The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1918-11-07

10 IT, we thought many of their GUS
toms improvements over ours. But we
could not get used to it, ut first. For
instance, on an American ship, when
you are pounding your ear in nice
warm hammock and 1t is time to re-
Ueve the watch on deck, like as no.
you will be awakened gently by burly
garby armed with Il fairy wand about
the Size Of bed SIat, whereas ir,
French ships, when they call the
watch, you would think you were in {;
swell hotel and had left word mt the
desk. 1t was hard to tuSn out at first,
without the aid of n club, and harder
still to break ourselves OF the habit
OF calling our relief in the gay and
festive American, manner, but, rs /
say, we got to like it after while.
Then, too, they do not do any haZinC
In the French navy, and this surprised
us. We had expected to 20 through
the mill Just as we did when we Joined
the American service, but nobody slung
q hand at us. On the contrary, ever
garby aboard was kind and decent and
extremely courteous, ana the fact that
we were from the States counted q lot
1t to the crews of other ships that were
not so honOrcd.
But this kindness we might have cX-
pected. 1t is just like Frenchmcn In
any walk of life. With hardly an ex-
ception, I have never met one OF this
nationality who was not anxious to-
help you In every way he could; ex-
tremcly generous, though not reckless
wltR small change, and almost always
CHEEKY and there with smile In any
weather. A fellow asked me once why
1t was that almost the whole world
loves the French, and told him 1t was
because the French love almost the
whole world. and show 1t. And think
that is the reason, too.
About the only way you can describe
the Poilus, on land or sea, Is that they
are gentle. That Is, you always think
that word when you see one and talk
to hfm--unlcss you happen to see him
within bayonet distance Of Fritz.
The French sailors sleep between
decks In hunks. instead of hammocks,
and as had not slept In bunk since
my Southerndown days, 1t was pretty
heaving line, which is one-quarter-inch
rope, and rigged up hammock. In
: my spare time taught the others how
to make them, and pretty soon every
body was doing it.
When I taught the sailors to make
hammocks, I figured, Of course. that
they would use them as we did-that
Is. sleep In them. They were greatly
pleased at first. but after they had
tried the stunt Of getting in and stay
Ing In, 1t was another story. A ham
mock Is like some other things-it
works while you sleep-and If you are
not on to 1t, you spend most of your
sleeping time hitting the floor. Our
gun captain thought had put over n
trick hammock on him, but I did not
need to; every hammock is q trick
hammock.
Also, I taught them the way we
make mats out Of rope, to use while
sleeping on the steel gratings near the
entrance to stoke holes. In cold wealth
er this part of the ship is more com.
Portable than the ordinary sleeping
quarters, but without mat it gets too
hot.
American soldiers and sailors get
the best food In the world, but whit
the French navy chow was not fancy
1t was clean and hearty, as they say
down East. For breakfast we had
bread and coffee and snrdincs; at noon
boiled dinner, mostly beans. which
were old friends of mine, and of the
well-named navy variety; at four III
the AFTERNOON, pint of vino. and al
six, supper Of soup, coffee. bread and
beans.
Although the French "sevcnty-fivc'
Is the best gun in the world their ma
val guns are not as good as ours, and
their gunners are mostly older men
But they will give younrstcr gur
rating If he shows the stuff.
Shortly after went aboard the Cas-
sard, we received instructions TO pro
ceed to Spezia, Italy, the large Italiar
naval base. The voyage was without
incident, but when we dropped anchor
In Spczia, the Italian port official,
quarantined us for fourteen days or
account Of smallpox. During this period
our food was pretty bad; in fact, tn,
hedI otCiIne TOtten. lNlS cOulu nuTO
ly have happened on an American ship
because they are prOvisioned will
canned stuff and preserved meats, bu
the French ships. like the Italian, de
pend on live stock, fresh vegetables
etc.. which they carry ON board, ant
we had expected to get large suppl!
= OF such stun at Spezia. Long befor
the fourteen days were up we wer,
out Of these things, and had to live ol
anything we could get hold of-mostl.
hardtack, coffee and cocoa.
We loaded cargo of airplanes 70
the Italian aviators Mt the French fly
Ing schools. and started back to Brest
On the way back we had target prac
tice. In fact. at most times on tn
open sea, 1t was a regular part Of tn
routine.
1t was during one of these practice
that the French officers wanted t
hnd out what the Yankee gunner knew
about gunnery. At q range of eigh