A NAVAL YARN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16606, 9 December 1924, Page 10

A NAVAL YARN.

LORD JELLJCOE'S LAST SIGNAL.

It is reported (says "T.D.H." in tho Dominion) that. Lord Jeliicoe's fartwell signal in Cook Strait to New Zealand's Navy is one that caused many chuckles aboard ILM.S. Dunedin.

Engineer-Commanders in the Navy are required by a hard-hearted Admiralty to keep strict account of all their stores (which seem to include everything anybody -wants aboard ship) and the result is that they are apt to become stony-hearted in turn, or to bo so regarded by other people •who want a little extra, paint to smarten a ship or to replace) some article dropped into "the ditch" without having their pay docked for it.

It seems that one probably baseless allegation by the disgruntled against the Engineer-Commander of the. Duncdin is that he slows the engines down at sea to save fuel, and "T.D.H." is informed that when Lord Jellicoe paid his final visit to our flagship hei laughed heartily at a drawing which had been chalked up by an audacious wag. The picture showed an engine-room rating reporting to the Engineer-Commander that the ship had been slowed down to eight knots, and Father Neptune putting his head up over the stern and saying, "Get a move on or I'll arrest you for loitering on the- high seas." It is said that the artist, who had been expecting a summons to appear on the quarter-deck among the "captain's defaulters," became quite a popular hero when Lord Jeliicoe's last farewell signal was received from the Tahiti: '"Goodbye. Don't get arrested for loitering on the high seas."