ABOARD THE NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 101, 29 April 1913, Page 7

ABOARD THE NEW ZEALAND.

TKE NEW NAVY MAN. A BEAUTY CREW. The battleship carries a particularly fine lot of men—both officers and crew. There is no gain&aying the attractiveness of these British sailors. You would think the New Zealand had been specially provided with a beauty crew. From ihe winsome-looking middies to the veteran 0.P.0.'s they have, the cle.ir eyes and clean-cut features aiid self-reliant poee of Britishers at theiT best.

A moderate percentage of this effect can be .ascribed at once to dress. The B-oyal Navy dress ha 3 not changed much of "kite years. The riien still have their three suits, and their rough working clothes: they still don bell-bottomed trousers for their jaunts ashore, and they keep to the youthful sailor "straws," the sight of which taunts every landsman with wistful memories of his boyhood. It is not so much the' ciil of the clothes ss their colours that fives these New Zealand men their apppaT.mce of rollicking, confident manliness.

A SPECIAL SHTP. To soriie extent the New Zealand crew "us special. It is dnring this voyage a show ship and an instructional ship. Old England, whose navies once, swept every sen, could spare only one battleship for this Empire voyage. But she decided that the battleship would be something magnificent in the way of battleships and all that goes to make up battle fleets. The care with which the Now Zealand was fitted up for her ocean trip is in some respect* pathetic, for Great Britain very much wants her Dominions to look with a Britisher's love upon {he Royal Navy. Moreover, every man in the navy wanted to make the trip. As Captain Halsey says, British Dreadnoughts are tacked on to one another in the North Sea nowadays. '"We know the English shores like a monotonous buke," save tbe Lancashire sailor—and moet of the crew are northern Englanders. To get away in a voyage round the Empire was a rare treat for the naval man, and the Admiralty could have manned tbe N-pw Zealand many times oveT. Certainly the Admiralty had one eye foT social ami show effects wberi it picked the establishment, and it looked aiSo for promising young men, the New Zealand being a model on which much is being taught during this long three-ocean voyage.

It is everywbere on board a case of creased trousers, riot literally, of course, but metaphorically. There has been no such ship-s-ba.pe ship across the line; no such powerful ship, and no such highlvtrained and happy ship's company. It is almost unbelievably true that the New Zealand is the first British battleship to cross the 'line. She .is not only the first British Dreadnought to leave the Atlantic, but the first- battleship of any description. The Drake was classed as a battle-cruisftr. hut New Zealand men decline to mention her in the same breath with their own ship. Compared with the New Zealand, the Drake waS a cockle shell in size and power.

PERFECT ORCANISATtON. There is no organisation in the world like the organisation of a British battleship. Every, man and boy* of the 90(1 has his place of duty during every moment of his watch, his emergency place of duty during trouble, his place of duty during fighting, and his place of enjoyment when bis watch is over. Coaling is altogether an outsider's work on a merchantman. On a battleship it is a job requiring every man who can be spared from other work, and almost the whole ship's company joined in it in Port. Philip the other day. Three thousand tons of coal were shipped on the New Zealand in 14 hours. It would take an ordinary steamer of the same size three days. The New Zealand men were not altogether pleased with their effort, because iii Plymouth they had shipped their coal in 14 hours and 50 minutes. This coaling is the crews fortnightly nightmare. They say it takes them two weeks to get ship-shape and clean after

a coaling, and then they have to coal again. They reached Port Pbilip with only six tons of coal left in their bunker.--. The long 18-day run across From Durban had eaten nearly 3,200 tons of speciatlySelected ebal, -but they still had" their 500-ton reserve supply of oil. PERSONAL PRIDE IN THE SHU'. If there is au unhappy man aboard the first Empire battleship, he 13 dissembling, for all the f>oo look happy, and say they are happy. Everyone has learnt co much about his floating home that he takes a pride in it, arid he has work of such a technical nature to perform—aven the signalling is by machinery—that he has the engineer's love of what he does. There is a lot of sport aboard; a concert is held at least every week; gramophones and human voices often send their sounds across the waters, and food is plentiful and good. Variety is assured by a system of which the men speak highly. Every man is allowed 4Jd per day for "extras.' , A mess of 1G thus gets 6/ a da 3' for spending on epecial dishes, and whatever it orders, from bacon and eggs for breakfast to roast turkey for Sunday dinner, is forthcoming. What strikes the visitor to the New Zealand, after he has seen the oftdescribed guns and magazines and turbines and shells, is the marvel that human control can be exercised over so vast and complicated a mass of power and machinery. The explanation is in the skill of the ship's company, from the captain commander to the cook's boy. Highly-trained electricians abound, blacksmiths are carried, there are dozens of expert navigatore and gunners. Even the stokers would be classed as specialists ill an ordinary steamer, lien pop up unexpectedly from queer holes in the huge oovpred gun turrets, and one vondere hoy; they can possibly keep in their memories the uses and planning of the endless sets of pipes and wires and tubP3. One also wonder? why they are content to do all this for so little money. The marine and the sailor grt about 12/ a week, and the average pay of the ship's company must bo well under thirty shillings. They say it is not so little when it is remembered that they can bank nearly every penny. And they do bank it.