Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-01
NAVAL LIBRARIES
SAIL SEVEN SEAS
War Vessels Fully Equipped
With Books for Tars
Off Duty.

| Of travel.
Naval Libraries may be found In
| the legation of Picking, on board the
stationships at Constantinople, in the
radio stations in Alaska At the
| marine station in Haiti, on board the
submarine resting on the ocean bed,
or on the Islands of Guam and Samoa,
| sailors and marines follow the for.
tunes of 1.-THE Three Musketeers,"
| travel the great plains with Zane
Grey, thrill with Curwood to the
order, Get your man. or sail the
southern seas with Conrad.
Among the archives of the Navy
Department there is a large volume,
yellow with age, bearing the date OF
1874. It's lengthy title reads, Table
of Allowances of Equipment, Outnts,
Stores. &c, &C., &C., for Each Glass
of Vessels in the Navy of the United
states" Here are listed all the stores
necessary to equip a vessel Tor q
cruise OF one, two or three years. 10
the ears of the modern, unless ne Is
q reader of Marryat Or other writers
of sailing days, many OF these stores
have an unfamiliar sound. SISTERS,
"ieers." "jeer leaders" Flemish
b S - strange sea-going terms.
Visions of romantic adventure are
linspike," "rlizzenmast.
Library Old Institution.
Among the tables OF candles, candle
sticks. quill pens and red tape apr
nears table XIII.--Library equipment.
Even as far back as 1914 the Navy
Department was providing libraries
aboard ships. AT this time these con-
sisted Of professional reading only for
officers and no attempt was made 10
nrovide recreational reading or books
| for the crew. The list comprises books
| on international law, courts-martlal.
science. navigation, gunnery, nava4
tactics, geography, biography and MS
| tory.
Today q selection covering wider
range of subjects is allowed Recre-
| ational reading is provided and one
| section of the ships library is plan
ned for the use of the crew. Tradition
| still clings to earlier days, however,
for of the 14O titles on the allowance
| list of 1914, 10 appear in the libraries
of modern war ships.
| The commissioning library of the
| u. S. S. Saratoga, the new airpiane
/ carrier which goes into commission
this year, has been selected. This IL
brary contains 500 volumes carefully
chosen to meet the needs and please
| the tastes of the many types OF men
who win comprise her officers and
crew. There will be men Of all grades
| Of education, from the American boy
whose mule died and he could not
go to school after that" and the Fill
Pine mess attendants. TO the Annapolis
educated officers. There will be men
of mature tastes and boys of high
| school age, who still enjoy a story of
sport and school life.
Many Trades Represented.
Many trades and professions are
epresented-electrici engineers,
office workers, doctors, radio opera
| tors. For the officers there must be
/ books on naval history, tactics and
| stratagehn, international law, diplo-
macy and foreign relations, for gem
eral study; marine engineering. cleo
| tricity, ordnance, navigation, for
preparation for examinations.
History, biography, science, travel
and literature for general reading Is
provided for both officers and crew.
And for the enlisted man the library
includes, in addition. standard texts
to supplement the study courses Is
sued by the Navy Department to
assist him to advance in his ratings
and to enable him when he returns
to civilian life to be better fitted for
his particular trade or occupation.
Wide Variety.
| On the fiction shelves of the u. 8.
| S. Saratoga there will be a repre-.
sentative collection of the classics in
good editions as a foundation and the
| best of the fiction output of more re-
| cent years. There is q generous al
| is.st,o Y1na Of TWacferu af0I-iaa hU P0UeY~
Grey, Curwood, London, Raine and
| milford; of mystery and detective
stories, ranging from Sherlock
Holmes to Oppenheim; of the classics
| of the sea by Conrad, Marryat and
Melville, with other sea tales by Con
| molly and McFee. Humorous stories
/ are represented by Irwin Cobb, p. G.
| Wodehouse, Elmer Davis, E. j. Rath
and others Stories of sports, includ-
ing boxing, adventure tales from
many lands, short stories, historical
novels, love stories.
Thrilling" Reading.
And what does the sailor consider
a thrilling book? The dweller of the
plains may dream of the rolling main
and the farmer boy long to be a
pirate. The sailor reads of cowbow
life and leaves the story Of the sea
Western Story is the most popular
type of fiction in Navy Libraries.
This fondnesS is not confined on
board ships to the bluejacket. Next
in popularity to cowboy and mounted
police tales comes the mystery story,
Here the officers and older enlisted
men enjoy "a foreign setting and q
dash of international intrigue. Al
though the average sailor does not
read sea tales, he does enjoy Conrad
A surprising amount of serious
reading is done by the crew. There
are ambitious men who avail them
selves of the educational courses and
make use of the non-fiction in the
crews library.
officers are fiction readers, too. but
q. modern naval officer can give but
small part of his reading time tc
novels. He must study the various
technical subjects of his profession
in order to be in line for promotion.
4 Space Is Problem.
The problem of space for libraries
aboard men-of-war is a difficult one
Travellers on palatial ocean-going
liners are accustomed to huge saloons
and reading rooms. On a battleshiL
there is not the same spaciousness
In the newer and larger vessels there
is a small crews room with book
cases, tables and chairs. Here are
housed the books selected for The
crews library. The books for thu
officers are shelved partly in the cap
. tain's cabin and partly in the ware
room. A card catalog indicates where
each book may be found.
In smaller vessels and those Of
carrier type, however, there is M
provision made for library space anc
the crews library may be found mos
anywherealong a, dark passageway
below decks, in a gun compartment
screened off from the crews messroom
or adjacent TO the ships hospital, OF
sick bay While the library on thu
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