"Go to sleep! Go to sleep! G-o t-o s-l-e-e-p!"
Manly, Free Entertaining and Ever Fruitful of Self-Control-- Organization of the Ship's Company Into Messes--Chaff Keeps the Wardroom Merry, but Never Passes the Bounds of Good Nature-- Something Better Than Romance in the Ships of To-Day--Ships of To-Day--Man-o'-War Bill of Fare No Longer Includes Lobscouse or Bargoo--Fine Libraries for All Hands--The Canteen.
_On Board U. S. S. Louisiana, U. S. Battle Fleet,_ AT SEA, OFF PANAMA, March 6.
Socially the modern man-o'-war houses a series of clubs, one large and several small ones. They are called messes. The large club's membership, the general mess, consists of the entire crew, with the exception of the officers. Uncle Sam, through accredited agents on board, runs that club. The small clubs' membership consists entirely of officers, and these clubs are managed by the membership.
The officers' clubs are graded according to rank. On a flagship the Admiral may form a club all by himself, or he may enlarge the membership, as Admiral Evans does, by having his staff officers join his mess. The Captain is also a club of one member. The commissioned officers make up the wardroom mess. The midshipmen, junior paymaster, junior officers of the marines and the pay clerk form the steerage mess. The warrant officers--bos'n, carpenter, machinists, gunners and the like--have another mess, and the largest of the small clubs is that of the chief petty officers.
With the exception of the general mess all these clubs provide their own supplies of food and drink. The Government used to allow every man on a ship, no matter what his rank, the sum of 30 cents a day for rations. The members of the crew in the old days formed various messes of from twenty to forty members. Some of these messes drew provisions from the ship's stores amounting to the value of 30 cents a day for each man. Others drew only three-quarters of the ration and commuted the rest of the 30 cents, to which they added more or less money of their own, and purchased food luxuries from time to time. The allowance of 30 cents a day to all hands was made just after the civil war, and Jack celebrated the event by a song which closed: