LIFE ON A DESTROYER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 249, 20 November 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

LIFE ON A DESTROYER.

"A VERITABLE BON OF TURKS." Watch iho destroyer as she glides into port—the long, attenuated torin ot a gritlv black colour! See her btreak oi a deck as the grimy forms of men bundle up from below" On they come in twos, threes—iu dozens! Where, we ask ourselves in something like dismay. do thev all put up, live, sleep and make merry:-' It is a contemplation which even' matter-of-fact Jack Tar of the stately battleship finds himself turning over in his mind, as he too gazi's at the viper of the seas from his steel deck as broad and capacious as a village square. In truth, take it as yon may, the (lestrover is a mystery cabinet—a veritable box "f tricks. She is at. most only 'JUO feet long and I'o feel broad. Inside her perky hull are maosive engines capable of developing o.OUo horse power. Just think of it, and puzzle over it wiicn you recall the huge towering form of a 3.UUU horse-power cargo boat:- tornpared with the destroyer the battleship is a vast feather bed for comfort, hi the former everything is subservient to engine and boiler space. There is not even room for a decent coal supply, the eighty tons she carries king a mere baagtelle against her wants, and a lug drawback to her usefulness. The ordinary amenities of life, aye e ,ven cleanliness itself, are sacrificed lor working space. THE SEAMEN S MESS.

Let us leave the smut and grit of her narrow decks an dtake a peep below. Iron stairs are everywhere, and such stairs, greasy, narrow. a nd perpendicular! You cannot traverse the ship for any distance below, for the very good reason that she is sub-divided into seven, each portion with a water-tight bulkhead without any connecting door. It you wish to get from one division to another, then up and down the greasy stairs you go again. There is one connecting passage, however, and you may find it by threading your way between heaps of "anchor chains, bolts and other maritime pharaphernalia. and passing through you blunder upon the seamen's mess; it is really something more than a mess —it is a living room, reading room and sleeping room all in one. But beds there are none, nor arc ther 4 any hammocks

In the centre is n fair-sized dininetable and around the sides are kit lock-

eis. On llie lockers the fceameii b'H'at hv day and stietcli themselves to sleep ai night, each man snug in his sleepinghag ,uko some Arctic hero m tlio glacier country. Heaven and perhaps the Admiralty alone know how the- cubic area nans out per man, &o besot is too place \\ nil stores and Iresli water tanks, below this room, communicating by a trap 'ii tho floor is an ammunition store. Woe iwtid.' the -lee per on the locker top 'I soino unexpected shell pays a visit hero. Kudo will ho the awakening, d any uwakoumg there us. The Destroyer's .kin i„ tho finest steel, but it is only gossamer — ; , trifle more than a t|uai\er ol an inch thick—and a big gun projectile mil laugh at this protection he snicis through it like so much paper, and mayhap ami so much the better, makes a non-stop run through the other side. In this tiny living-room and in another m similar fcize adjoining sixty men put up as best they eau.

JJOILEKS AND ENGINE'S. Once again up and down iho p'-'i P'-"i-dicular stairs wo go ami arrive ;it 'j'o iiglll great vuiter tuU" boilera ami tho gleaming engines slithering with oil I'ur a nioinent you forgot ihat the shin i, a iv.it hundred tootei. m> euorniotis is the motive plaul. li i; almost exactl.v hull' tho weight of die entire vessel and LCtupiob two-third* ui it a btruciuril space. W'hou the ship io going at iti ordinary cruising .-need halt the boilers are working, hut when top speed is signalled from above every boiler goeb on active service, and the furnace hrin- i., continual. Kvauhing suggesjo iienzicd activity. Forced draught now comes iuto operation, and the. fiery glow from the furnaces gild-, every corPor of the stoke-hole, making, as the lic-gog'ded stokers ply sinew and shovel, i, lurid" pit tun.' that would det\ the Daintei's art to coney to canvafc. Ihe | H .., L ~ (pi mend.nis and ,-.nv air .here i . i ' ; ,, the idocco of tin 'it ■■ rt. hot and . |„.ivo!lii!" And th" coat triniinor.-, ~1,.,, ,„ tinir.!' Whew!-they arc men l„ |,„ piOU 1 01 —to chip .01 tile hack ami . ;1V lii the "'arm lone: ul tiuceritv : •SV.'ll done. lad.

