Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-03-26
WORK OF THE SAILORS.
Doing their Part the Same as SOL
diers.

oierS.
1T is not too early in the game for
the American people to begin To ap-
prcciatc the unappreciated, unpraised
| and unrccogniZcd heroes of the SEAS
said an American Naval officer in
| Paris. Il few days ago.
The naval officer spoke of thous-
andS of common American sailors who
are undergoing tie almost triplcd
| dangers OF constant ocean voyages and
doing il cheerfully without amy Of the
| advantages Of Uncle Sans services
without uniforms. privileges derived
| therefrum or the glory Of dying for
their country. officially. This officer
| knows the civilian sailor because he
has seen him at sea ever since Amcri-
ca declared war. He has seen him
in port and uiluat, in danger and at
rest ashore carrying Oh the highly
important work that will eventually
beat the German submarine
For ii naval officer to plead the case
of civilian sailors is extraordinary in
the extreme. He might intervene IN
behalf Of his own navy men but fur
common sailors never. Rut the Off
Ger who spoke i'm behalf of the unmili
tarizcd sailors in the Paris office of
the United Press waS not II navy
regular"
Months ago. when America declared
la.ff hiS ,l.Sk I'm In I,liinri.l
rooms OF II big Minneapolis newspaper
ami went to sea. Former experience
in the L. =. navy promoted him immr-
diatcly To command Of Il gun crew on
an American merchant liner. He has
sunk one submarine. had one ship
burned from under his feet ut sea and
Is now manning the guns of another.
| He said:
1T would be irregular to say how
many thousands Of American mer-
| chant sailors are now ut sea. America
hears Of the navy and army on every
possible occasion but one seldom
thinks OF the civilian who is playing
Il great part in this war and who will
play a greater part as the war goes
on. These men are unsung heroes.
| They are volunteers and they get
nothing but small bonus with
monthly pay for taking risks as great
as can be found in government service
| anywhere. They are in perhaps
| greater danger than the men Of the L.
s. navy. The latter man the staunch,
| seaworthy ships-best that Uncle
TSaSsl ,hG7y 6sfSi,,;He former
man, in many cases most any ship.
among hundreds pressed hurriedly in
to transatlantic service after having
served their time on Atlantic and Pa
cihc coastwise routes. :.
THE old self satisfied security OF
the ancient sea dog has been swept
away.
",rhe war time merchant ship forges
ahead without lights and doubling
dangers of night collisions. If there
| Is fog. no horn or whistle IL per-
mitted. Days are spent at sea in the
lurking menace of submarines or
floating mines. Usually. somewhere in
the hull, there are explosives, danger
GUS in storms and heavy weather. Er-
| en- in the coal bunkers. no one knows
whether some enemy agent has not
planted Il time bomb. And even in
| port. on the European side. who knows
but what air raids will not make life
disagrceable.
| 1T isn't the danger of the merchant
sailors career that / want to empha-
size so much as it is the cheerful, vol
unteer way he goes about it. To come
ashore i'm a European port he must
] undergo all the alien formalities that
any civilian would have. He doesn't
| appear to be much Of anybody when
he comes ashore. Soon afterward he
sails out of port to take another
at sea nobody hears and nobody seems
to care, for he doesn't wear uniform.
and his name is not enrolled on the
glory" books in Washington. He's
simply one of the mass doing glorious
work without any hope for glory.