The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-07-06
{ Curious Customs
Traditions Of the Past as ShoaUn
by UuJormS of British Officers,
I Sailors and Marines :: !:

/
Many quaint and curious customs
will be found by the inquisitive visi-
tor to the warships lying off the
jamestown Exposition to be held at
Hampton Roads in 1907. These Gus
toms derive their greater charm from
the fact that they are a survival of
olden days and events long since for
| gotten,
For instance, the visitor will see on
the dark sleeves of many British Off
GERS a patch of lighter colored cloth
with row of three buttons. If the
visitor is so curious as to ask what
rank that sign indicates, his host will
tell him that it is not indicative of rank
but survival of the time when my
Lords of the British Admiralty found
it necessary to curb the young mid
shipman's tendency TO use his sleeve
as an impromptu handkerchief Hence
the three buttons. Chevrons worn on
the sleeve of petty officers survive
lEOuu LSuudl usage. SDSNlOu 10 CllO
French word for "rafter." and the
chevron worn on the sleeve was put
there to show the wearer belonged to
the house of the lord whose heraldic
emblems were displayed underneath
the chevrons. For a long time the
United States Army wore their chew
Ia
origin of the custom of wearing chew
rons, this was wrong and when it was
called to the attention of the War
Department, the custom was immed-
lately changed so that now army chew
rons point upward as do the rafters
in any well behaved house
The visitor will observe that in the
British navy the officers leave and en-
ter their ship by means of the port
or left gangway instead of the star
board gangway which is on the right
side looking toward the bow, as is
the customs in other navies, This Gus
tom also prevailed in the Bristish
navy until the great mutiny at More
in 1850 when the crews of the yes
sells in the mutiny sent the officers
over the port gangway as a mark of
disrespect and set them down on the
] beach. When the mutiny was sup
/ pressed the officers came back into
their ships over the port gangway
and have ever since used that as the
most honorable entrace to the ship.
Time is counted on ship board by
bells The day is divided into six
periods of four hours each. The per-
iods or watches commence at noon.
four p, M. eight p. m, midnight, four
a. m, eight a. m. At 1890 p m. the
ships bell is struck once. Two bells
announce one o'clock three, half past
one and four, two p. m. This goes on
until four p. m. is sounded by eight
bells, when the count for that watch is
again with one tap on the bell. This
custom is followed in all navies eX-
cept the British, which instead of
striking four bells at six o'clock, strike
only once This is also in memory of
/ mutiny. The legend as told in tho
British navy is of a great British feet
| lying at anchor in a British port
crowded with mutinous men who bad
| pledged each other to arise and over
power their officers when the las
stroke of four bells in the second dog
watch (6 a. M were dying away in
echoes. With his hand poised to strike /
the bell four times, the marine whose
duty it was to keep the time. first
learned of the mutiny His captain
and the admiral of the fleet We're birth
absent If he struck the full meas
ure the mutineers would be on him be
fore help could reach him. To con
fuse them and gain time, the marine
struck the hell but once, and for some .
time the mutineers supposed it TO be I
only half past four o'clock. Their .
first intimation that their plot had
been discovered was when the sol
diers appeared among them and ar
rested the ringleaders.
Still another curious fact for the .
visitor TO the jamestown Exposition
to remember will be that the three
white stripes running around the wide
collar of the blue jacket was original
ly placed there to commemorate Lord
Nelson's three greatest victories, the
Nile. Copenhagen and Trafalgar. Not
knowing what they represented at
that time the French and Spanish ma
vies also adopted the idea and to this
day the three white stripes run around
the collars of French and Spanish