THE WEALTHY SAILORS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 54, 28 October 1912, Page 3

THE WEALTHY SAILORS.

JACK TARS ABLE TO SAVE £6OOO. The bluejacket in the United States Navy is the host paid of skilled labourers, says the New York correspondent of the Standard. Lieutenant C. H. Mason, a naval officer who has been on duty at the Brooklyn Recruiting Bureau for some time, informed the National Arbitration Commission that the average man in the Navy—not the picked men and the men of the special class, but the bluejacket and the recruit who lias just joined the service—receives a pay which averages about £IOO a year, in addition to being clothed, fed, and housed, • with free medical attendance. What He is Taught. “During his period service the American sailor is taught electricity in all its forms; the use of motors, generators, batteries, and dynamos ; steam engineering in all its phases, up to the latest devices in turbines, the principle of explosive engines and air compressors.” In a word, the modern battleship or armoured 'cruiser is really a floating trade school. The lieutenant theft submitted a table showing how a recruit entering the Navy at the age of 20, in the rating of seaman-apprentice, may, at the end of 30 years, after spending £3OOO of his pay, have to his credit in the bank the snug sum of £5718. Of this amount £2207 will have boon earned in interest during the entire period on money deposited in the Navy Savings Bank provided by the Government. A Good Pension. When lie reaches 52 years of age the Navy man may retire on an animal pension of £2l a month, besides the interest on his £5718. Long before the 30 years have passed, should the sailor show the necessary efficiency, ho may become a warrant officer, on a salary of from £3OO to £SOOO per year, and with the privilege of retiring at 62 years of age as a commissioned officer on three-quar-ters pay for the remainder of his life.