FLEET SIDELIGHTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 190, 13 August 1925, Page 9

FLEET SIDELIGHTS.

THE BATES OF PAY. EVERY DAY EVENTS. Pay-day is a welcome event on board ship, particularly when it coincides with a trip ashore. The ordinary seaman on joining the navy receives just over £o a month, and the pay increases with the rank to £20, this being the salary of a chief petty oflicer, to which rank a seaman can rise during the four years' enlistment period. The schedule of pay is as follows: —First year seaman, 21, dollars; second year, 30; first-class seaman, 54; petty officer (third-class), 60; second, 72; first, 90; chief petty officer 09, with permanent apolntment 120. The total payments made to the detachment in port will amount to about 150,000 dollars, or £30,000. As the men are being paid in gold, sovereigns will he quite a common means of exchange during the next few weeks. The "Iron Man." Six years ago the '"Iron Man," a competitive trophy for general excellence in all classes of athletics was awarded the fleet. Tt was won in tlie firgt year by the Mississippi, whose complement held it for five successive years, but lost it to the California this year. It is a handsome bronze statue representing an athlete holding in his iiplifted arm a laurel and parsley crown. Tragedy on the Mississippi. Fourteen months ago when the Mississippi was lying off San Clementine Island and carrying out gun practice, a tragedy occurred in one of the gun turrets. An explosion, presumed to be a back fire, occurred, and 48 men in the turret were asphyxiated. One after another 35 men and three officers were dragged from the death chamber. The Absentee Pennant. Each ship carries the captain's absentee pennant. When he is ashore it is flown from the foremast. The pennant is red, white and blue. How the Men Sleep. The sailors in the American navy are well fed and comfortably accommodated. As in the British navy their bed is a hammock, these being hygienic and occupying a limited amount of space. On the New Mexico and California, however, the hammocks are being replaced by bunks, the change being in the nature of an experiment. When a 6ailor enlists he gets a full kit, which lasts him through out his term. It is valued at 100 dollars. On board all the ships there are dry cleaning establishments, where officers and men can have their clothing attended to. It is run a commercial basis. There is more work than the ships can cope with at the present time, and local establishments are getting their share of the work. The "Chaser." America is a "dry" country, but the men of the fleet like their "spot" when it is obtainable. Most of them take their whiskj- neat; as a Scotsman would say, "Just as God made it." The usual practice is to follow it with a "chaser," in which the taste shows a wide variety. Tt may be water, or soda, or even a glass of ale.