NAVY “CHOSTS.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16304, 3 December 1918, Page 7

NAVY “CHOSTS.”

EXTRA NOISES'. The first lieutenant had just been relieved, and was wending his way from the destroyer’s bridge to his cabin. It was fairly calm but very dark, and there was little to be seen but a line of waves on each side and the dim form of a second destroyer in station astern. Even for this “No. 1” had no eyes, for lie had’ had a weary middle watch, and bed was his only interest. But he did notice a weird figure, apparently human, crawling about near the “bandstand” of the. after gun. He went to investigate, and found the surgeon probationer, clad in a chamois leather overall suit, in which he had been sleeping on the wardroom couch below—-for everyone must sic*?more or less clad, ready to turn out at a moment’s notice. He was feeling about in the dark, apparently in search of something. “What on earth are you doing, doc?” he asked, and got the brief answer, “Laying a ghost.” The first lieutenant grunted and disappeared below, leaving the doctor to insert a paper wedge between a loose rattling shell and the side of the stand in which it was placed.

A ghost, in naval language, is a noiso which cannot ho accounted for. In a destroyer one becomes a connoisseur in poises. The steering gear clanks heavily at intervals and' the rhythmic beat of the engines is always there, changing only when the speed is altered. In heavy weather the washing and beating of the water makes, a hundred noises, and if the full fore© of a wave suddenly breaks on the ship’s side it gives a sickening thud, which may bring yon bounding from your bed—for you never know what may have happened. But ghosts are extra noises -and should he avoidable. Some misplaced or iLi-fitting article or a loose screw may cause the noise, and with the ship’s vibration it will knock or rattle with a regular persistency that, will drive the most placid mind nearly to frenzy, and sleep will rarely be the victim’s portion until he has left his warm bunk and found the cause of the trouble, and the ghost is laid.