Life in the Royal Navy.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 58, 19 April 1912, Page 3

Life in the Royal Navy.

11. Now, if it ba in th« summer, the boy is awakened at 5 o'clock in tho morning to the sounds of a -bugle, and the yells of the ship's policeman, "Lash up and stow, lash up and stow, tumble out, tumhle outt" He is sure of a cut with tlio cane this morning for being slow, as ho is not used to lashing up his hammock. The rope that was given to him has got an eye in one ond, and he passes the end of the rope around the hammock, through.tho eye, and pulls tight*. Tho remainder of the rope is then passed around in seven turns at an equal distance apart, the hammock taken down and all ends tucked away. All this has to Ik? done in about five minutes, and the hammock taken on deck for inspection ; and woo betide the boy that is a bit clumsy over this or anything else he does. In the winter months the lad can lie in until a quarter to 6. This is not done out of any goodness of heart, but beoause it is too dark to see to do anything. . The uppor decks are now scrubbed, the boys on their bare knees having to crawl fore and aft with hand brushes once or twice, and on Saturdays perhaps half a dozen times. Eight o'clock (eight bells) is the signal for breakfast, which consists of the fourth part of a 21b. loaf (cut up by one of the older boys, who sees to it that the new boy gets the smallest piece possible without calling the officer's attention to it), and a pint of cocoa without milk. Now the boy, who has probably left a decent home,'realises that he is to bo half, starved; and as a fact, unless his people send him food, the boy will never have that comfortable feeling known as a full stomach until he becomes a man (.IS) and his wa.ges (Bs. 9d. per weeki enable him to buy food for him-Aiit-c>r breakfast one watch (half tha boys)'remains-below to scrub the mess decks. The other watch goes on deck to clean brasswork and tidy up, and at 9 all the boys take off their serge. clothes and put on white duck working clothes and assemble on deck for in-spi-tiou and prayers, then to -ins'truc- !:•■!-. in seamanship, school, etc. Eleven o' i-k every day witnesses punishment, ;. i one is' jolly lucky if he is not among the defaulters. One's hair may be too long, his dress may be 'untidy— and it's wonderful what an the boy has for dirtyvag his clothes, especially white ones. The boys are now about as hungry as Turks, and they have an awful longing for their dinner. They assemble on tho quarter-deck, rgf forgetting to salute that holy ground, as they must every time they pass the mainmast, oven in the dead of night. Tha cooks (two boys from each mess) aro sent below to portion out tlio food. At 12 o'clock (eight bells; they aro marched down below, and each boy stands in front of his plate, the new "boy at tho bottom end of the table and the others according to seniority along the table. Grace is said or sung, .and as the-new-comer looks at his plate he realises that tlic-ro is very little to be thankful for; and lie also realises that unti' ':;. gels further up that table his ch.uuxM are small. One hour for dinner, and then to instruction again. The dinner consists of Boz. of meat (or bone), 2os> of vegetables, and twice a week plum or rice pudding. To say a boy looks forward to Thursday and Sunday (pudding days) is to put it mildly. Ho counts every moment till they arrive, and looks upon each as a feast day. If he happens to have parents who can send him money or kind, then indeed ho is an aristocrat, and beloved by all his messmates. Tea consists of -soz of bread with treacle and a pint of tea without milk that is generally made in the sanu coppor that tho potatoes were boiled iv. The boys aro too hungry, howe»er. to bo fastidious about small things like that. I believe that bread and cheese is now served out at 8 p.m., but we didn't have these fine times in my day; and if it is so, it is the only altera lion that has been made since old Nelson's time. From 6 to half-past 8 the boy hai to himself to read, write or sew. One can write to his parents, but the instructors can always demand to sea tho letters, and they do so if the boy has shown any signs of becoming an agitator or one discontented with that state of life into which it has pleased God to call him and incidentally, the one he has chosen through lying pretty pictures. Ono dare not comment on the morality of these, hells upon water, because it varies. Sometimes they get soriii regular young rips from the industrial schools; in fact, many of the boys spring from that source. I have seen tilings tako place in those ships that could not be allowed to appear in print in such a respect able paper as "Tha Worker," and so ono tries to forget them like a bad dream. At the same time, if I had a dog that wanted to join one of these Wits, 1 would shoot him. This bad class of boy usually deserts before many years have passed over his head, and so we get a fairly clean manhood, although a manhood cowed by discipline and as frightened of anything wearing gold lace as it would be of tho devil himself. A boy generally takes a twelvemonth to pick up the preliminaries; and then he nas to pass an examination in seamanship. If successful, he is rated a first-class boy, and his wages are increased to 7d. per day, but ho is onlj given 6d. per week on Thursdays, when he is allowed to go on shore for four hours to spend it if h« has been a good boy. This being » f*a»t day (duff

