From Lower Deck to Pulpit | Page 7

is discipline! Decks are swept, the mess deck receiving special attention, the cooks of the messes (and every boy has to take his week in rotation) polish the utensils, so that they shine as bright as silver, and the watch on deck coils the ropes and polishes the brass work. At 8.45 the bugler sounds the 'general assembly.' Each watch falls in for inspection on its respective side of the deck--that is, the starboard watch on the right side, the port watch on the left. This being done, the band assembles on the poop, and the officers' call is sounded, in response to which they troop up from quarterdeck hatchways. "Attention!" shouts the instructor, at the same time saluting the inspecting officer. Every boy stands as erect as possible Then begins the inspection. Nothing escapes the eye these officers. Woe betide the boy whose duck suit is not spotlessly clean, or who has a button off his trousers, or whose suit is in need of a few stitches. He is severely reprimanded--the instructor makes a note of it in his book; and should this be repeated, the boy is put in the Commander's report and receives six cuts with the cane.
Each officer reports to the Commander when he has inspected his division of boys, and then the bell is tolled for morning prayers, which are said by the chaplain. All Roman Catholics are weeded out of the two watches, and are marched forward under the forecastle during prayer-time.
Now, should it be Monday morning, sail drill is engaged in until noon, but only on this day, whilst on other mornings one watch attends school, and the other, gunnery and seamanship classes. The advanced gunnery classes receive their training ashore in the drill field. Seamanship classes are held on the lower deck, and every boy has to pass out of one instruction before being admitted to the other. In these lower-deck instructions the first is the lashing up of the hammock and in the laying out of the kit in the uniform manner; then follow the 'bends and hitches' class, the reading of the semaphore, knots and splices, and so on. I may Say that boat sailing and swimming and heaving the lead are also included under the seamanship course.
To most of the local boys, swimming exercise was as play, and accordingly they received V.G. (very good) on the instructor's class book on passing-out day. To pass out, the boy must be an efficient swimmer, and able to swim in a duck suit a considerable distance. Boys on the other hand who had been brought up as strangers to the sea, regard this instruction with much fear, and it becomes a terror to them. All these exercises passed through, which in most cases require a year, the boy then receives the rate of a first class boy as distinguished from a second class.
But to return to the routine. At 11.30 a.m. school and instructions are ended, the bugle call for drill aloft is sounded, and then there is a mighty tumult. Hundreds of boys are running along the decks and up the ladders, and as though they were not smart enough, ship's corporals make use of their canes very freely. At 11.45, in the midst of drill, the bugler sounds: 'Cooks.' Cooks of messes repair to the galley, fetch the dinner and lay it out under the supervision of the caterer of the mess, who is generally a senior boy. At 12 a.m. dinner is 'piped,' and every boy sits at the table according to his seniority--that is to say, if one has been in the ship six months, sitting next to him would be the boy who had joined the mess after him in the order of time. It will thus be readily seen that every boy has his own seat at the mess-table. But lest partiality should creep in amongst the boys in the messes so that A would have a far better dinner than B; and poor C all bone on his plate, or, as they say, "two spuds and a joner," this order is very often reversed, and this means that the caterer finds himself at the end of the stool with the dinner of the youngest boy before him to eat, and it also means that this last recruit in the mess finds himself possessor of the caterer's plate of dinner.
At 1 p.m. instructions are resumed, and concluded at 3.30 p.m. The boatswain's mate then pipes, "Hands shift in night clothing." The uniform of the day is then taken off, and each boy wears a blue serge suit. At the call of the bugle the boys fall in on the upper deck with the clothes for washing. These are inspected by the instructors for the purpose of