Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1919-01-18
WAS NERVOUS WORK
WATCHING FOR pERiSCOPES

WATCHING FOR PERiSCOPES
F'urthr experiences O. Daniel L.
Brown Of this city on a trip across the
Atlantic as junior officer of the
freighter Narsemond are given as fol-
lows in a Merchant Marine magazine:
After a day out from Kew York we
were beginning to feel at home on
board and ger acquainted The ship
being a large one carried four mates
The histories of the officers illustrate
well where the officers for our new |
merchant ships are coming from.
The odd man" was ABOUT fifty, had |
learned the ropes in a Liverpool lime
juicCr. had retired a master in steam
fifteen years before the war and set |
tied on shore, but had offered himself |
to Uncle Sam when the Shipping |
Board sent cut its call last year.
The mates We're all men under 80.
The chief mate had been at sea
steadily for zen years. The second
mate was a down east lobster fisher
man who attended Shipping Board
Navigation School, came on this ship
from the school as Junior Officer and
went up steadily till he was second
| mate in less Than a yea. The third
mate was an old St AIary's School
| ship boy who had not been on the
water for seven years, but responded
| to the call for licensed men. The
| fourth mate had been q fresh water
sailor On the Great Lakes and was
making his second salt water trip
after graduating from the Shipping
| Board Navigation School at Chicago.
! Four cut OF five O. them were men
who had come forward u Uncle Sans
call and were making good on the
| bridge at time when officers were
doing stunts every watch, as part of
| the DAVIS work, which were never
dreamed of outside the head of de-
stroyer captain before the war.
The days We're pleasant AID the At
! lantic as it should be in mid-sum-
mer. A couple of days out and we
were in the Gulf Stream. 1 never
saw its edga so clearly defined. |
was on watch when we entered it and
could see the irregular cUrying line
which marked its inside edge stretch
ing in each direction as far as one
could see.
The water in the stream was much
, roUCheneG by the contrary north wind
while the still water outside was much
ca1mer. There was also about 10 de
gTees difference in water temperature
at the beginning and end of the
watch.
/ We Junior officers soon realized we
weed floating Up from The Tropics,
began 10 clog the rotator % the pat
l ent log, and it was our job to pull
! in the long line and clear it several
l times day-a kind of futile tug of
war with Father Neptune we weren't
very keen about.
! We IeaEped a few days out that we
were bound fer 4 Mediterranean port
/ which pleased everybody rs many on
L.
the Mediterranean,
| The weather continued good nearly
all the trip across. I remember that
| quite wei for I was taking sights and
/ working out positions every chance
could get, and there was not a day
on the tr,- over that we couldn't
| get the sun
It was always interesting at noon
/ to compare notes when all the officers
met or the bridge, on the positions
/ they had worked out. aHj each ship
/ in the convoy ran up its noon position
in the signal fags of the international
1 code Great were the differences Of
|. opinion as 10 just what our position
was. You usually had a choice of Is
10 % miles. and at that we always
suspected some of the packets of
1 hosting late so they could crib a posi-
ton off somebody else
We had the usual number of scares
from floating barrels. p9rpoisee, and
the worst one from an emDtY life boat,
abandoned in good ord9r-iot US hope
after its crew had been safely res
cucd-Which brought everybody to
quarters on the run one day.
The long deck watches began to get
on your nerves a bit the first time
you neared Europe-"cross go as they