The Washington times., 1917-05-25
Navy Seamen's Day Never Idle
From Early Coffee at in the Morning There
Is No Idleness Until After
Dark.

CONTINUED from First Page.)
bay is empty at present. except fol
two cases OF tonsilitis-and neither OF
them looked very sick. little after
Q o'clock comes inspection of the crew
and Swedish exercises. Gun quar-
ters" follow after that Every man
goes to his battle station, ard all gun
crews have special drills. Later there
is a half hour for rest, and at noon
all hands are piped to mess.
school In AfternO0h.
From 1890 to 1 o'clock there Is q
band concert and school call' at 1916
Here is given instruction around the
guns and also in some OF the many
trades carried on in various parts OF
the ship. At 4:30 comes recreation
and rest. At they are piped again
to mess. At $40 there is another
band concert, and later q night drill
at the guns, night torpedo defense,
with the searchlights playing out
over the water. all focusing on q
small dummy U-boat. q speck which
is moving rapidly by. At o'clock
two or three times a week they have
movies" out on. deck. At comes
'taps" and they turn In. All this is
the explanation Of why the blue
jacket sleeps hard.
Every boy has q large bag for his
clothes and q "ditty box" and most
Of them have steel lockers. too. On
enlisting, each is provided with $50
worth of clothes, and these are re-
plenished from time to time and their
cost is held out OF his pay. Frequent
inspection Is made OF his clothes.
rnrh AaN Nn A1NhA Na
soon plunged In gloom at the pros
pect Of the constant cleanliness that
is to be forced upon him here. He
must battle, he must keep clean and
well. Let him show. a sign of being
sick, and the ships doctor soon has
him in hand, and IL he has any con-
tagious disease he is whisked away
TO the quarantine ship, there to re-
main until he is cured.
Every lIaa Must Flf.
''Taut ship makes q happy ship"
This in plain land language means
that every man and boy aboard must
fit into the common good, the work
and life around him-becauSe this
work is packed SO close, and is all 50
complicated. each part depending on
the whole. BY the bed in the cap
tain's cabin found q telephone d.
rectory with over q hundred calls
to the commander, lieutenants and
ensigns, chaplain, paymaster, chief
engineer, chief gunner, chief ma
chinist, TO magazine and srmory, to
barber ship, TO chart-house, to plot
ting room and conning-tower, dynamo
room, torpedo room, postoffice, print
shop, engine rooms and radio room,
sick bay and the surgeons examining
room, TO the five turrets for big guns,
and to scores OF other nerve centers.
As you 90 about you get the i'm
preston of a perfect beehive here,
a whole community OF trades. There
are seamen, there are cooks and cabin
boys and mess men (mostly Fill
pfnos). There are plumbers, carpen-
ters, blacksmiths, boiler makers, and
other machinists. firemen and engin-
eerH, electricians, tailors, cobblers,
Today in my rambling in and about
among mysterious passageways,
came on q little cabin where a blue
Jacket cobbler was pounding on a shoe
in his lap and softly whistIing
Dixie" There are six or eight
stenographerA, who are called ''yeo-
men" There are fhe radio wireless
men And all these are but 4 few o.
the workers. Special classes are held
nearly every day in the electrical
workshop here, in the radio room and
machine shops. All over the ship you
see STRIKERS" apprenticed to carpen-
ters. plumbers, blacksmiths, cooks.
printers, gunners, engineers. and get
ting broken in to a trade.
OfneeEs At Pistol Practice.
The ship has a continuous life.
Exploring through its many decks,
in and out anu up and down,
you find activity everywhere, you
find always something new. This
afternoon came up from lunch with
three or four young officers for pistol
practice up in the bow. AS they be-
gan shooting at bottles which they
had thrown into the sea, many blue
ackets gathered about, while others
all along the decks could be seen
dragging huge ropes and hawsers
about or mendinE cables. or giving
fresh coats OF paint where II was
needed. Others sitting on the deck
were cutting out long strips OF cap
vas. And over the ships side, out h
the chains one lad was teaching
another how to heave the lead" You
could bear hammer blows upon steel
plates, q constant tapping, tapping.
1t sounded like a machine shop here.
A carpenter came by with his tools,
a group OF boys sat peeling potatoes
The big blacksmith \cams out OF his
forge on deck. and / noticed there
was an eagle. an American flag and
a bunch OF roses tattooed on his enor-
nous arm. II fond parents back at
home do not wish their dear boys dis
figured for life they had better send
frantic messages here, for i see tat
tooed arms on every side.
Baseball Team Practices
Some wear blue jackets; others
white. Some wear blue jumpers and
a few go about in undershirts. A
group OF boys bring up their bedding
and spread It out on deck-hammock.
mattress, blankets, an bag-anu an
officer inspects 1t all Two huge smil-
ing darky cooks come out OF their
galley for a smoke. On a forward
deck inclosed in nets the baseball
team 10 practicing "bunts." Every
where boys are sleeping in the warm
rays of the afternoon sun. Here Is q
class in tying knots More boys keep
appearing out OF the hAtchways, while
49, 10