SPUN YARNS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 19

SPUN YARNS

'Seaways." By "Bartimeus." London Cassell and Company, Ltd.

The writer of these sea stories seems to be a chaplain in the Royal Navy However, he impresses people outside that he thoroughly knows the service from the admirals down to the men of the lower deck. He writes of them intimately and with sympathy. Most of his stories in this collection are humorous, but thero arc some delicately told pathetic incidents. "The Leg-Puller" is one of the best of the funny stories, and slioivs I'd"' al> American business man. serving for a. time in the Royal Na.vv, "got m-i3n'\-wHri the Acjfliivttliy. It 9 p, jjsu's that ,iv tlie Navy it jg customary

to account for all that is left over of supplies, and the surplus is technically known as "arisings.' They are the property of the State. For instance, if a sheep is killed, the skin and other [inconsumable parts of the sheep belong to the State, and must be accounted for by the paymaster. Strictly speaking, the wax that gutters down a candle in the wind is "arisings," and belongs to the State. The American joined an armed boarding steamer as a Canadian, and, therefore, a British. subject. He was appointed paymaster. He kept his accounts with neatness and accuracy, but he knew nothing of the "arisings," and no one thought to tell him. The Admiralty knew, and did not forget to remind him. So he waited his time; and it came. The men on his ship clamoured for fresh meat, but did hot clamour long. The steamer put into a lonely island in the Hebrides; five sheep were bought from a crofter, and taken aboard. The men made pets of them and no one was found ready to kill them. The American lost no time or sleep over the problem j he used an automatic revolver, and so provided the fresh meat asked for.

"They want fresh meat," he said, "and they're going to get it." Whitehall accepted the accounts relating to the sheep as models of what accounts should be; but it called for an explanation of what had become of the "ai'isings." The American said to a fellow-orficer, "Well, they can search me for them. Do they think I've eaten them?" No one could tell him what Whitehall thought; but the paymaster said he would write and ask the Admiralty if they thought he had eaten them ? Correspondence began and went on for some time over the unac-counted-for "arisings." Finally, the American was called upon to make them good out of his own pocket. "Not my money," he said. "But if it is 'arisings' that they want, 'arisings' they shall have !" So he went to a slaughter house in Dundee, where the ship had put in. and had five sacks' filled with assorted offal. These he took back to the ship in his cab. On board he packed the gory stuff tighty into a packing-case and legibly addressed it to the Admiralty official chiefly concerned at Whitehall. Then feeling in need of refreshment he repaired to the ward-room, where he learned from an evening paper that America had entered the war. "I guess I'll go and pack my grip," he said. The first lieutenant looked surprised. He asked, "Why? Where are you going?" The American paused at the door, as he replied. "To America. Right now." The author does not follow the "arisings" to Whitehall. One feels on reading "Seaways" that it tells the truth about life in the Royal Navy. "Bartimeus," too, 'has a very pleasant manner in telling a story, grave or gay.