Metropolis weekly gazette. (Metropolis, Ill.) 1???-19??, 1917-09-28
BOYS Who Never Saw the Ocean
Are Taught the Duties of Sail
ors at Great Lakes and Make
Good Seamen-ln Their Off
Moments They Play Baseball,
Box and Hold Other Athletic
Meetings.

n TORE than 10000 young men from
IVI the colleges, 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.
OF 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 a grassy field are
scattered the working parts of battle
ship. On a swinging platform there Is
a steering wheel with its creaking rope
and rugged with, a naval compass.
Here the recruit gets all the sensations
of the pitching seas while he holds her
headed into the teeth of a 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 a regular part Of the recruits day
al the station. Before a 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
he can be rated a 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 spices, eye spices. 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 a ship fast as II
docks as easily as he can prepare, a
bowline on blight for the purpose OF
singing casks or loading stores. Al
are experts on the square knot, for it is
this knot that usually catches the eye
of Captain w. A. Moffett, commandment
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
water hoy" knows almost as much
about a ships ropes as does the mar
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. ana some of them, in fact. had
never seen large body Of water until
a Al. Al.