"MARY ANNS"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 6, 9 January 1928, Page 11

"MARY ANNS"

THE NAVY DRIFTER HARD WORK, HARD CONDITIONS WAI? TI3IK FKIIvYDKHir During tin- war :i. .([.inching friendsliip sprang ii]) between llio battleship and the Yarmouth drifter, writes 11. V. Norton in ;.'ll English exchange. Such ill-assorted friendships sometimes exist between Great Danes and fox-terriers of doubtful parentage. The Yarmouth lishing smacks were invariably seen in those days nestling beneath the grry flanks of 25,000-Lon battle ships, engaged in light badinage or in transactions connected with potatoes, or something of the kind. It is ;i true saying that you never know your friends until adversity reveals them to you; and the Fleet found its friends, suddenly and unexpectedly, in these wise little taxi-caljs of the sea, always ready, to wheel on a, roaring, hissing swell, and to do something useful for the big grey ladies. It seems to me a. romance that the Lords of Admiralty, who an- not, as a rule, touched by sentiment. or given grealely lo generosity, should have decreed that the battleships and their friends in adversity shall not be separated in these times of temporary peace. So you will lind that each battleship now lias attached to her for discipline, rations, and every kind of duty, a, Yarmouth drifter, whoso official capacity is that of a maid of all work. The drifters are the Mary Anns of the Navy. Now that the drifter has entered the Navy she has been smartened according to regulations. Her sloping, villainous, piratical-looking fo'c'sle no longer shines silver with fish scales, and she no longer lurches into harbour like a Christmas tree hung with mines and and other flotsam of the deep. Her brass (though this will bo contradicted in high quarters) shines (what there is of it), her woodwork is scrubbed white (or as white as possible), and the hold, once sacred to herring and now sacred to a young lieutenant or sub, is known with absolute solemnity as the wardroom. When you see something tossing violently on the bosom of the waters you , can be sure that you have seen the drifter. You can see her most days reeling and bucketing through a head sea with a pale green lieutenant on her bridge, a grimy stoker petty officer coming up for air, and if you could see into the alleged wardroom, you would observe an apple-green snotty rolling from side to side in the top bunk, wondering why he ever went to sue, and how oven Britannia can be said to rule the waves. Tlic duty which endears the drifter to the Navy is that of postman. She brings the mails. It is perfectly amazing how she bring the mails; but, as a matter of fact, her life would not be worth living if she failed to bring them, for the mail is the most sacred thing in the Navy. When she comes alongside with the mails a fringe of varied heads appear high up on tho battleship, and a number of ..people look down to sec a marine standing in the reeling drifter beside two precious sacks. At this moment the drifter is, indeed, sacred. She is a link with wives and sweethearts. 'These bags contain tlift letters which in half an hour will spread a. dead silence in the wardroom and gunroom, in every part of tho ship. In the drifter at that moment is news of homes and children, photographs— everything that, in fact, hurts so beautifully in the Navy. The wives of the Navy have, of course, never seen the drifter edge up with the mails. They have never seen the face of the man who stretches out his hand for a letter which is not there. He makes a bad joke, whistles, and disappears for a bit until tho other fellows have read their letters, and then he wanders in and orders a pink gin. (Perhaps—to-morrow?). The drifter can hurt, like the devil. When the ilect makes a move the drifters attached to each ship form a little fleet of their own, and "proceed" coastwise in a manner known to them, avoiding rough weather if possible (which is not often), and following the battleships as rapidly as they can. " Sometimes, in recompense for discomforts endured, the crews of drifters draw what is termed "hard-lying money" (those who receive this are naturally known as "hard liars," but what degree of misery qualifies a driftter's crew to this doubtful benefit is not, it seems, laid down in naval pro--1 cedure). "Please take over from me —I'm going to bo sick!" which is a request sometimes heard on the bridge, docs not, as far as I can see, establish hardship. You must, it appears, have an uncomfortable- bed! On such occasions, as the drifters set out on their adventures, tho fleet of Mary Anns is commanded by the. senior lieutenant, who, as soon as higher authority has steamed below the sky-line, becomes known officially by the selfstyled title of "A.CD," or admiral commanding drifters. The "admiral" is generally a young man, who owns his first razor, and has not broken himself of the midshipman's love of good cigarettes. It is sometimes his first real command. He amuses himself by sending out fleet orders to all tho other smooth-faced young men on tho bridges of his disreputable squadron: "Admiral wishes meeting commanding officers," he runs up on the masthead. If the seas would make it impossible for a seal to keep an appointment with an iceberg his trusty commanding officers may indulge in back chat, pointing out that, failing wings, tho meeting is impossible, whereupon the "admiral" may hoist the signal: "All right. Only wanted know who's got the beer." In the morning, when the drifter fleet sets out on its journey, the "admiral" instead of ordering "single line ahead," has been known to greet his squadron with: "Good morning, my children! Follow father!" This has exactly the same result. If by chance a drifter, owing to the hazards and perils of the sea, or to the misjudgment of the young man on tho bridge, grazes tho stern of the 011,0 ahead, the "admiral" become immediately curious. "Did you, or did you not, kiss that girl?" he signals. "I did," comes the answer. "Arc- your intentions serious'?" asks the "admiral." "They are not," is the reply. "Then kindly observe the proprieties," orders tho "admiral." The least pleasant task which falls to tho drifter is to tow the target for gun practice. She goes off to the horizon towing at a respectful interval, a largo black canvas screen mounted on floats. Her friend tho battleship on the other horizon then, prepares to send over heavy stuff. It must be unpleasant—but not bad enough for "hardlying" money! When the drifter hauls down her Hag, the big 13.5 guns in tho battleship try to hit the target. • Sometimes the drifter's flag is shot up with amazing