34G 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



'November 



MAN-OF-WAR'S MEN. 



THEIR QUEER CALCULATION AND NO- 

 TIONS ABOUT THE SERVICE. 



Xhe Absurd Distiuction Made Ufft-veen a 

 Year and a "}Jutt" — Odd Ideas the KUie- 

 jacket Has About "Work and Play Aboard 

 Ship and on Land. 



Ou the clay after bis euli.stmcnt for a 

 period of three years the Auiericuu man- 

 of-war's iiiau begius to figure on the 

 amount of time tliat is to intervene be- 

 fore his dis-chargp. He has "two years 

 and a butt" to do, the "butt" being 

 the remaining 11 months and 29 days of 

 fche first year. On the day following his 

 completion of the first year of his enlist- 

 ment he has only a year and a butt to 

 get through. No matter if the butt is 

 only a single day under a year in length, 

 the bluejacket contemplates the term 

 with the blandest complaisance. It is, 

 at any rate, not a whole year, even 

 though it be 364 days, and this fashion 

 of throttling each year of his service 

 makes him happy: it seems to bring 

 his discharge and the more or less tem- 

 pestuous joys he carefully maps out long 

 before hi& discharge within closer 

 range. When he has put iu IS months 

 of an enlistment, he breaks cut the 

 homeward bound pennant; he is going 

 down the hill, and when he has finally 

 achieved two years and has only the 

 butt to accomplish joy fills his cup. 



"Once a sailor always a sailor" is 

 not strictly true of man-of-war's men of 

 the American navy. Only about one- 

 half of the men who complete one en- 

 listment ship tor another three year 

 cruise, but about nine tenths of the 

 men who put in two cruises settle down 

 to a lifelong continuance in the service. 

 Six years of navy life seem thoroughly 

 to inoculate them with what the Ger- 

 mans call wanderlust. When a blue- 

 jacket passes a few of his summers iu 

 the latitude of the North cape and a 

 couple of winters down among the Ber- 

 mudas or in the salubrious south Pa- 

 cific, he is likely to acquire a dislike 

 for the climate of the United iStates, 

 and this dislike has mere weight than 

 anything else in forming his decision to 

 remain iu the navy. Moreover, after a 



few years iu the uavy the bluejacket 

 seems to become posisessed of the odd 

 idea that he is really doing nothing 

 aboard ship to earn his pay, that the 

 perpetual scurry in which he is kept 

 from all bauds in the morning until 

 pipe down at night is really not work, 

 and with this quaint notion he also ac- 

 quires an exceedingly exaggerated idea 

 of the terrific amount of grinding labor 

 a man has to perform iu order to gain 

 a livelihood ashore. Put tea bluejacket 

 who has put in a couple of naval cruises 

 the direct question, "Are you going to 

 'take on' again when your time is out?" 

 In nine ca^es out of ten he will look 

 you in the eye with an expression of 

 stupefaction and inquire, "What the 

 devil do you think I'm going to do — 

 work?" 



But for all of the resignation with 

 which he in time comes to regard a 

 lifelong career in the uavy the blue- 

 jacket gazes forward at first with a 

 wistful eye ♦'o the arrival of the day of 

 his discharge, and when that day finally 

 approaches within clear view — is only 

 about a month iu the perspective, for 

 instance — he presents a singular picture 

 of nervous anticipation and is not 

 worth a water rotted rope yarn for 

 work. He moons about his ship like a 

 man iu a dream, consuming great quan- 

 tities of tobacco that he finds flavorless, 

 and during this period he is pretty like- 

 ly to miss a tew ship's calls iu his ab- 

 straction and get himself jumped upon 

 at the mast for the delinquencies. His 

 shipmates with comparatively long 

 periods still to serve ou their enlist- 

 ments regard him with the jaundiced 

 eye of envy, which they show by pictur- 

 ing to the short time man the most 

 gloomy things that await him as soon 

 as he steps over the gangway, beach 

 bouud, with his bag and hammock. 



Overtime men being shipped back to 

 this country ou a man-of-war are not 

 compelled to do any of the ship's work. 

 Thty sin; ply stand the military calls, 

 eat their meals and smcke their pipes, 

 watching the while with lazy happiness 

 the daily r'luud of labor of the less for- 

 tunate bluejackets attached as mem- 

 bers of the crew of the ship on which 

 they themselves aie practically passen- 

 gers. Ihe overtime men occasionally 

 emit arrogantly humorous directions to 



