Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-08-27
CHAPTER I.
In the American Nav.

Wy ldIuST was SedLudH, SO, 0dC-
urally, all my life / heard a great deal
about ships and the sea. Even when
I was little boy, in Walston, Pa,
thought about them a whole lot and
wanted to be sailor-especially a
sailor in the q. S. navy.
YoL might say was brought up on
the water.
When | was twelve years old went
to sea as 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
cruise, and got knocked around a lot,
especially in storm on the Newfound-
land Banks, where we lost our instru-
ments, and had a 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 l shipped as first-class helms
man on the British tramp Southern
down, twin-screw steamer out of
Liverpool. Many people are surprised
that fourteen-year-Old boy should be
helmsman on an ocean-going craft,
but all over the world you will see
young lads doing their trick at the
wheel. | was on the SoutherndOwn
two years and in that time visited
most of the important ports Of Eu-
rope. There is nothing like a tramp
sfno nj 20 hn arIH
The SoutherndOwn is the vessel that,
In the fall of 1917, sighted a German
U-boat rugged up like sailing ship.
Although liked visiting the foreign
ports, l got tired of the SoutherndOwn
after a while and at the end of vOy-
age which landed me in New York l
decided to get into the United States
navy. After laying around for week
or two 1 enlisted and was assigned to
duty as q second-class fireman.
People have said they thought 1 was
pretty small TO be a fireman; they
have the idea that firemen must be big
men. Well, / am feet 71a inches in
height, and when / was sixteen / was
just as tall as l am now and weighed
1853 pounds. l was whole lot husk-
fer then, too, for that was before my
introduction to kultur in German pris-
on camps, and life there is not exactly
fattening-not exactly. do not know
why it is, but if you will notice the
navy firemen-the lads with the red
stripes around their left shoulders
you will find that almost all of them
are small men. But they are husky
lot.
Now, in the navy, they always haze
a newcomer until he shows that he
can take care of himself, and l got
mine very soon after l went into Un-
Gle Sans service. l was washing my
clothes In a bucket on the forecastle
deck, and every garby (sailor) who
came along would give me or the
bucket a kick, and spill one or the
both of US. Each time l would move
to some other place, but / always
seemed TO be in somebody's way. FL
nally l saw a marine coming. I was
nowhere near him, but he hauled out
of his course to come up to me and
gave the bucket a boot that sent ii
twenty feet away, at the same time
handing me a clout on the ear that
just about knocked me down. Now,
did not exactly know what marine
was, and this fellow had so many
stripes on his sleeves that l thought
he must be some sort of officer, so l
just stood by. There was a gold stripe
Commissioned officer) on the bridge
and l knew that if anything was
wrong he would cut in. so l kept look
ing up at him, but he stayed where he
was, looking on, and never saying a
word And all the time the marine
kept Slamming me about and telling
me to get the hell out of there.
Finally l said to myself, 'Tll get
this guy If it's the brig for month"
So / planted him one in the kidneys
and another in the mouth, and he went
clean up against the rail. But he
came back at lne strong, and we were
at 1t for some time.
But when Ii was over the gold stripe
came down from the bridge and shook
hands with me!
After this they did not haze me
much. This was the beginning of a
certain reputation that / had in the
navy for fist-work. Later on l had a
reputation for swimming. too. That
first day they began calling me
.Chink," though don't know why,
and 1t has been my nickname in the
navy ever since.
1t is a curious thing. and / never
could understand it, but garbies and
marines never mix. The marines are
good men and great fighters. aboard
and ashore. but we garbies never have
a word for them, nor they for us. On
shore leave abroad we pal up with
foreign garbies, even, but hardly ever
with marine. OF course they are
with us strong in case we have scrap
with liberty party of some foreign
ship-they cannot keep out of a fight
any more than we can-but after IL
is over they are on their way at once
and we on ours.
There are lots of things like that
in the navy that you cannot figure out
the reason for, and think ii is be
cause sailors change their ways so
little. They do a greet many things
in the navy because the navy always
has done them.
l kept strictly on the job as fire
man, but wanted to get into the gun