The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-28

10" JSD W11 W weigh Lut COhI on TIE Goal
dealers scales ashore. He was returning
TO tpe ship at noon mess gear. and he had
to climb from the steam cutter over the
big coal lighter moored alongside the ship.
and then 40 over the ships side by means
OF the iron hand ladder at tho gangwsy.
The ladder was slippery and the ysomsn
lost his balance. The coal lighter WAS
moored about two feet from the cruisers
side. and the yeoman fell into hat space
" water between the lighter and the ship.
lie sank quite a way. AND when 10 came
up his head bumped against the bottom
OF the coal lighter. He gave himself up
Tor a goDer. seeing the bottom OF the lighter
looming big and black above him. and he
had lost his sense of direction in going
down and therefore couldn't find the open
space between the lighter and the ship.
But he was game enough to look for a break
somewhere. and so he swan all the way
underneath the lighter to the other side
thereof. where a couple Of hands gave
him a lift out Of the wet.
Quite n number OF former apprentices
are wearing the uniforms Of warrant officers
in our service because they were quick
thinking boys on critical occasions.
One or them was extraordinarily handy
with his knife one day when the ship on
board Of which he was serving as apprentice
had a swell chance to go to the bottom
but for him. They were having heavy
u and coming tower practice. The
skipper was doing some firing from his
position in the coming tower. 10y touching
the electric button alongside Of him. The
apprentice was acting as the shippers
messenger during that practice.
- l-l -. ...-
into one Of the six incl guns on the main
deck. Some confusion in orders came
about. At any rate, the skipper had his
finger within a couple Of inches OF the
electric button ready to press il and thus
discharge the six inch gun, when the APP
prentice was on the job. Standing just
outside the coming tower and having from
that position a view Of the gun about to be
fired, the youngster observed that the
breech OF the six inch gun hadn't yet been
closed, and there was the skipper on the
very pin point Of touching the button that
would fire the gun with the unlocked
breech. II the gun went OF in that con-
dition there was the finest kind Of a chance
for the recoil of the immense piece TO drive
the gun right through the ships bottom.
The apprentice didn't have much time to
think, but he didn't need much. He figured
il all out in an instant that IL he yelled at the
skipper that the breech wasn't locked the
suddenness Of the yell might so startle the
skipper that his finger would ~involuntarily
come down on the button and thus discharge
the gun. The boys ships knife with the
big blade was in his left hand shirt pocket
hanging there by its lanyard. He had II
out and the blade open in an incredibly
short space Of time, and he made one cat
like dab with the sharp blade OF the knife
al the electric wire belonging to the button
that led right alongside where the boy was
standing by the coming tower. The blade
cut the wire in two a fraction OF a second
before the shippers finger reached the but
ton, breaking the electric connection and in
every likelihood preventing a tremendous
calamity.
The boy was only a tyke and not very
strong, and just AZ soon as he slashed
the wire he fell forward on his face in q
dead faint-an odd thing, too, that, for
a boy serving on a man-o'-war, and yet
the incident wssn't any ordinary one.
The skipper raised his head the instant
he touched the button and saw what had
h~appened; the loose ends Of the cut cleo
trio wire, the prone boy, and all the rest
of il. Then he darted out OF the coming
tower and saw the breech Of the big gun
still unlocked. He understood it all long
before the boy was brought around to
consciousness. That boy had no sooner
finished his days OF apprenticeship than
he wore the warrant officers uniform
Of a unner.
Another apprentice who was there with
an alert mind and got himself a warrant
Officers billet thereby did q stunt in a
magazine. They were breaking out am
munition. The ships dynamo was out Of
order, and so they we're using closed Ian
terms for the job. A lantern that was
being raised to the deck by q cord fell
in two-that is, the bottom OF IL fell out.
The fame OF the wick didn't go out, how
ever. The business part Of the lantern
fell right alongside a big can Of powder,
with the flaming wick resting right against
the metal Of the can. 1t doesn't take
long for an ammunition can to get heated
through with a point OF flame resting
against it's side, and this was old fashioned
black powder, too, and not the slow burn
ing brown stun.
IL was a ticklish looking situation, and
a lot OF the old timers around the hatch
of the magazine turned chalky.
The apprentice boy took the situation
in at a glance. He scrambled down the
hosting chain like a monkey, picked up
the lanter n, blew out the wick, grabbed
the can of powder, and yelled for them to
null him up. He had the can of powder
with it's hot spot where the wick had rested
AGAINST IL In one hand when they hauled
him to the deck and he raced 20 an open
mort in n log room and tossed the heated
can into the sea.
That boy, too. was reckoned to be good
enough, when his apprenticeship was
over, to wear a blouse without any buttons
to il, and they made him . gunner.
Uaw TinfolI II Made.