Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1917-08-17
Play Mixed With
Great Lakes
Boys Who Never Saw the Ocean
Are Taught the Duties Of
a Sailor and Make
Good Seamen
MORE than 10000 young men from
WI fha cnllapas Factories farms and


offices of the middle west are
learning at the United States naval
training station at Great Lakes, Ill,
far from the tang of salt water, to be
sailors, and many of them have not
even seen the sea.
or course there is Lake Michigan,
abutting the training station at its
very doorway, but it is surprising what
one can learn about navigation and
nautical tactics without even setting
foot on shipboard.
In the middle of grassy field are
scattered the working parts of battle
ship. On a swinging platform there Is
steering wheel with its creaking rope
and rugged with naval compass
Here the recruit gets all the sensations
Of the pitching seas while he holds her
headed into the teeth of booming
"sou' wester." This contrivance and
one affording training in the lowering
and raising OF boats are shown In the
pictures.
Upon this field a large proportion of
the men who have been sent into the
navy since the declaration of war
against Germany have been trained
from raw material into deep sea sailor
men. About 10000 have gone to sea
from the station so far, and all Of them
have been trained on dry land.
Knotty problems in sailors knots
form regular part Of the recruits day
at the station. Before bluejacket
goes aboard ship he must be master
of bends. bitches and spices" and the
work is given every bit as much at
tention at the station as drill, physical
training or boat practice. The recruit
must, qualify in the rigging loft before
be can be rated second class seaman.
Here he is taught first to tie the SIM
plest knot, known as the overhead
knot and Is that used in tying bundles.
Bit by bit he progresses until he can
tie ropes In all manner OF intricate
fashion.
The names of some Of these SAVIOR Of
the deep sea. For example, there are
the figure eight, the overhead, the
square, the tomfool, the diamond, the
French shroud, the lanyard, the mon.
keys first. the semitic, the double and
single Mathew Walker, the marlinspike
hitch, the back wall hitch. short spices,
long splices, eye splices, wire rope
spices, the stopper knot and many
others.
And finally when he is graduated
from the rigging loft he can tie bow
line knot to make ship fast as 1t
docks as easily as he can prepare q
bowline on blight for the purpose OF
singing casks or loading stores. All
are experts OH the square knot, for 1t Is
this knot that usually catches the eye
OF Captain w. A. Moffett, commandant,
on inspection days.
Three kinds of rope are used by blue
Jackets In tying the knots-Manila,
tarred hemp and untarred hemp. Wire
hemp Is used when the ordinary rope
will not serve the purpose. And final
ly, after two or three months this fresh
yater hoy" knows almost as much
abOSt a ships ropes as does the man
who has spent years on the salt water.
From Farm to the Navy.
To the large proportion of them
knowledge Of navigation was confined
to a catboat or canoe on an inland
river, and some of them, In fact, had
never seen a large body Of water until
they peeped over the sea wall at tho
training station and saw the waters OF
Lake Michigan dimpling In the stream
ing sunlight below, but when they left
q few months later to 60 aboard q
cruiser, battleship, a destroyer or a
submarine they were sailors-hghters
on active service. Many of these men
have been reared on the farms OF Ohio,
Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wiscon-
sin, Illinois, Minnesota, North and
South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kan
sas and Missouri.
Some say life at this inland naval
training station resembles nothing 30
much as a game OF make believe"
even though It Is In desperate serious
ness and is fraught with import. For
example, when man is given liberty
or af7fmission to leave the station he
says he Is going ashore" When he
scrubs his tent floor he is 'scrubbing
deck" The station is known as the
island" and the station clock is the
ships clock" and when It is 8 O'Clock
II is not 5 o'clock as we know It In civil
life, but two bells"
The bluejackets have their own
monthly magazine, the Great Lakes
Recruit edited by themselves. II In a
F1fSely publication dominated by q
strain Of humor. 1t contains also n