The Washington herald., 1908-02-06

times starts on credit Regular payments
must be made, and the element Of profit
and loss watched closely. Whenever there
IS an assured profit some Of the surplus
IS given 20 the athletic fund for the ship
to buy uniforms, bats and balls, boxing
gloves and the like
The paymaster must also make all con-
tracts for ships supplies IN various ports,
must check these supplies off. It's no easy
Job TO keep track of coal for example
when it is being delivered on board In a
rush The paymaster must know all
about the rates Of exchange in the va
rious ports, and even 20 the mallest item
of goods purchased must keep an exact
account He must take what are really
bank deposits Of the mems wages and
allow 4 per cent interest on them. It
Is far from being a sineCuTe as many
suppose.
OF course, the engineers department
keeps track daily of the amount OF coal
and water used in the ship, and the
amount Of other supplies such as OIL
There is lot of other data as 10 the
working Of the engines that must be set
down each day Weekly and quarterly
and annual reports must be made.
Keeping the Los Book,
The keeping of the log belongs to the
navigator's department. There is a rough
log kept in the chart house, in which
every watch officer must enter in pencil
every important item OF the ships ac-
ton and the actions OF the men during
his watch. Statistics as to temperature,
the barometer, latitude and longitude,
change of course. passing OF vessels. mis-
haps. signals of Importance must be en-
tered. On this log also goes the record
of the morning police court az the mast
and what action is taken I'm every case
brought TO the captains attention. The
rough log is Transcribed daily In the
smooth log. which is written out care
fully and must ba signed by each OF
the officers on watch daily before l p. IN.
The medical officer has a lot Of returns,
He must keep an account Of all the kinds
of sickness for q month. ana the diSpo-
sition of each. lie must summarize them
and work out a percentage of the Illness
OF the patients based on the entire snip s
company. He must make a special report
on the contagious cases. He must keep
account Of the physical condition Of every
man on the ship at stated intervals, and
also once ii year send I'm an alphabetical
list Of the crew with this condition set
forth in detail These are preserved In
the Navy Department for scrutiny i'm case
pensions are sought.
Then there are the summary courts
martial on board. All the testimony Is
written out in long hand. sworn. and
subscribed to- the decisions are set down,
and copies sent 20 the constituted author
/ tiles for approval or disapprovaL
All this work of keeping records finally
reaches the captain In condensed form.
Some If the data goes mo- further but a
large part OF it is passed on to the Com
mander-fn- Chief. and a large part ot that
is sent ON % Washington. 4 warship
may be fun OF stores. food. clothing. sup
piles of various kind powder, and shell.
but after one goes through its system. OF
record keeping all af il along lines that
experience has shown % Doe the proper
naval way 10 DO &c. the average lands
man might Dee inclined To- wonder IF the
mil would not in time bee so choEed mp
with papers and reports and records that
there would Dee little room for anything
else on board ship