The Meeker herald., 1918-09-28
CHAPTER 1.
In ths American Navy.

IN the American Navy
Ny father was q seaman. %, nat
orally. all my life I heard . great deal
about ships and the sea. Even whsn
I was little boy. in Watson. Pa I
thought about them whole lot and
wanted to be . sailor-especially .
sailor 10 the q. g. navy.
You might say was brought up on
the water.
When was twelve years old I went
to sea a. cabin boy on the whaler
Therifus. out Of Boston. She was an
old square.rigged sailing ship. built
more for work than for speed. We
were out four months ON my frst
cruise. and got knocked around . lot.
Especially In Q storm ON the Newfound-
land Banks. where We lost our instru-
ments. and had q hard time navigat-
ing the ship. Whaling crews work On
shares and during the two years was
on the Therifus my shares amounted
to fourteen hundred dollars.
Then I shipped a. nrst-class helms
man on the British tramp Southern
down. q twin.screw steamer out OF
Liverpool. Many people are surprised
that q fourteen-year-old boy should be
helmsman on an ocean-golng craft.
but all over the world you will sec
young lads doing their trick at the
wheel. I was ON the Southerndown
two years and In that time visited
most Of the important ports Of Ed
rope. There 10 nothing like tramp
steamer II you want to SEQ the world.
The Southerndown 10 the vessel that.
I'm the fall Of 1917. sighted Q German
U-boat rugged up like sailing ship.
Although I liked visiting the foreign
ports, got tired Of the Southefndown
after while and at the end OF voy-
age which landed me in New York ]
decided to get into the United States
navy. After laying around for q week
or two I enlisted and was assigned to
duty as q second-class fireman.
People have said they thought was
pretty small to be fireman; they
have the idea that nremen must be big
men. Well. am 8 feet 7k inches In
height. and when I was sixteen was
168 pounds. was whole lot husk-
Ter then. too, for that was before my
Introduction to kultur In German pris-
on camps, and life there 10 not exActly
fattenIng-not exactly. do not know
why II IL, but II you will notice the
navy nremen-the lads with the red
stripes around their left shoulders-
you will dnd that almost all Of them
are small men. But they are husky
lot.
Now. 10 the navy. they always haze
. newcomer until be shows that be
can take care Of himself. and I got
mine very soon aftef I went into On
Gle Sans service. I was washing my
clothes In q bucket on the forecastls
deck, and every garby (sailof) who
came along would give mo or the
bucket q kick. and spill one or the
both Of ~. Each time would move
to some other place. but always
seemed to be In somebody's way. Fl
nally I saw q marine coming. was
nowhere near him. but he hauled out
of his course to come up to me and
gave the bucket boot that sent 1t
twenty feet away. at the same time
handing me a clout on the ear that
Just about knocked me down. NOW,
I did not exactly know what marine
was. and this fellow had so many
stripes on his sleeves that thought
he must be some sort Of oficer. % I
Just stood by. There was gold stripe
commissioned odicer) on the bridge
md knew that II anything was
wrong he would cut In. 20 kept look
Ing up at him. but he stayed where be
was, looking on. and never saying q
word. And all the time the marine
kept slamming me about and telling
me to get the hell out Of there.
Finally I said to myself. It'll get
this guy II it's the brig for q month"
So I planted him one In the kidneys
md another In the mouth. and he went
clean up against the rail. But he
came back at me strong, and we were
At II for some time.
But wher 1t was over the gold stripe