By AN EX-MUCKO

and sixpence), Thursday is looked upon as a gala day in the lifo of the young sailor. Of course, there are many incident! in this twelvemonth's stage that one could enlarge on if space would permit, but 1 simply want to give the budding Nelson some idea of what thu lite is like. He has been vaccinated, for instance, and maybe had his health broken down through this dirty habit of tho naval authorities. Soon after he becomes a first-class boy, ho is drafted to the gunnery ship, and is taught how to kill any of thti King's enemies in a scientific manner, lie spend* ox weeks there, and then he is stun., mi <it« training brig, a small ship full} , and round-bottomed, which takes • .uses around the English Channel to ••(• iMo the boy to acquire his "sea logs " ''ul'css he is a wooden boy, he never f<irg»ts this six weeks of misery; underfed, over-worked, bullied by everyone aliov'o him, life becomes an existence of agony and misery. But all tilings come to an end sooner or later, and he torgeis (us past miseries by looking forward to the next. He ii now ready for sea, and it is not long before ho is drafted away to some foreign station. A commission lasts, generally speaking, about tlrreo years, anid so ho can say good-bye to his friends, if ho is lucky enough to hare any, for three or three and a-half years. Lifo on a nian-o'-war amongst men is somewhat better than the boy had in tho training ship, although he is a drudge or •'maid-of-all-work" for the men. He has to wash the dishes, get the dinners ready, and ju-t as n general slushy for his mess, but his tucker is a little bettor and a little inoie, on account of the men putting so i.o of their pay towards keeping i/hernvdvos. It's a positive fact that the. m.en. could not live on 'Navy rations," md it's, about time Oid Britannia." go: some of the whiskers taken off that British lion and sold them to help giv<> the."men behind the g'tins"'sufficient to live on without having to part up out of their scanty earnings. Of course, during all this time, the hoy has bw.n crowing older, and he is looking for'vird to ihe time when he will be rated a. "miiu," be allowed to smoke, ami to join the men on deck of an evening instead of being looked upon as l * freak to bo bullied, booted, or otherwise dealt with according to the inclination of thoso who indulge in the so luxuries. The passing from boy to man is hurdly noticed on shore, and it's generally ruled by the amount of wages • mc can command. Not so, however, on board ship. You go to bed, say, tonight a boy; to-morrow morning you wake up a man, because it is your eighteenth birthday. You have passed an examination, and according to your knowledge you are rated first or sec-ond-class ordinary seaman. If you get only second-class, you may as well commit suicide, because you have not much chance in lifo afterwards. You have somewhere in the keeping of tlio ship M'hat are termed your papers. Your ;e,-o;d is -in Mi •■it. din yon make is recorded, and if you are one of life's "unfortunates," you might as well die at once. The captain of the ship or someone will just lead pencil two little letters, ''D.l.,'' on your papers. This stands for dull of intellect, and like '•Puddcnhoad Wilson" in one of Mark Twain's stories, you will never get away from those letters. However, the examination i 3 not a stiff one, and so not many are disfigured by these marks at this stage. Your next step is to become an A.8., or ablo seaman. This you also have to pass for, and it depends a lot on the boatswain you happen to be under. My experience was that the moro tho bosun knew the less he expected the A.B. to know, being rather tolerant and ready to make allowances for your little shortcomings. On the other hand, if ho happens to be a man that has been pitchforked into his job by "influence," then you have got to walk a pretty straight line. Your wages as an ordinary seaman are the magnificent sum of one shilling and a penny per day. As an able seaman you get one shilling and five pence per day, and you daren't go on strike or you can be shot (so can the workers). Tho seamen dare not cite their employers before tho Arbitration Court, bocause George Yv'ottin is supposed to be God-like and can do no evil; and on payday you have to take your cup off when you receive your magnificent payNow it is possible to increase your pay by study. You can get. from Id. to Gd. for gunnery, tho same for torpedo proficiency, a penny per day for qualifying as a diver, 2d. for captain of a gun ; in fact, if you are lucky and obedient to all who are above you, you may raise your salary to, as much as 3s. per day as an able seaman! But you will find this is little enough to keep a family on if you aro troubled with tlio paternal instinct. Your future life depends largely on your luck; that is to say, if you are of the lizard tribe, you may bo able to crawl into a good billet without having too much brains. On the other hand, you may be intelligent, capable,' and energetic, and yet never rise out of tho ruck. It largely depends on the officers you get sent with; some of them are simply pigs' infants, but sometimes you may get with gentlemen. However, you are to all intents and purposes a slave, just the same and just as bad as any slave that has ever existed. You daro not get up until you are told, you dare not li© down until you ar« eiron ©emission, you cannot put

your clothes on until you have been told what clothes to wear, you must not change your clothes until you are told. And as for wearing a union badge, you can be sliot for that. If an officer calls you a damn fool, you simply respond, ''Aye, aye, sir, and look pleased. 'You must not argue, you must lack initiative; in fact, "yours not to roasQ.n why," just do it. You arts part of .the "machinery," just as much as the crank on the engine. You are numbered and known by your number; you belong to the lower deck, and everything wearing gold lace is your superior. You may he as hungry as a hunter, and have the privilege of seeing tho officers enjoying banquets every evening—and you are doing all this in the interests.of Capitalism! If you try to escape, you become an outlaw, with a price on your head. You listen' to men singing "Britons never shall bo slaves," and you know the man that wrote it is a liar I You are a slave' 1 and every man in the British Navy knows lie is a slave; and if they were all offered their freedom to-morrow *their ships would lie and rot before ''the powers that bo" got crews under tho present system. But th« authorities catch the boys young, break their spirit, and they are afraid to revolt. Those dear old ladies who bolong to the Nayy,League see only the pretty side of the Question.. Even Hell would look nice at,a distance. It's only those in Hell w;ho know the torments of that region.