Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-26
JACK TARS' CHRISTMAS
CELEBRATION IN NORTH ATTAIN
TIC FLEET AT NEW YORK.
Trees and Greens to the Masthead
Games in the Bunk Hold
The Briggs Emptied.

NEW YORK, December 26.-Snuggled
away in the cosest corner of the harbor
the men and officers of Uncle Sans dandy
battleship squadrons of the North Atlantic
fleet celebrated Christmas yesterday at the
Brooklyn navy yard.
Quiet as church mice the big fighters
have been gathering here lately from Maine
to Manila to greet st. Nick in that port of
ports that sailor men love, the one just off
the Bowery.
Hard by the main dock of the yard, spank
ing and fit in coat of holiday paint, lies
the Kentucky. Abaft and well to the stern
the Maine flagship of the fleet. In the
wake of the latter the Yankton. Across
the channel. fast to the cob dock, is the
Kearsarge. Aft, in the direction of the old
Walabout market. the Alabama, flagship
of the second division, with Rear Admiral
Charles II. Davis aboard. Off to starboard
rides the Iowa. Directly across from Man
haitian and hugging the westerly end of the
dock the receiving ship Hancock. Nearby
the Newark and the Dolphin. Around the
Horn, well TO east by north, the Ohio.
From outward appearances evidently
little preparation had been made for the
Yuletide celebration until shutdown Christ
mas eve. Rear Admiral Coghlan, who is in
command of the yard, preparatory to clos
ing shop for the night took down handy
telephone receiver.
"Dress Ship
Kindly ask commandment of the yard
if the fleet will dress ship for Christmas?"
he asked of the flagship commanding officer.
AYE. aye, sir!' came back cheerily.
Trees and greens to the masthead at sum
set
Very good replied the admiral.
Hardly had he spoken the words when
colors sounding from numerous bugles of
the various ships broke out on the crisp
a almost in unison. Crews mustered
on the quarterdecks at attention. AS the
last note sounded ColOrs dropped and each
officer saluted. Hardly had the sound pene-
trated to the commandments office than with
admirable precision off each yardarm and
flagstaff were swung huge Christmas tree
and quantity of holiday greens.
Immediately the band aboard the Maine
struck up an old Christmas carol. Each
vessel followed. With lusty lungs the
heartes joined in the chorus:
May God bless
All friends dear
With merry Christmas
And happy New Year.
This was what the jackies had been wait
ing IA solid year for. 1t didn't take them
long to get into action.
Frolic and Food.
All sorts of funny jiggers were rugged up
in the crews quarters for merriment. In
the bunk hold of the Kentucky strapping
big fellows with hands tied behind their
backs were diving into huge pans of
molasses trying to fish out silver coins
with their mouths. Aboard the Ohio the
bluejackets were CONFUSING themselves
watching a pie eating contest. This event
had to be hurried to make way for the
blind pig boxing match So it went far
into the night.
All hands We're up early the next morning
to be in time to witness that event of
events-a hand-over- hand masthead race.
The boys aboard the Kearsarge broke all
records and were declared champions of the
fleet.
During the morning as many men and
officers could be spared attended i'm
presSive military masses celebrated by both
Protestant and Roman Catholic chapains
The climax of the hilarlty of the crew
was marked by the breaking of the mess
pennant from the yardarmS at hig,I noon.
They now had to turn in for dinner that
for. Ship printers had We'd with each other
in getting out the dnkiest menu card. On
one side of the favor would appear a like
ness of the ship. The other would tell
what was doing in the eating line and about
what might be expected from the band.
tied with:
Cape Cod oysters
Pickles Horseradish.
Roast turkey with oyster dressing
Mashed potatoes
Green peas. Celery
p,un, M lha,3,,S cranberry and apple pies;
Fruits in season. Cigars.
Cocoa.
To maketh event happier every man
for several days upon bread and water. was
turned loose. Everybody ate as hard as
he could because he knew there was plenty
more where that came from