New Britain herald., 1918-02-09
DRINK And MUTINY
ON ATLANTIC SHIPS
Sailors Refuse to Obey and Flee
at Sight Of U-Boat

| Chief of Navigation, IN executive SeS-
sion before the House committee on
| Naval affairs, was made public last
NIGHT in connection with a speech
which Representative Fred G. Hicks
| delivered in the house Thursday. The
| statements of Admiral Palmer We're
printed in the Congressional Record
| under leave to print
| Mr.. Hicks said he had received the
| permission Of Secretary Daniels to use
| the testimony which shows that mer-
chantmen are badly manned with sail
Ors who cannot understand the Eng
| lish language, and by men who re-
fuse to take orders while the vessels
are going through the war zone. This
lack of discipline places such ships in
greater danger from submarine at
tacks.
In the course of his speech, Mr..
Hicks, who is fighting to give the
navy control of the manning of all
ships, quoted a statement made by
Andrew Furuseth, president Of the
international Seamen's union Of
America The latter said:
According to a census which we
have taken, there are about 5000 Ger
mans sailing under the American flag
in different capacities. 1t may be said
that they are among the highest
skilled men, whether they sail in the
forecastle or in the galley. OF these
men, about 1921 are in the organiza-
tons or Seamen."
Commenting upon this statement,
Mr.. Hicks said:
For the sake of argument, let US
assume that IS per cent of the Ger
mans on our merchant vessels are
friendly to the United States, or at
10
try, what about the other per cent.
who are dangerous? How can they
be weeded out of the service under the
existing system Of securing crews?
1t is suicidal merely because that
volcano for any government
knowingly to place itself above a
volcano has been quiescent for a few
weeks or months.
EVERY officer and every member of
a crew navigating a ship in the war
| zone under the American flag should
| be an American citizen, and all Of
| them should wear the uniform of his
country
Many of Crew Intoxicated.
Admiral Palmer's testimony is in
part as follows:
| Il sent three office from our bu
reau over in charge of armed guards,
so that [ would have first-hand infor-
nation as to what was good and what
| was not good and what to do IN order
| to increase the efficiency Of the serv
I ice When they returned they made
a few notes, and one of them said:
" ON sailing from New York the
storekeeper. lamplighter, boatswain,
| and bOatSWain'S mate were drunk.
| The castle crew of this particular
| ship (and I understand it is not dit
| ferent from any others, in fact, much
| better than some) being made up al
most entirely of foreigners who could
not even speak broken English. There
was no one available to talk to them
in their own language until the second
day out from New York. I personally
saw a, great many of the crew under
the influence of liquor, in fact, to such
an extent as to be incapacitated for
duty No disciplinary action can be
| taken in these cases; the only course
for the Captain of this ship is to log
| these men for a days pay while they
are unfit for duty.
! " ON another occasion it was neces-
sary to lower the lifeboats while in the
war zone and hold abandon ship
drill as required by law. 1t so hap
! pened that the vessel entered the war
zone on Sunday, and, although the
vessel was holding abandon ship"
drill for the safety of the passenger
| and crew. it was necessary to pay the
crew, while standing by this drill, AZ
cents per hour overtime
ON several occasions, while pass
| ing through the war zone, it was nee
| essary for me to go below, at the re-
quest of the corporal of the guard,
10 CT hnr nf ~
| gineers' force from smoking on ex-
posed decks, this being against the
law in the war zone. These people in
every case were foreigners and could
not understand a word Of English
and in order for me to make them
| understand it was necessary for me
to forcibly extinguish the cigarettes
All in all, they were the most
illiterate and unkempt bunch of hu-
man beings it was ever my duty tc
| deal with The first hour Of the
watch the speed of the ship was re.
duced from one-half to a full knot
per hour This is very dangerous ir
the war zone, speed being the mair
factor of safety. The reason for this
reduction of speed is explained as fol
lows:
t - If any members of the engineer
l force decide that they do not care tt
l so on watch they cannot be made tx
do so. The only recourse in thi!
! case is for the engineer officer to senC
a representative among other watch
, ers and obtain volunteers to stan(
y the watch of these men. The pay o
| the men who do rot go on watch i
then checked, and the men who talk
q their watches are paid from sucl
funds as are checked against the for
mer AS the watches always rel1eV
at the meal hour, after volunteer
have been secured they then go be
} I low and get their meal, and this usu
| 4,1-c 4 h crrn n h0llr A