I'p tho iron seep, again, and hi. a molamorphosij tots in. llm visitor rubs his eve-! Ha{> tile liery glaro „f next door'confused hi- vi.i: p.? Ho !„ \n a ro o,n eosv as a bachelor's paradise, with a vista ol snug peeping berths, cushioned .eats, iiii'l U-autiliilh poli>liefl I„ek, |s rtiiii i'.-Te ami there, lit iU- gems ui nirtino, brightening the walls, and ~„„k, sM-esting good r.-ndin- lung ahom in promiM nous ordlmess He is in ,|„. „,„>( nleasmg pari ol the whole ship the otlieorV ward room, rnrthcr :IM . :,„,] light li) 111- l- lb ..I iho.l.mM [ul luu».k uj iht i„ the <-••{'-

tain's cabin, tho furnishings of which I are pretty much confined to a sleeping - berth, writing table and a wash ba-siti. I GOODCOMRADL.S.

Tli*.- c:.plain of a destroyer, unlike Ins 1 big brother of the battleship, who is a ' veritable hermit, is a right jollv sea dog, and tlx* lieht possible company in the ward room. In fact, discipline on tne destroyer is different altogether from fliii cast-iron stringency ui the battle?hi«. Next to the engines, tlio most importI ant |Kirt of a destroyer is tlie torocdo tuU's with th**ir Whitehead torpedoes, which arv really minature ships th<*m solves. embracing heautinilly modelled magazine. engiiK'-rooni. boilers and even steering-gear and they can travel eveiv f let as last as the parent ship herse". To each torpedo is attached a crow rt | six toi (K'do captain, torpedo man. | gunner, a seaman, and two non le- , bcripts. And what of life itscit on hoard tu'.s gritty, grimy destroyer * Nobody who ha. vio-.ved one, even from a distant- •. can expect it to lie a place for a we l .- !ing. Indeed, so severe is the strain entailed on her crew that it is positively c.-seiitial to cliange the men at frequent intervals. The vibration caused by te i•inf through tlie water at -•"> to 3 ) ord n- | arv miles perhour Ls such that even old hands may be .stricken with violent seasickness. and should a man so seized mako a false step and fall overboirl the ship will hove to, not to save lr'u but to recover his corpse, for. of a coitainty. he "ill have broken his neck. In war the destroyer is almost pathetically vulnerable. A shell from a •}.< gun will riddle her, a single message from a six-incher may spell her ruin, while a square hit from a bursting I 'Jit:, gen projectile must assuredly sound hedeem. Even under what should '•<. tuo friendly mantle ot irght the lund tlamts belc'iing from her funnels proclaim Her advent to the foe. The finest gunner m the British Navy can do little with lit •• gi.ns. which are poor things at the lies' bur weak they are she shivers lil.e a istrickeii animal under the recoil wild? the nevci-cei'.siug vibration liberally discounts the marksmanship. She may voiue dav tret a square hit at some towering bau'Whip a it i herdtended toroedi Probablv the doom of rer qiiarrv v. ill riii" her own death knell. Hut whatof tluii? She costs Icns than fc-HUHM) agtviist the two million sterling sunk (,7 the other, and tlie margin ol gain is enormous. She is manned by the best and brave-t men the Navy can produiv.

-i,ne to tier last account, let Ub not be nVhauied. it tlio t>mp be an enemy, to i-.aiboura dash ol regret tor tne gaiiaut lellowa tliai went down in uer.