Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — JAILORS SHUN THEM. VS [ARTICLE]

JAILORS SHUN THEM. VS

Hard Work to get Crews forthe Bennington and Concord. The real trouble in getting men just now for the cruisers Concord and Bennington is due to the cramped quarters on those vessels. Even the officers are protesting against men being sent to sea in such ships. The space between decks is so cut up and lumbered with all sorts of gear and appliances as to compel hammocks to be swung in untenantable positions. The machinists and leading men are compelled to sleep in the workrooms, and so crowded is the condition below decks that the ventilation is seriously affected. Seamen, it is declared by naval officers, are human. It is bad enough, they say. to be packed in like sardines, but when this packing is accompanied by a life on a rolling and plunging ship and in an atmosphere poisonous from being breathed over and over again, the situation becomes unbearable. In the big wooden frigates of former days the seamen enjoyed plenty of room and at least good ventilation. Five hundred men were easily curried aboard vessels of the Brooklyn class. Ou the Concord and her sisters 160 men take up every available bit of space. It is so crowded on the Concord that officers wishing to go forward at night have to turn mon out from the hammocks swinging near the door opening in under the topgallant forecastle before it becomes possible to open this door. The only remedy, officers say, for the state of affairs aboard the 1,700-ton vessels is to reduce the fittings on these ships, and then follow it up by sending naval constructors to sea, affording them an opportunity to personally observe how men live, and what is needed for their comfort. This latter recommendation has been curried out in the British Navy. Bluejackets assigned to a war ship servo on that vessel for three full years. From the fact that it is known that the Bennington is short in her complement bluejackets w'ho have had experience in the navy refuse to enlist ut the receiving shi;> Vermont. They know that the hrst draft sent out from the Vermont will be to the Bennington, and rather than serve three years in “that hot hole,” as they term her, they arc holding aloof together. Of all the vessels in the now navy the Chicago is the most popular one with man-of-war’s mon. Her gun deck and roomy space below give the crew plenty of swinging room. Last year when five crews of war ships petitioned the Secretary of the Navy to withdraw marines from service afloat, these saifie crews asked that in future designs our war ships be given gun decks. The value of gun decks is only appreciated by men who have actually to go to sea. Naval constructors who sit comfortably in their office chairs think only, naval officers say, of getting th greatest number of fittings into ships in the space and displacement allowed. There is little or no consideration for the sailor. The fact that men have to spend three years in ships is entirely forgotten, as is albo the fact that bodily comfort is a factor of prime importance in developing fighting efficiency. The condition of affairs has become so bad in oelisting mon at the Brooklyn yard that the commanding officers of the Yantic, Boston, and other ships needing a few men to fill up vacancies in their complements have received permission from the Navy Department to enlist direct for their vessels. In this way seamen in signing the articles of enlistment will bo assured that they arc not intended for the Concord and Bennington. When the Concord and Bennington will succeed in obtaining full crew complements is entirely problematical.—[New York Times.