WASHING DAY AFLOAT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 52, 26 November 1918, Page 5

WASHING DAY AFLOAT

Aboard ship Saturday afternoon is washing day. Eight bells struck on the bridge at noon releases us from ships work until the following Monday-monk ing. Except in emergency we have the week-end to ourselves. . ■ Ashore washing day is an unsocial institution. To be seen washing your own linen would he nothing short ot a social calamity. It must be conducted, in the privacy, of a washhouee in an impenetrable barrage of steam, soapsuds, and short tempers. „, ■ It is far otherwise aboard ship, inera washing day is a. public institution where there is nothing to display and nothing to conceal. The odour of. soapsuds, far from making us unsocial, jogs the memory and loosens the tpngue. Coppers, tubs, mang es-we have none of them. A bucket full of cold water, a small piece of soap, a strong arm, and a heap of dirty clothes, these:are our accessories. We have a choice ot wash; houses-the fo'es'le head in warm weaher No. 1 hatch in cold weather, and he fo'es'le itself in wet weather There eated on coils of rope on hatches or on bunk-boards, we gather to do our week's washing. , • T : It is usually a lengthy operation. Im terruptione are frequent. Differences, of opinion, arise, and for tho tune being all interest and energy are concentrated on tho argument. Or else a yam may, be in progress. At first v,e pay little attention, but as the plot thickens our fnffi & roused. We gather round the, speaker and washing is forgotten, in the, thrill of the narrative. "... i Almost anything justifies an intem.p- ; tion-a catch reported on the fishing line, Sing astern, a school of porpoises or, of flyiSg fob, tte "Wow" of a/hfcj flock of birds, wreckage, land. Who should worry about washing clothes? If we don't get it done to-day, why, there is always to-morrow! : But if wo are due to make port some, time during tho ensuing week;, washing, becomes o serious matter. \ 1-heri there, is much rubbing and scrubbing. Clothes, .are soaked and beaten until are spotless. Shore suits are carefully brushed and folded and.creased under a bunk: the fo'es'le head is gay with' fluttering linen. Clothes lines are rigged; from derrick to windlass, A few of us, inVβ clothes pegs but for the majority; a piece of twine suffices. There is always, a P fine breeze blowing, so our .clothes, quickly dry and washing day »«mte| another week. * ' WAU |