The Winslow mail. (Winslow, Ariz.) 1893-1926, 1925-05-19
HOW THE "GOBS"
LIVE ON BOARD A
u. S. NAVY VESSEL
By CHARLES F. RENICH,
Especial Correspondent of The
WinsIow Mail.)

by those who love her as the ''Wee
Wee" just week. Had he been
asked he would have answered
promptly that he would know all
about her in much less time, but we
confess that there are many, many
parts of the ship we have not seen
yet, although we have been on the
move most of the time.
We have tried to visualize the
ship as similar to- large factory
employing 1900 men. There are
exactly 1876 men on board. But
the ships activities have many
times the range any manufactur-
ing plant on land could have.
The ship being primarily fight
ing unit, the first care is in that
direction. It has guns of various
sizes both fore and aft, together
with torpedoes. The discussion
ovef the question of elevating the
guns to secure longer range of
firing does not apply to the West
Virginia. She has that long range,
as do several of the other newer
battleships in the United States
navy.
We have gunners who have be-
come very expert in their line of
work and who only recently won
first place in target practice at San
Pedro, just before starting on the
present cruise.
Included in the fighting forces is
detachment of several hundred
marines, under command of Col. j.
7. Meyers, Major w. G. Wise, Major
Lauren w. Willis and Capt. C. H.
Metcalf. We also carry three sea-
planes and group of aviation Of
ficers and mechanics in charge of
them.
Next we have our navigators. the
organization responsible for bring
ing the ship safely through the
deep. briny sea in both storm and
= calm.
With the navigators we must
mention in the same rank the en-
gineers who produce the power to
prOpel the ship, without which we
would float on the sea helpless and
at the mercy of wind and weather.
Now Oil Burners.
Most of the ships of the navy are
now oil burners, only few, includ-
ing the battleship Wyoming, still
depending on coal to produce the
power. Everything on the ship is
electrified, steam being used only
for heat when needed.
These are the major activities
which occupy the attention of Of
ficers and men, but the minor ac-
tivities are equally as important if
the major, activities are to function
successfully.
We have mentioned many minor
activities on board ship in previous
letters. Others include laundries,
supply departments, radio sections
both for the exchange of intelli-
gence with kthe shore and for the
service of ithe navigators We
manufacture both fresh water and
ice for the use of the ship and bake
bread daily. About the only things
we don't have on board is cows to
produce milk and chickens to lay
eggs, but complete stores of pow
dered milk and hundreds of cases
of eggs were loaded at San Fran
cisco for a long cruise. We are
told that the navy ships of France
carry both cows, chickens and pigs.
How They Live.
How the men live is question
which my readers will naturally
ask and it is one that the writer
has been much interested in.
The gobs, as they call themselves,
are divided according to the Occu-
patton to which they have been as
signed Each boy when he enlists
indicates the occupation he prefers
and as opportunity presents he is
assigned accordingly. But in the
meantime he first does service in
the more mental occupations, such
as scrubbing deck, standing watch,
messenger service, etc.
Discipline is strict, but not more
so than it must be in an organiza-
ton of this kind. The usual serv
ice when on particular duty is
four hours on and eight hours off.
The men are assigned to divisions
and each division has part OF the
ship which is home" Thus the
writer spent an hour among the
electrical engineers and saw how
they live, eat and sleep when not
on duty.
They eat seated on benches at
tables. When not in use these ia
bles and benches are hung to the
ceiling. They sleep in hammocks,
which in daytime are roped to-
gether and stacked against the side
walls. Each man has a locker for
his clothes and belongings, and
carries his own key The locker
, and hammocks are numbered, so no
confusion results.
About the only thing we could
think of that is lacking and can
not be provided on account of lack
of space is a place where a man
who has been on duty in the night
can sleep in the daytime He finds
a place on the floor in corner
somewhere, wraps himself in his
blanket and tries to get back the
lost sleep. All is we'll until clean
ing squad hustles him out of the
WOW "Ruf this iC noUU life and