Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1918-11-15
CHAPTER /,
In the American Navy.

My father was a seaman, so, nat
urally, all my life I heard a great deal
about ships and the sea Even when
I was a little boy, in Walston, Pa, I
thought about them a whole lot and
wanted to be a sailor-especially a
sailor in the U. S. navy.
You might say I was brought up on
the water.
When I was twelve years old I went
to sea as cabin boy on the whaler
Therifus, out Of Boston. She was an
old square-rgged sailing ship. built
more for work than for speed. We
were out four months on my first
cruise, and got knocked around a lot,
especially in a 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 I was
on the Therifus my shares amounted
to fourteen hundred dollars.
Then I shipped as first-class helms
man on the British tramp Southern
down, a twin-screw steamer out of
Liverpool. Many people are surprised
that q 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. I 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
steamer If you want to see the world.
The Southerndown Is the vessel that,
in the fall Of 1917. sighted a German
U-boat rugged up like a sailing ship.
Although I liked visiting the foreign
ports, I got tired Of the Southerndown
after a while and at the end Of q voy-
age which landed me in New York I
decided to get into the United States
navy. After laying around for a week
or two I enlisted and was assigned to
duty as a %second-class fireman.
People have said they thought I was
pretty small to be q fireman; they
have the idea that firemen must be big
men. Well, I am 5 feet ~ inches in
height, and when / was sixteen I was
just as tall as I am now and weighed
1853 pounds. I was a whole lot husk-
Ter then, too, for that was before my
Introduction to kultur in German pris-
on camps, and life there is not exactly
fattening-not exactly. I do not know
why 1t Is, but If you will notice the
navy fremen-the lads with the red
stripes around their left shoulders
you will find that almost all Of them
are small men. But they are q husky
lot.
Now, in the navy, they always haze
a newcomer until he shows that he
can take care of himself, and I got
mine very soon after I went into On
Gle Sans service. ! 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 n or the
both Of us. Each time I would move
to some other place, but I always
seemed to be in somebody's way. FL
nally I 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 1t
twenty feet away, at the same time
handing me a clout on the a that
Just about knocked me down. Now,
I did not exactly know what a marine
was, and this fellow had so many
stripes on his sleeves that I thought
he must be some sort Of officer, so I
Just stood by. There was a gold stripe
commissioned o%ficer) on the bridge
and 1 knew that If anything was
wrong he would cut in, so I kept look
ing up at him, but he stayed where re
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, "TIl get
this guy If it's the brig for a 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 me strong, and we were
at 1t for some time.
But when II was over the cold striDe