Evening star., 1917-05-27
! HAPPY SHIP" PEOPLED
ByACONTENTED CREW
One q. S. Navy Vessel Where Men
Slyly Skylark, But Do Not
Neglect Duty.
BY HERBERT COREY,

one seems contented. Ine eleVen nun
dred men of the crew go about their
business cheerfu1ly. There Is no quar-
reling or fault finding or edged retorts.
Yet the work is always well done. The
brasswork glistens and the deck planks
have been scrubbed as clean as the oak
tabletop in an old-fashioned dairy.
No doubt other ships of the Ameri-
can navy are just as happy. l am
writing of this one merely because
know her. At first / was impressed by
the mechanical vastness of her. She
has every new "gadget" that has been
proved out for naval use. The faint film
OF smoke that curls up when her oil
burning engines are approaching high
speed would hardly smut a lady's hand
kerchief. She is uncannily quiet At
fifteen knots she slips along as noise
lessly as duckboat, except for the rip
pie. thrown UP by her cutwater. The
great turbines do not make enough vi
bration to spill a drop from a brim-
ming glass. Later these things lost
their hold upon my Imagination. The
human story below decks interested me
more.
Assumes Great Importance.
Just now that human story is of
greater Importance than details of guns
and armor and boiler power. Within
the past few weeks nearly 10000 boys
to come in the future. If these boys
were to be unhappy in their new life
i would not write about 1t, for such
writing might keep recruits away at
q time when they are needed. But since
they are happy. since there has been a
gain in strength and self-respect and
ability to take up responsibility, the
story should be told. If conditions were
different these boys are of the sort that
would set their teeth and go through
with the job just the same. Now they
go at it grinning and discreetly sky
larking.
"Bad Eggs" and ''Kick-outs."
'It always was a happy ship" I am
Ships. it seems, have characters just
as people have Nor do they easily live
down an unwholesome past. There is
always some one at hand to remember
when such and such q ship made bad
run to the China station. or that other
ship fell from grace when so-and-so
for bad eggs" it appears. They
promptly become kick outs"
"A bad sailor does not care II he Is
out"
Under the law a captain has the
right to discharge as unworthy four
per cent of his complement annually
without preferring charges against
them. Sea lawyers may avoid detec-
tion. They may never do anything
for which they can be tried. and yet
continue as thornS In the ships side.
When they are located they are kick
ed out. One such man was a model
seaman. He always did his work,
he was polite and respectful, and he
never touched a drop of drink. But
every time that he had liberty he
managed to bring crowd Of green
youngsters back to the ship roaring
drunk. He found a malicious enjoy
ment in it. After he had been warn
ed time or two he got the boot.
The contentment that was evident on
board was something of a surprise.
Not less than 800 of the crew are
"rookies"-a new recruit Is a rookie
in the navy just as in the army-and
few Of them are more than nineteen
years old. 1t Is to be doubted II many
of them had every been away from
home before. I had fully expected to
find a homesick and sorry lot. I sniff
fed about the ship. looking for dark
corners-which do not exist on q mod
ern battleship-to hnd somewhere boys
with tear-stained faces. or to over
hear beginner regret that he had
left home. If any rookie cried 1t was
in his hammock after the lights had
been turned out at night. The evidence
had disappeared by morning.