
unpopular chief engineer can't get his
men to make steam. The firemen ap-
work hard enough, but they
don't get the revolutions out of the
propellers. News travels just as fast
1
from the foc'sle to the cabin, and when
the firemen hear that their unpopular
chief engineer has been ordered to get
the ship to such and such a port at
such and such time they just catch
one another's eyes, and the ship doesn't
get there In that time or anything like
It. 1t would make no difference if the
chief engineer himself were to stand
watch in the fire rooms twenty-four
hours at a stretch. The steam registers
take any upward leaps on ac-
count of his presence. The assistant
engineers also stand in need of the
good will of the black gang. On ships
attached to which there have been two
assistant engineers, one of them liked
and the other of them out of favor