New-York tribune., 1911-11-05
Dwellers on Fleet
Continued from fourth page.

coIor wouldn't show against the sky. and Z,
from, that shade down gradually In graded
,ints until toward the waters edge the
| tome would be about the same as the ships
are nsinted now. We believe that this
| UouId render the ships invisible In a light
mist"
| Az time rolls on we get things down 10
| . a,er polnt OF finer point The NEXT
time the feet puts In and spends It's million
| dollars with us II may have that gray
| shading down so fine that 1t VIII be impos.
s,hle 10 see the vessels from the shore,
and launches will have to be guided 10
their mother ships by bells or signals. II
wouId he rather unsatisfactory, methinks,
for q brave enemy to have hostile ship
| that they could not see slip up on their
| unsuspecting flank some misty day and
give them a long dive 10 the coral bottom
without their even knowing who did II
and which way they come from. However. {
| such Ia war-and you all know what 4
war is.
The way the big boats had OF goss'pins :
| WITH each other was a source OF constant
overwhelming 10 the landsmen aboard. Or
| ders and reports were transmitted by
means OF signal flags or wigwagging. Ths
| a,oh, of a sailor-and they were always
| >. &, standing. on the end OF the bridge
,,,h curious flag in each hand wrapt
evidently in the mazes OF some sort OF
cal,sthenics. brought many wondering
stare from the visitors.
"That looks like waste or time they
uould remark "Why instead or sending
tho orders that way don't they do u with
their wireless or put man IN launch s
and ha him deliver dispatches TO each
vessel"
There are plenty Of solid reasons for this
marine mode OF communication. The wire-
lose comnanies about New York protested
AGAINST the fleets using its wireless be-
cause n broke in on their commercial mes
| soeos Then the launches belonging TO the
d,oorent dreadnothings were usually pretty
buev carving officers on hurry missions.
Ard thirdly there were plenty of COM
notent men 10 do the flag talk. II Is hard
enough 70 keep nine hundred men busy
when the battleship Is riding AT anchor'
curious thing this flag telegraph. II
takes three men on each bridge to work II.
one does the arm work secohu "a'cnes
Tho renlv through single-barrelled spy
glass. while the third takes down "hst me
.acond reads The lad with the curious
rar. Of course, is the one that furnishes 'ns
heavy work II is no joke 10 stand on
windy deck Of a cold day ana Wlswag z
,yo-hundred- word order. lf there is any
chance the wigwag boy cuts down the num-
her OF words. lie is strong for breyy.
| Sometimes his zeal in this direction Is not
| annreciated by the man in charge OF inc
operation.
For instance. when the first division on
tho fleet had steamed in ana set'led PACK
on its two anchor chains Lieutenant X L.
porrv flag lieutenant on the staff OF Rear
Admiral Osterhaus prepared a tall sneak
[ of instructions to be followed by the nee'
while in port One of these designated ths
2 to,rs for visitors as from / to 4:30 in the
afternoon.
That message came along toward the not
tom Of the big pile. and the arms OF 'hs
sailor doing the wigwagging were ABOUT
vigwag gged out of their sockets in sena-
ing this message he named the hour When
all visitors must 90 ashore as instead o,
30. Why? Because it took less OF those
tiresome wigs and wags 10 spell . ocloCA
than il did to spell 80 o'clock.
Tho mistake got loose and was passed
hack TO the lieutenant. The lieutenant mas
a keen insight into the marine manifesta-
tious of human nature. and this insiSht
told him exactly how the mistake had oeen
made.
so" he said. that boy changed it 10
! cut down his work. Just for that nc VIII
send a correction
And he wrote the correction. ~ con-
. tained several hundred words and luNuri-
atad in wealth Of minutest details.
Tudaod from few feet away its length
would have led one to imagine that the
lieutenant was having some love letter WIZ
wapged 70 some window on tho drive to
cave heavy postage. The sailor seeing that
: the Joke was on him. attacked the mes
sage. there arc some who say that ne is
working al it yet. They aver that when
the fleet passed out TO sea the sailor was
stnl standing on tho end of tho Connect
cuts bridge wagging wanly at hags tnat
wore taking the words from tho Marathon
, correction
Many wigwag message would have
been sent faster had it not been tnat tnei'
were 80 many girls around to distract 'ne
attention. II was hard for the man WIN
tho telescope 10 keep il on the WagglnS
, flag when there were so many deadly It.
males of our species passing-so hard' IN
fact that often he did not do H. The oSs
and the telescope would wander at times
until they caught some girl on a passing
sichtseeiug steamer. There would be an
, interchange with tho girl using her nann-
kerchief in the meaningless wiswag I'M
, pulse that comes upon the best Of us when
/ we get on a boat. The telescope Nould
, follow her until she was out Of sight
, All this time the man further up the
line had been talking with his busy hass
, and the tar with the sentimental tete-
scope had naturally muffed great deal OK
what had been said. 1t was easy 10 remedy
that. All he of the telescope had TO DO
was to run up flag which meant Ke-
peat that last message and tho nara
worker had to put his aching arms through
the whole Of it again.
With all their training and vast knowl'
edge of matters naval, there WAS ore ques-
ton that stumped the fleet ofliccrs-tha'
was the wherefore of the naval uniform
The old order changeth. Kingdoms oie
and republics are born i'm their stead car
riages without horses DO go, and men ny
i'm the air cndangering life and lmo Oh
the once unmolested birds Yet, with al
this change in other directions. the cut an"
color of the naval uniform go on tor-
ever. They change not-uniforms worn py
the crew Of the aged Granite State would
with a slight alteration. answer muster io'
members Of the FlJrida's crew to-day
The styles of men on shore have chansed
from the knee trousers and Ions silk stocA.
ings 10 the decorum OF long pants ana
unseen half hose. styles for women have