A BLUEJACKET'S DAY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10240, 1 September 1909, Page 6

A BLUEJACKET'S DAY.

FROM HIS. OWN .POINT ■ OF-j SJIEW.

(The following' 'article - embodies a conyerssitibn ' with a* typical blu'ejitcket belonging to one of tlio vessels at present anclioied in the,.Thames.j

The "Home'' and the "Atlantic" Fleets are m the Thames Thousands upon thousands of Londoners and people; from V : every part .of England are watching/ visiting, .and admiring the ships, 'the ' first line of' defence of tlio British Isles. . . As they ..leave the. of his Majesty's Navy:' they give a glance at vessels 'they have visited} and their imagination works on .her possibilities, pictures'of war and spectacles of splendid heroism are conjured' up in the minds of the most sedate, but their linal look of interest goes to those who man the. vessel.. City bred oi? country bred, they wonder liqw Jack lives, how he spends the day, what his duties are, and also his thoughts, his feelings, his joys. : Who could tell that captivating story better than Jack himself ? ■ I have asked him to tell it, and ho did so in his simple and yet eloquent manner, with that touch of earnest humor which is so typical of him. Mr "Jack" was not an "old salt," but just a nice, strongly built, happylooking, virile, and smart "able seaman" of twenty-two, fond of the sea, ; and almost passionately fond of his ; life, who. had served four years in a first-class battleship (how he insisted on the "first-class!") —and his name _ was really Jack. "Of course," he began, "our life is not quite the same 'at sea' as it is when the ship is at anchor, in a harbor, with the sqaudron. But, after all, the differences are not great-—we get up earlier, for one thing, at sea — and the routine is much the same. Well, to begin with, at ten to five the quartermaster appears in the ' flats' (sleeping quarters) and awakens us. He ' pipes,' and shouts the usual 1 Lash up arid stow hammocks,' generally adding, "All hands, al lhands! Show a leg, show a leg!' By the way, the hamtijock contains, besides ourselves, a hWseliair bed, a bed cover, and one or two blankets*. We istow and seven turns —in three minutes, after having dressed rapidly, and then wo drink our cocoa." "What in?" I asked. 'ln a tin. We call it 'Fanny.' We wash in a wooden tub, open the portholes if the weather is good enough, then hurry to the upper deck for a smoke. At twenty to six, the quartermaster pipes us to fall in, and' the commander, , accompanied by an officer of the watch and the bo'sun, 'details the hands off for scrubbing .the upper deck.' What a' lively time! We are dressed in our 'night clothing'—old blue serge working suit —and, barefooted, with our trousers tucked to the knees, handled the scrubber, amid the salt water which floods the deck until 6.30.

"Then the bugle sounds for both watches; (port and starboard) for exercise. All the men have to fall in, and tlie commander appears once more, this time to detail us off 'for cleaning messdeck,' and a certain number of hands to 'clean the flats.' This takes another hour" ; and Jack added with a wink that was meant to be overwhelmingly shrewd "I mean the cleaning not the ordering! "7.30! The bugle sounds 'off quarters clean guns.' Some polish tlie brasswork and the steel work of the guns; others the torpedo-tubes. Needless to say, one of the gunnery lieutenants is neVer far off, and lie sees that everything is burnished to look 'as beautiful as the morning,' as the saying goes! A very nice job, really. You should see the way we use emery-paper, 'blue-bell' paste, and-—our arms! We chat together, joke, laugh. ..... only we mustn't smoke.

"At five to eight the bugle, sounds again. This time it sounds the G —one [ long, steady note, which means: 'Pack lup the rags!' Rapidly—everything is done rapidly in the navy—we put aside the rags with which we have cleaned the guns. Then the bugle sounds 'Cooks to the galley,' a very welcome signal, and at eight the quartermaster pipes breakfast. We need it by this time, really. Just fancy a number of long tables, at which.sit ten or twelve men, in the various batteries, with the breach of six-inch guns in the corners, that's the 'mess.' " "What is the menu?" "Bread and butter, tea and milk. And, of course, if- you wish to, you can buy liver and bacon, or that fine luxury, eggs and bacon. Afterwards we go down, and put on the rig of the day. The kind of rig has been ordered beforehand. Rigs go by numbers. No. 1 is the 'best'suit,' No. 3 is a going-asliore suit, No. 4 is night clothing for wet or cold days, and No. 5 is a working suit. No. 2 exists no longer. We get through as quickly as possible, then rush on deck and have a pipe. Smoking means a lot in the navy, sir ! ....

"The bugle sounds for botli watches to fall in. The quartermaster pipes 'Cooks and sweeps to dear lip the mess deck' —the quartermaster is always pip-ing—-and we get ready for 'divisions.' The commander, sterner than ever, goes round, and the officer of each division inspects his men. They report to the. commander, who is in turn to report to this 'captain:;' ■

"All hands aft, nowj and the bell tolls for 'church.' We all stand, cap in hand, while the chaplain reads the prayers. The Roman Catholics and the Presbyterians have by this time fallen out. 'Church' lasts ten or fifteen minutes, and takes place every day. 0n Sunday we ' have, the same service as in a .real church.

"The 'disperse' is then sounded and the exercises begin. Of course these vary. There are so many things to learn in a battleship! Aft 11.30 the different drills are over. Noon! . The sentry strikes eight bells, the bo'sun pipes for dinner. "What the bill of fare is like ?—J-lb of fresh beef arid potatoes —of course, we can do what we like with the beef, prepare a pie, in advance, ourselves, or something of the sort. At 12.30 we receive our 'grog,' three-quar-ters of water and a quarter of rum. If we don't drink grog we get the money for it; It works out at about 4s a quarter."

; "Are there many teetotallers in the navy?" I inquired. Jack looked somewhat suspiciously at me and eventually replied: "Well, say there are fifty out of a crew of eight hundred." And he. pursued liis narrative of .a seaman's daily routine: ' • ''Needless :to say, we smoke on the upper .deck after dinner until the quartermaster, pipes 'Gut pipes !' (.Jack did not mea,n to'make a pun.) The 'spell oh!' passes very rapidly, and then comes the cleaning of guns:" "What, again!" I exclaimed; "I thought you had been polishing them in the morning." ' ; "Never enough!" came Jack's cool reply. "We mean to keep 'em perfect," and lie added, thoughtfully; "Guns are very important At 1:30, various jobs till 3..'35. Five minutes later - comes 'tea'; bread and ' butter, salmon or pickles, and,. of course, tea, plenty of tea, - and 'a,'smoke. . At iotfr 'Pipes out' 1 once more. You soon get to know the' 'exact quantity of tobacco you can smoke in the short time at your disposal. The quartermaster pipes 'Cooks,'and sweeps • clear up main deck for evening—quarters." The" men; are once more inspected by.the officers. The leave-watch, one-half of -the crew, go ;on leave till 7 a.m.—-and the other watch niight have 'evolution,' such as 'pulling round the fleet,' or 'weighing fire ; engine.' , At five the tireless quartermaster pipes 'hands to tKat we ' must' get into; night clothing. Two or three times a week'we scrub and wash our clothes at that ;' time '• of ' day, and the other days we. sit about aria sinoke, write letters to' 'her' or cards. ' "Possibly, between six and eight, we may' be On boat duty^rowing to . the flagslvp'7 for > mails.'' At' seven we have supperj tea ; qr coffee, liread, butter, and is the pipe. We prepare our bed; that is; we sling up ;the hammocks. Later on, we enjoy ourselves. At 9.50 'Out pipes' and at terii pipe-down, in other words, ''turn in.' ,