Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1918-05-24
SEA SERVICE
The Real Cause for the Shortage of
Seamen
By John Bush

When the United States entered
the world war it at once became ap-
parent that the American resources
in men and material to be of value
must be carried across the ocean as
quickly as possible. To win we must
have ships, ships and more ships.
Congress has appropriated more than
one billion dollars and will, no doubt,
appropriate more to get ships built.
These ships will need men. Not
ordinary men but seamen. Seamen
are not made on shore, they are made
at sea. And serious difficulty about
finding the needed class of men has
already appeared.
AS to the cause of this lack of pro-
fcient seamen much has been written.
But no article | have read has eX-
planned the real cause of this short
age. The reason for this is probably
due to the fact that so many authors
gather their views from reading and
hear say only.
| The writer of this article having
made several ocean voyages can
speak from experience. On one par
ticular occasion when my old friend
Denis P. White and l made bet with
some of our friends that we could
| leave Newark without one cent, cross
| the Atlantic, go through the Tower
of London, see the Queen of England
and return, without paying cent for
anything, we made good our claim
and won the wager. Of course we
! travelled in a way that afforded an op-
portunity to observe the real condi-
tions that exist at sea, and | am sure
the average person has no idea of
the hardships endured by the seamen.
| If | was to describe the trip in detail
my veracity would be doubted.
We left Portland, Me-, June 21, 1899
on the Tropea, 4013 tonnage, loaded
with cattle, and arrived in London
August 6, at Victoria docks. Our
papers were signed for character,
ability and conduct, very good. Which
is evidence that we were either smooth
enough or lucky enough to get away
with the tricks we played. We were
the only "Yanks" on the boat, and
had little cabin built on the top
bridge back of the captains cabin.
We had six hunks made of rough
boards with a small mattress and one
blanket. The cabin was so small we
could not turn around when we all
, stood on the floor and when anyone
wanted to take off his shoes or put
them on some one had to go to bed
or go out on deck to make room. We
had to go to the stewards store room
each morning, noon and night for our
allowance of provisions, which con-
sisted of a small loaf of cast iron
or case hardened bread, bucket of
coffee, a pan Of soup, some sea bis
cults and a can of corned beef once
in while. The coffee was black. as
coal, and tasted like coal tar; the
soup looked and tasted like dish
water; the bread looked like sand
stone and tasted like clay; the beef
was so tough chewing was impossible,
we cut it up with hatchet and swal-
lowed it whole; the sea biscuits we
soaked over night in hot water.
Each man was supposed to have a
bunk to himself, but before morning
of the first night at sea we discovered
we were not sleeping alone. On in
vestigating our slumber parlor we be-
came acquainted with our sea COM
panions-there were small bugs, large
bugs and middle sized bugs; there
were bugs so big we could pick them
off the ticks with boxing gloves; and
the rats that came around to investi-
gate the new apartments looked like